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MaRS has launched a series of white papers related to promoting social entrepreneurship in Ontario and enabling solutions to complex social problems.
The first white paper was focused on Social Venture Finance and the latest one is on Legislative Innovations. This blog details the content of the Legislative Innovations white paper.
Marisa Fortune, Career Edge intern at MaRS
Career Edge Organization, a national not-for-profit, has worked with over 1000 employers across Canada to provide meaningful work experiences through paid internships for recent graduates, those with disabilities and internationally qualified professionals.
I’ve used Career Edge interns for several years now and have been very pleased with not only the quality of the interns but their passion for the opportunity they have been given – one not normally open to new grads.
Recently, Career Edge held their annual Achievement Awards at the Toronto Board of Trade offices. I’m very pleased to report that SiG@MaRS’ own intern, Marisa Fortune, received honourable mention for her tenure with us – one that recently turned into full-time employment with our team.
Slow thinking in BC
“Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don’t just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn’t just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards.” –Theodore Zeldin
I visited BC’s Sunshine Coast last month to attend the retreat, “Thinking Like a Movement.” It wasn’t by coincidence that our wonderful hosts and facilitators, Al Etmanski from the PLAN Institute for Caring Citizenship and his wife, Vicky Cammack – Founder and CEO, Tyze and Executive Director of PLAN – chose the Painted Boat in the beautiful Madeira Park for our learning.
The theme: Slow thinking.
Legislative innovations: New ways of business
About 18 months ago after winding up activities with a technology venture capital fund, I had that “AH-HA!” moment that so many of my friends and colleagues have described, but I had yet to experience. What was it? I met the SiG@MaRS team and a number of the passionate and talented social entrepreneurs they support. I learned about the challenges entrepreneurs in this field face and was intrigued by fact that while most social ventures require less capital than technology businesses and generally have a lower risk profile, capital is in very short supply. This is particularly true in Canada where most of us, including me before I was enlightened, assume that the government or charitable donors provide adequate funding for this sector.
In other markets like the US and UK, there is much better access to capital to support social entrepreneurs who are building “blended-value” organizations (those who deliver both financial and social or environmental impact returns). A number of organizations, including SiG@MaRS, have studied why this is so. One of the contributing factors is the lack of a legal organization structure that would make it easier for investors and funders to provide capital. It also doesn’t hurt that the UK has Sir Ronald Cohen, a very successful venture capitalist, as a leading advocate for the social finance sector and the US has Jed Emerson, a former social worker and current partner at Uhuru Capital in New York leading the charge on “blended value investment”.
On the horizon: new capital structures
There have recently been significant inroads made in creating new sources of financing for non-profits and social ventures in Canada. Causeway hosted two discussions over the past month to flesh out the development of potential investment vehicles.
Below, I provide context for these conversations and offer resources for further understanding. I’ll continue to use this blog to chronicle the main developments of these funds in an attempt to keep you and the mounting number of social financiers up-to-date.
