The Northern Manitoba Food, Culture and Community Collaborative (NMFCCC) is an innovative collaborative of northern community people, northern advisors, funders and organizations working together to foster healthier and stronger communities in northern Manitoba, through improved access to healthy foods and the development of resilient local economies. The NMFCCC has partnered with and supported more than 30 community-led projects over the past four years with annual grants, in-kind supports, and peer learning supports. While many projects are educational, focused on cultural reclamation, intergenerational mentorship, and aim to increase food self-sufficiency, others are also early stage social enterprises which aim to grow their production, marketing and sales. The Collaborative is interested in effectively supporting these social enterprises and is commissioning a scoping study to help inform this work.

Opportunity

With the objective of understanding how to promote, develop and support social enterprises in Northern Manitoba, with a particular interest in food-related social enterprise that operates on-reserve, in small northern communities and larger northern centres, and Indigenous-led projects, the aims of this scoping study are to:

• Identify typical characteristics and needs/barriers of social enterprises.
• Identify and assess existing initiatives that are providing support to social enterprises in Northern Manitoba, including support that is tailored to Indigenous Northern communities and food-focused social enterprise:
• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of these initiatives.
• Identify existing social enterprises; assess gaps in support and services to answer the needs and barriers.

The study should also include the following elements:

• Interviews of Northern food social enterprises (those supported by the NMFCCC fund, and other enterprises at a more advanced stage of development). The expectation is for at least 8-10 interviews to be conducted. For each social enterprises interviewed, assess mission, financial model, needs and barriers as well as stage of development (e.g.: $ sales, mention if it breaks-even).
• Interviews of services providers:
  • Types and forms of services from business support, training, and advice to the social enterprise sector (rationale and mandate, format, quality, relevance to local context, affordability, availability).
  • This should include business coaches and relevant social enterprises who could act as mentors;
  • This should include information about services at different stage of an enterprise’s development (ideation, piloting, growth, consolidation, scale/replication);
• Types of funding available: grant, subsidies, loans, line of credit and other forms of investment, the conditions to access these and relevant projects which have accessed the funding.

Note: In the context of this study the definition of social enterprises is broad. It refers to organizations of any juridical form that 1) have primarily social objectives - including economic development - rather than being driven only by the need to maximize profit for shareholders or owners and 2) are or envision to become financially autonomous.

Responding to the RFP

Proposals should include the following:

• Biography or CV of the applicant
• Description of experience relevant to the work
• Suggested approach to the work and comments on the initiative as currently outlined (priorities, challenges, opportunities)
• At least two references.

Budget

The maximum budget allocated for the project is $10 000, including applicable taxes and any travel or communications costs.

Timeline

Responses to the RFP will be accepted until the end of day on Thursday, September 8 at 5 pm. It is expected that a decision as to the successful applicant will be made within one week of the receipt of responses, and that work will begin by late September.

The expectation is for work to be completed by late November 2016, however this is negotiable.

Please send your questions about, and responses to this RFP by email to the attention of:

Julie Price, Program Lead
Northern Manitoba Food, Culture & Community Collaborative
Tides Canada
4-640 Broadway Ave
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 0X3
204.452.3611
julie.price at tidescanada.org