3pm Eastern Time

Contrary to popular belief, entrepreneurship is not a solo sport. “Backbone organizations” such as incubators, accelerators, co-working spaces, and local first alliances are crucial hubs for building capacity and community around local economy innovation. To be most effective, these backbones require an ecosystem of partners to sustain the organization as well as support the entrepreneurs they’re incubating.

In this webinar, Kelly Ramirez, CEO of Social Enterprise Greenhouse in Providence, RI, will share her comprehensive model for mapping ecosystem assets. The model identifies a range of potential partners to build pipeline, increase business acumen, expand the market, provide capital, and more. Kelly is joined by Donovan Woollard (Radius Ventures, Vancouver) and moderator D’Artagnan Scorza (Social Justice Learning Institute, Los Angeles), who offer their own expertise building backbone organizations to serve social enterprises.

You'll Learn

• How to identify new partners, build right relationships, and leverage resources
• How to integrate unusual partnerships into your work serving social enterprises
• How to utilize and build your local ecosystem to foster innovation for good in your place

Who Should Attend

• Directors and staff of incubators, accelerators, technical assistance hubs, co-working spaces, and other organizations that service social enterprises
• Social entrepreneurs looking to grow their business network and map their ecosystem assets
• Others interested in learning how to best leverage local assets to support entrepreneurs and innovation in their place

Speakers

• Kelly Ramirez, CEO, Social Enterprise Greenhouse, Providence, RI
  Kelly is the CEO of Social Enterprise Greenhouse, and the founder of the SEEED Summit. Kelly teaches courses on Social Enterprise at Providence College, Salve Regina University, and in the Leadership Institute at Brown University. This year she opened the doors to Rhode Island’s first social enterprise co-working, education, and community space.
• Donovan Woollard, Director, RADIUS Ventures, Vancouver, BC
  Donovan is the managing director of RADIUS Ventures, an impact venture accelerator at Simon Fraser University's Beedie School of Business, which helps a cluster of local food and sustainable transportation ventures become market- and investor-ready. Donovan previously established Transom Enterprises to help launch and grow responsible business initiatives.

Register for the Identifying & Leveraging Partnerships webinar

Source: BALLE

Join the Community Foundations of Canada in Calgary May 7-9 for an incredible experience as the CFC 2015 Conference brings together more than 600 Canadian and international leaders from the foundation and philanthropic sector.

Conference Theme: The Wild, Wild Why

We’re taking a page from Simon Sinek’s groundbreaking  book “Start with Why” to ask ourselves the most important question about our work – the question that can get lost in the what and how of our daily work lives.

But don’t worry – we’re not leaving those questions behind. Each question has its own special place and purpose in what Sinek calls The Golden Circle.

The Why

Everyone has a ‘why’ – what’s yours? Discovering your ‘why’ is only the beginning. Exploring the soul of our work connects us to so many other topics – what does ‘why’ mean for our leadership, our Board, our partners?

How do we share our ‘why’ through storytelling and evaluation? Is it time to challenge our ‘why’ by looking at what’s next? When we look at the growing charitable landscape do we need to define ‘why us’?

The How

We lead with ‘why.’ But to act, we need to answer: ‘how.’ How do we use community knowledge? Or transform our investing? How do we build strong partnerships with like-minded organizations or individuals?

This is the place where we hit the ground running. We’ll look at processes, innovation and opportunities that will help your ‘why’ take flight!

The What

There’s plenty of learning to be done on the outer ring of The Golden Circle. Maybe what you are offering your community will change once you’ve explored the ‘why’ in more detail.

Or maybe you need some help with the nuts and bolts around what you are offering right now. We’ll unpack the ‘what’ of our work with skills building workshops, peer learning sessions and more.

Register for the Community Foundations of Canada Conference

Source: Community Foundations of Canada

1pm to 2:30pm Eastern Time

Register by 9a.m. ET on Monday, April 27, 2015 to receive log-in information.

Published in January 2015, Dollars & Sense: Opportunities to Strengthen Southern Ontario's Food System encompasses the first research of its kind in Canada on the economic and environmental impacts of food production in southern Ontario, where roughly 98 percent of the province's food is produced. This keystone report, produced by the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, the Metcalf Foundation, and the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, looks at a number of scenarios to study the potential impacts of shifts in food consumption and production.

Join two of the report's authors, Dr. Rod McRae and Dr. Atif Kurbursi, and moderator Beth Hunter, Program Director with the McConnell Foundation, for a special 90-minute webinar on April 27th to discuss their findings and understand the research process behind Dollars & Sense and its extensive background reports. This webinar will be of particular interest to policy makers, community leaders, funders, academics, and others who want to learn more about this new resource and how it can inform government policy discussions. This conversation is an opportunity to deepen understanding of the findings, discuss policy options and implications of the research in other regions.

