Mission Based Investing and Social Capital have been receiving a lot of press and interest lately. According to data collected by the Canadian Social Investment Organization (SIO), there is a total of $4.45 billion in impact investing assets available in Canada. The Canadian Task Force on Social Finance recommended that foundations invest 10% of their assets in impact and mission-related activities. Before we can move from broad statements and recommendations to actual practice, however, we need to firstly ensure that we are talking the same language, understand the sector’s constraints, define desired outcomes, and agree on the players and their roles. In order to do this, 5 key questions need to be answered.

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The Canadian Alternative Investment Cooperative (CAIC) has a 20-year history of supporting community loan funds.  We made our first investment in the Fonds communautaire d'emprunt de Montréal (ACEM) in 1991. That was early on in CAIC’s and ACEM’s history. Since then, CAIC has invested in seven other loan funds (of which six are current), primarily in Quebec, but also in Ontario and New Brunswick. By partnering with community loan funds, CAIC has been able support micro-credit programs which deal directly with poverty-struck individuals.  Our extensive history with these funds has allowed us to build investment expertise.

The operational model for most successful community loan funds is similar, and has the following three essential elements:

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For the first time in fifty-five years, the Ontario government is revising the legislation governing non-profits through Bill 65. This has provided an excellent opportunity for the non-profit sector to ensure that the changes occurring in society and in this sector were fully reflected in the new bill.

The Ontario Non-Profit Network (ONN) was part of a coalition from the sector working closely with the government to ensure that the new legislation met the sector’s needs. There was much to like about the new legislation, however, there were several key provisions missing in the new act.

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Hello SocialFinance.ca community. We’re writing to provide an introduction to the work of the Canadian Alternative Investing Cooperative (CAIC), a lending institution that has been in operation for nearly thirty years and currently has $7 million invested in community projects across Canada that benefit worker cooperatives, disadvantaged peoples and the environment.

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