Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve read two recent books that explore the emerging business case for social value investment and engagement, Jason Saul's Social Innovation Inc. and Impact Investing by Jed Emerson and Antony Bugg-Levine. For this discussion, add those to the Porter/Kramer Shared Values advice in the Harvard Business Review from earlier this year. They all had me reflecting on our models in Canada, where we have a significant history, and where I believe we’re now witnessing a new exciting and emerging evolution, of the involvement of private sector corporations with communities through social finance, social enterprise, and purchasing practices.

We have a history across Canada of innovation in blending social finance and community development, including Quebec’s social economy leadership through Chantier de l’économie sociale, Vancity’s 65-year history of credit union support to community, Social Capital Partners’ achievements, foundations like McConnell, the success of social enterprises like Inner City Renovations in Winnipeg and the recent rise of SocialFinance.ca, to mention just a few.

But quite recently I’ve seen several significant, innovative and scalable models of corporate engagement in achieving both social value and corporate goals. I think we have to be aware of such models and look at them as potential partnerships in achieving greater social value creation and amplified social finance opportunities.

One is Capital One Canada. Capital One is a credit card company in Canada that has been issuing MasterCard credit cards since 1996. But it has also made a commitment to support the communities in which it works. Their corporate commitment is “to make the biggest impact in the areas of Social Development and Financial Education because we believe in supporting kids in all aspects of their development.” So if you’re seeking impact in social development and financial education, what better way to achieve those goals than to invest in the development and growth of social enterprises that enable youth and organizations servicing youth?

After early explorations into their options, it seemed like a natural fit that Enterprising Non-Profits (enp) and Capital One Canada could work together to achieve this community impact goal. It aligns with both organizations’ objectives, and brings together financial education and social development opportunities for youth. The newly announced Capital One Youth Entrepreneurship Fund will be available in four major Canadian cities (Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal) and will provide grants to support the development of revenue-generating enterprises, enhance their programs or services, or as a way to stabilize and diversify a charity’s funding base.  It also enhances opportunities for youth, their future employees, improving their business skills and their commitment to community development.

There are many more examples of innovate corporate community engagement; two others I have seen personally are KPMG’s contribution to developing the Financial Analysis Learning Module for the Social Enterprise Learning Toolkit, and SAP’s contribution to the development and implementation of the Demonstrating Values Project.

To continue to build the social finance environment in Canada, we'll have to create and engage in opportunities and acknowledge the challenges of forming new and innovative partnerships across for-profit and non-profit organizations. Not just charity relationships, but models that build a business case for corporations to integrate social value creation into their CSR activities, their supply chain decisions and corporate culture.

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