More information on the Dollars & Sense webinar

Register for the Dollars & Sense webinar

Download the Dollars & Sense report

Speakers

• Dr. Atif Kurbursi, Professor Emeritus of Economics at McMaster University
• Dr. Rod McRae, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University
• Moderated by Beth Hunter, Program Director, J.W. McConnell Family Foundation

This event is free for all to attend thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Metcalf Foundation, the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, and the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation.

12:00pm Eastern Time

Homelessness is a major issue in Canada, affecting 200,000 people every year and costing $7 billion to the economy. If we include people who are vulnerably housed (those in unstable, poor-quality housing or couch surfing) as many as 520,000 Canadians lack safe, affordable and supportive housing.

In 2014, the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing's (MCII) SIB Advisory Services team determined that an alternative funding mechanism could help mobilize capital to address homelessness in Canada. They released these findings in a report titled "Housing First Social Impact Bond Feasibility Study."

Now that the concept feasibility is established, the next step is launching a Housing First SIB. With the support of the United Way Innovation Fund, the MaRS SIB Advisory Services team is offering pro bono technical assistance to potential outcome payers through a call for partnerships.

This webinar will walk interested parties through the problem of homelessness in Canada, the SIB model as it might apply in this case, and through the process of applying to be a partner in this groundbreaking work. The MCII SIB Advisory Team has received many inquiries about the recent call for partnerships and we are offering this webinar and Q&A for interested parties. Representatives from all levels of government, foundations, corporations, etc. are welcome to attend!

Please feel free to submit any questions you have ahead of time via email to jwalker at marsdd.com and we'll make sure they're addressed!

Register for the Homelessness Social Impact Bond webinar

9am to 5pm MST
Mount Royal University (4825 Mount Royal Gate SW)

Thrive is proud to partner with the Simon Fraser University Certificate Program for Community Economic Development to host this TWO-DAY COURSE has been designed for professionals who are working in business development, lending, community development, non-profits, social development, planning, and consulting and are interested in:

• Building local relationships with First Nations to support indigenous economies and/or
• Applying indigenous economic principles to achieve sustainable, effective, and inclusive local economic development

You will LEARN about:

• First Nations world view and approach to economic development, including key components of a First Nations economy
• The relevance to local economic development, including the role of government and corporations
• The complexity of Aboriginal economic development decision making
• The current socio-economic state of First Nations, including statehood and governance
• Market Failures and successes within First Nations communities

A limited number of bursaries are available. Please submit a letter to Thrive info at thrivecalgary.org sharing the reason why you are applying for a bursary and your interest in Indigenomics. Deadline: April 10^th. Bursaries not eligible for early bird pricing.

Register for the Indigenomics Workshop

See the event posting on the Thrive website

About the Instructor

Carol Anne Hilton, MBA and CEO of Transformation, is a recognized leading First Nation’s business entrepreneur with a Masters Degree in Business Management from the University of Hertfordshire, England. Carol Anne is from the Nuu chah nulth Nation. Carol Anne has a solid understanding of First Nation’s economic development best practices and brings extensive knowledge and experience in community development, business management, corporate relations, engagement strategies and projects management. Carol Anne works to incorporate an Aboriginal worldview while bringing First Nations, industry and government together to design new approaches for sustainable, inclusive development. She was the founding Director of the BC First Nations Health Society/Interim BC First Nations Health Authority and she currently serves on the Community Social Planning Council; chairs the Community Micro Lending Society and serves as a Director of the World Fisheries Trust.

With new generations of local financial institutions, community foundations, and supportive public policies, pathways have opened for trillions of dollars to move from Wall Street to Main Street. Innovative leaders are changing the way that capital works, moving away from a system that perpetuates inequality and toward place-based models that instead catalyze local job creation, build community wealth, and foster vibrant local economies.

This webinar features three pioneering local economy leaders who have built ecosystems for place-based investing through community foundation initiatives and local investment clubs. Hear their stories of impact, learn messaging that works in making the case for community capital, and take away concrete ideas for how you can implement similar models in your own community.

Who should attend & key takeaways:­

Leaders and staff of community development corporations, economic and community development organizations, foundations, and business incubators will learn how to apply these models in their place to leverage assets, access capital, and make the case for community capital and impact investing.

Social entrepreneurs, investors, and leaders looking to support their communities in innovative ways will learn the goals and metrics these new funding models use so they can better position themselves to participate, invest, or attract capital.

Speakers:

• Jessica Norwood, Emerging ChangeMakers Network, Mobile, AL
  Jessica has created a local investing club that helps community members in the Black Belt develop personal wealth while strengthening their local economy. She is a 2014 BALLE Fellow.
• Sandy Wiggins, BALLE & RSF Social Finance Community Foundation Circle, Nationwide
  Sandy works with community foundations to shift their business models toward increased impact investing. He consults with RSF Social Finance, the Democracy Collaborative, and others across the country and is BALLE’s Board Chair.

Register for the Community Capital webinar

Source: BALLE