Support for Social Enterprise in the UK (via @SEmagreporter): Lots of exciting news last week around the Social Enterprise Summit.

Brokering Investment for Social Enterprise: More from the UK, where The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) have jointly funded a £90,000 year-long program that will pay a success fee to brokers whose investment advice results in funding for social enterprises.

NCIF Develops Tool to Measure Impact of CDFIs on Low-Income Communities: In order to measure and communicate the impact of financial institutions that serve low- and moderate-income communities, a report analyzing their impact was recently issued by the National Community Investment Fund (NCIF).

Community Banking Stays Strong: In related news, community banking in the US appears to be stable despite the continued volatility in the rest of the banking sector.

IRIS: Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (HT: Lucy Bernholz): The Rockefeller Foundation, Acumen Fund and B Lab have initiated the Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS) effort to create a common framework for defining, tracking and reporting the performance of impact capital.

Social Entrepreneurship as a business model (via @josephdee): Lisa Torjman from SiG@MaRS has pulled together an excellent presentation around social enterpreneurship, including an introduction to the Canadian context and the role of SiG and MaRS.

Social Entrepreneurs API announced (HT: Lucy Bernholz): The Skoll Foundation, PopTech, ideablob, Civic Ventures and SocialActions have announced the Social Entrepreneurs API - essentially an open database of social entrepreneurs. 

Social Innovation in a Post-Crisis World (via @narain): A must-read - this Special Edition of the Innovations journal for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009 features excellent articles by Klaus Schwab, J. Gregory Dees, Roshaneh Zafar, and many others.

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Cross-Posting from Tonya Surman's blog on May 15, 2009

Since opening in 2004, the Centre for Social Innovation has focused on catalyzing, supporting and inspiring social innovation. There is no doubt in my mind that social enterprise and social finance fall squarely within this realm.

Social enterprise is about blending social, environmental and business outcomes. It is about independence. It is about resilience. It is about having a voice. And, most importantly, it is about achieving a social mission. Social enterprise is not a panacea; it is a powerful and practical tool to enable the nonprofit sector to be more effective and less trapped by funding constraints.

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Making CSR Believable: Chris Jarvis writes an excellent post on some of the core issues around CSR - how do companies create and foster trust through their investments in CSR? And what is the role of social capital in this dynamic?

The Philanthropist moves online (via Mark Blumberg's Canadian Charity Law blog): The Philanthropist is a quarterly journal that publishes articles and information of interest and assistance to managers and directors of Canadian charitable organizations and foundations, and their legal and financial directors.

Economic downturn - Crisis or Opportunity?: Joel Solomon encourages us to look at the current situation as an opportunity for transformation - both in the social sector, and in our individual living. 

Responsible Investing on the Rise: The Social Investment Organization recently released the Canadian Socially Responsible Investment Review 2008, which has revealed a significant rise in investment strategies that integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into financial analysis and portfolio management.

Social Innovation Fund update: There's been a lots of buzz every since the Obama Administration proposed the Social Innovation Fund to provide incentives to scale up the work of successful nonprofits. The Fund is now signed into law, and we now have more details around the Fund's intentions, including the $50 million ask for FY2010. America Forward has an detailed FAQ on what we know so far, and Nathaniel from Change.org digs even deeper. Canadian policymakers, are you following this?

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This Canadian Socially Responsible Investment Review is the only comprehensive survey of socially responsible investment (SRI) in Canada. Now in its fifth edition, the document has been produced by the Social Investment Organization every two years since 2000.

Assets invested according to socially responsible guidelines have increased to $609.23 billion from $503.61 billion since 2006, a 21 per cent increase in two years when markets generally experienced great difficulty. The estimated share of total assets under management in Canada represented by assets under SRI guidelines is 19.9 per cent, comparable to the share in 2006 of 19.5 percent.

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The Carleton Centre for Community Innovation (3ci) and Alterna Savings Credit Union are collaborating on a innovative study that will asses the impact of Alterna's Microloan Program in Toronto and Ottawa.

On April 24th, 3ci Chair, Edward Jackson and Alterna CSR Manager,  Susan Henry along with graduate student Michele Tarsilla presented  "Evaluating CSR in a Major Credit Union" at the Social Economy Symposium, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

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