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Social Enterprise

Launching a business to enhance impact while generating revenue.

Community organizations use social enterprise ‘businesses’ to achieve their social, cultural, and/or environmental goal while generating revenue. Social enterprises can help nonprofits achieve a number of different goals including:

  • Providing skills, training, and employment experience (e.g. a catering company that employs people who face employment barriers);
  • Enabling people to choose more environmentally sustainable options (e.g. selling environmentally friendly products);
  • Facilitating access to the arts (e.g. community theatre).

Organizations often launch a social enterprise for one or more of the following three reasons:

  • To meet a need in the community that is not being met through traditional a business model. For example: Eva's Phoenix Printing in Toronto trains youth at risk in the printing business, preparing them to leave their street lives and enter into the labour market.
  • To advance or achieve a specific social mission. For example: Haida Gwaii Higher Education Society operates an accredited University level academic program to bring students to their community to learn about the local First Nations culture and arts, and the unique local biology environment. In addition to the student learning, there is an important local economic impact for the isolated region of Haida Gwaii.
  • To contribute to the financial sustainability of a non-profit organization. For example: The Prince George Aboriginal Friendship Centre rents out the excess space in the building they own. The income from rent covers the mortgage payment and their program administrative costs.

This module will increase participant’s knowledge about social enterprise and explore the value it can add to their non-profit, while helping participants to think about whether social enterprise is appropriate for their organization at this time.

Content for this module has been developed by

 

Strengthening Alternative Systems through Diffusion of Innovations | Webinar

Monday, March 18th
9am (PST); 12pm (EST)

 

Discussing: How do we successfully diffuse and  scale what is working for other contexts into our own?

This presentation will focus on social innovations in differing contexts, such as fair trade, community waste, social franchising, and co-operative banking, schools and social care. Participants will walk away with insight regarding the significance of particular types of intermediaries and federated structures as means of expanding (and defending) these systems.

Featured Presenter:

Robin Murray is an economist whose work has recently focused on co-operative development and social innovation.  He was author of ‘Co-operation in the Age of Google’ a report on strategy for Co-operatives UK (the umbrella body for co-operatives in Britain), a co-author of ‘The Open Book of Social Innovation’ and is currently working on a text on Co-operative Accumulation.  He is a Fellow of the Young Foundation, for whom he co-authored two books on social innovation, and is also a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics.
 
This webinar will continue the discussion from BALTA’s recent webinar with Pat Conaty, which focused on how innovations develop and spread within the social economy.
 
Robin prefers not to use the word ‘scale’ because of its association with mass production, and finds it more helpful to think in terms of generative diffusion and the gradual development and strengthening of alternative systems.  Pat discussed this process in the case of community land trusts, community finance, and local energy projects.
 
Robin will look at differing experiences in such fields as fair trade, community waste, social franchising, and co-operative banking, schools and social care. They suggest the significance of particular types of intermediaries and federated structures as means of expanding (and defending) these systems.
 
 

Champions for Change: Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact

Collective Impact results when actors from different sectors commit to a common agenda for solving a complex social issue. Backbone Organizations play a complex, behind-the-scenes role in the success of these collective impact initiatives. The Backbone Organization's role spans six major activities, requires a diversity of skills and is essential to maintain alignment across the partners. The effectiveness with which a Backbone Organization fulfills its role often determines the success or failure of the Collective Impact Initiative as a whole.
Champions for Change: Leading a Backbone Organization for Collective Impact is a multi-day interactive workshop designed specifically for the leaders of Leadership Roundtables, Coordinating Committees or Backbone Organizations of mature collective impact initiatives. The Tamarack Institute and FSG have partnered to develop this dynamic learning experience to offer leaders of Backbone Organizations an advanced learning opportunity designed exclusively for collaborative leaders.

As a participant you will:

  • Strengthen your ability to guide your collective impact initiative toward results;
  • Learn from, and build connections with, other experienced leaders of backbone organizations across a range of social issues; and
  • Participate in creating new resources and tools for the field of community collaborative and collective impact practitioners, which will be disseminated after the workshop

Workshop sessions will include topics such as:

  • Deeply understanding the roles and impact strategies of the backbone organization;
  • Developing and learning from shared measurement;
  • Community Engagement to build the will of your community;
  • Making Collaborative governance effective;
  • Sustaining funding for collective impact over the long term;
  • Working in complexity and the importance of adaptive leadership; and
  • Getting to true impact and systems change
Learn how your team can benefit from this amazing learning opportunity. Special rates are available for teams of three or more who attend together.

A Spotlight on Young Social Entrepreneurs: Webinar

 

 

March 26
12:00 - 1:00 pm PST

Young people the world over are leading a new wave of social innovation and social entrepreneurship- creating social change, supporting community economies and forging new ways of work. Learn from young people in our communities about what motivates them and inspires them about social entrepreneurship, what are some of the successes and challenges they’ve faced along the way. This webinar is especially relevant for anyone interested in applying for our partnership training and business development program with Community Micro-Lending, Launch!

Presenters: 

  • Kanika Gupta: founder of Social Journal (SoJo), a web based learning tool geared towards youth passionate about social change and building social ventures. The development of SoJo was influenced by Gupta’s master’s thesis experience in Canada-wide study on the factors influencing the start-up of youth-initiated social ventures.
  • Julia Norman: founder of social enterprise, the Didi Society, which is working towards empowering women through fair, direct trade and educating local youth on social justice issues and using marketing, sales strategies and traditional cooperative values.
  • Adam Olsen: is one of the Olsen family members who started local small business Salish Fusion Knitwear, producing modern knitted products with inspiration from Coast Salish art. The small business is providing employment opportunities for the local knitters and supporting the local art. 

[REGISTER HERE]

Youth Social Entrepreneurship Webinar Series

This webinar is being hosted as part of the Youth Social Entrepreneur Webinar Series:

Are you a young person interested in social entrepreneurship? Or an organization working with young people interested in learning more about how you can incorporate social enterprise into your work? 
 
Starting March 2013, The Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria is launching a new webinar series on Youth Social Entrepreneurship, in partnership with the Canadian CED Network. The webinars are an opportunity to learn about how young people and youth serving organizations are using social enterprise in creating sustainable livelihoods. The webinars will reflect on the successes and challenges of operating successful and well-functioning youth-led and youth serving social enterprises. Presenters will discuss a variety of local, regional and national best practice examples.

Who should attend: 

  • Young people interested in social entrepreneurship
  • Non-profit or other youth serving organizations interested in using a social enterprise model with their clients
  • Funders, community partners, local government stakeholders interested in learning how to scale up the sector.
UPCOMING:  
Also look out for our third webinar on ‘Animating Youth Social Enterprise’: the Role of Funders and Partners, coming in April.
 
This webinar will look at some best practice examples of what funders and community partners can and are doing to support strengthen opportunities for youth social enterprise, locally and nationally.

 

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