Centre for Social Innovation - Where Change Happens!

MaRS has recently launched a White Paper on Legislative Innovation that is proposing that Ontario create a new legal form to hold activities that would be undertaken by what we would call a social enterprise or perhaps a social purpose business. They are using the term Community Enterprise. This is builds on Stacey Corriveau and Richard Bridge's piece on Legislative Innovation for Canada.

SEE Change Magazine launches in Canada. It is great to start getting some coverage of social enterprise, social innovation and more. I was delighted to be invited to write about Trends in Social Innovation for SEE Change's inaugural issue... Check out the article on their site.  It's also posted below ... I would love your thoughts.

Valerie Hussey, CSI's Director of Social Enterprise, comments on Social Enterprise (aka the third sector) in Canada and the UK:

Last year, the Ontario Nonprofit Network  became aware of two acts that were restricting the activities of nonprofits in Ontario. We took up the cause and called for changes to the Charitable Gifts Act and the Charities Accounting Act. Delightedly, the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration and the Public Trustee heard us and took action. Bill 212, The Good Government Act, a government omnibus bill, has now received second reading.

A fantastic social entrepreneur and insightful thinker, David Lepage, shares his thoughts on how to create demand for social enterprise services. His work in the creation of the original Social Purchasing Portal is just a start to what David has done to build markets for social enterprise. As we prepare for the Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise, creating markets is one of the pillars on the wiki. We would love your thoughts.

Scaling Social Enterprise sector will require an increase in demand for their goods and services.

We are delighted to have Tim Draimin as a guest blogger as a part of our conversation about social enterprise leading up to the Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise. We would love your thoughts both in response to this posting and through the Social Enterprise Wiki.... But now, check out Tim's compelling case for Comunity Interest Companies in Canada.

By Tim Draimin

We are delighted to have Karim Harji of Social Capital Partners and co-creator of SocialFinance.ca as our guest blogger as a part of our Social Enterprise Series. Karim provides a primer on social finance in Canada. What kind of money do you want? Is financing your major barrier or are there are capacity issues facing your social enterprise? Read Karim's case for social financing tools.

Increase Access to Capital for Social Enterprises

I recently had the pleasure of co-facilitating a consultation with the nonprofit sector in Thunder Bay on behalf of the Ontario Nonprofit Network  (ONN).  The consultations are in part to inform the ongoing work of ONN and to inform the upcoming Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise (this consultation is happening through the Ontario Social Economy Roundtable).  The results were fascinating and the following provides a high level overview of what I heard and learned.  I have prioritized the fe

In the conversation around social enterprise in Canada, we have tended to look at the UK as they seem to be way ahead of us and offer a beacon of hope and inspiration in how the government has enabled with social enterprise. The British government has considered, analyzed and invested in their third sector and in social enterprise. There is a lot to learn. However, one of the challenges with looking this direction is timing. It is highly unlikely, that given the economic climate, that we are likely to see even vaguely similar investments.