This post began as an innocent nod to the Calgary Microcredit Conference that is taking place on September 11. In Alberta, just as in many places, we are seeing folks come forward into the nonprofit sector and social space who want to do more than donate their money.

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A year ago, I started quietly along a path to understand the legal and regulatory structures and challenges of social enterprise. It was a quest for knowledge and was parlayed into a course on public policy for nonprofits. For six months, I diligently read everything published on the topic with the hopes that my knowledge in the topic would expand and I’d be able to influence the topic. Starting out slowly and independently, I never imagined how quickly the ball would start to roll.

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Social finance, rather than detracting an organization from their mission, provides the ability for an organization to achieve their mission using a more robust diversity of tools, namely, generate revenue. Too often we assume a broad philosophical gap between for-profit and non-profit organizations. Non-profits are laden with cumbersome attempts at fundraising through donations and grants, which can be said to detract from time spent on their mission, where as generating revenue from any type of activity could provide a steady source of funds.

For-profit organizations and their ability to provide income to investors have been offered numerous financial options and products. Rather than detracting from a for-profit organizations business or product, these options allow for and encourage growth and success. The added advantage that for-profit organizations have is that they can rely on market indicators to let them know if they are failing. The non-profit sector is working on ways to create these feedback mechanisms and social finance can be one way of assisting.

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