Building Canada’s next generation of social ventures.

SiG@MaRS

Presented by: Hadley Nelles

November 2011

Memory at WorkSocial Innovation as a Tool for Poverty Reduction

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• What is Social Innovation?• What is SiG@MaRS?• How is social change, e.g. poverty

reduction, catalyzed?• Examples of poverty reduction tools.

Memory at WorkSocial Innovation Ecosystem

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Social Finance

Social Innovation

Social Entrepreneurship

PositiveSocial Change

Social Partnerships

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is about finding new ways to address unmet social needs

Social Innovation

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Social innovation is an initiative, product or process which profoundly changes the basic routines, resource and authority flows or beliefs of any social system in a direction of greater resilience. Successful social innovations have durability, impact and scale.

The capacity of any society to create a steady flow of social innovations, particularly those which address vulnerable populations and ecosystems, is an important contributor to overall social and ecological resilience.

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is the practice of responding to market failures with transformative and financially

sustainable innovations

Social Entrepreneurship

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A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change.

Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society as well as in profit and return.

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is an investment approach to solve social or environmental challenges while

generating financial return

Social Finance

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cross or multi-sectoral collaborations that work together to bring

good ideas to fruition

Social Partnerships

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“There is growing understanding that many of our largest social and economic challenges cannot be addressed by government alone nor, for that matter, by business or community organizations by themselves.”

Tim Brodhead, former President, J.W.McConnell Family Foundation

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SiG@MaRS

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SiG@MaRS is actively developing programs to support the launch and growth of social ventures by:• enhancing the skills and

networks of social entrepreneurs

• building the social enterprise community

• exploring new instruments of social finance

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SiG@MaRS

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• Advise: social venture advisory services• Information and referral• Market Intelligence• Access to networks• Access to capital• Help with governance• Innovation in program design + delivery• Legal Issues• Workshops

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defined by a social and/or environmental purpose

Social Ventures

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Social Enterprise: a business operation run by a charity or non-profit where revenue raised is reinvested into the charity or non-profit to support program and operations.

Social Purpose Business: is a profit-making enterprise that has a positive social and/or environmental return on investment.

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SiG@MaRS

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• Convene: events, thought leaders, social partnerships

• Social Innovation Summit• Net Change Week • Inspiring Action for Social Impact series

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SiG@MaRS

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• Accelerate: School for Social Entrepreneurs - Ontario

• SSE-O Collaborative• SiG@MaRS• Social Housing Services Corporation• ACCESS Community Capital Fund• Social and Economic Development Innovations

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• Social innovation as a poverty reduction tool:• Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP)

• Social innovations in the Immigrant Serving Community• SiG@Waterloo Graduate Diploma in Social

Innovation • Assisting Local Leaders with Immigrant

Employment Strategies (ALLIES)

Social Innovation

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Conclusions

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• Social innovation, social entrepreneurship, social partnerships, social finance are intertwined vectors for positive social and environmental change.

• Some social innovation depends on social enterprise models, but not all; social enterprise is in itself a social innovation but social enterprises do not necessarily drive social innovation.

• Entering new era of problem solving: from silos to cross-sectoral partnerships.

Thank YouHadley Nelleshnelles@marsdd.comSiG@MaRS Info page on MaRS