This past Saturday some of the brightest and most creative minds in Toronto’s social entrepreneurship community came together for Young Social Entrepreneurs of Canada’s second annual re:Vision conference at Metro Hall.

The day started off with Anil Patel, the founder of Timeraiser, telling the room about the group’s innovative events which see volunteers bid time for works of art. In its history Timeraiser has generated 82,000 volunteer hours and helped 6,500 Canadians to pick a cause while also helping hundreds of artists sustain their careers by buying and selling  $450,000 of their work.

It was followed by a panel of inspiring entrepreneurs and market players including Magnus Sandburg, vice president of Social Capital Partners, Annie Malhotra, project coordinator of Social Venture Exchange, Daniel Moneta, CEO of MMB Research and Elisha Muskat, competition manager for Changemakers at Ashoka Canada.  

Moderated by Eli Malinsky, director of the Centre for Social Innovation, the group discussed trends in social entrepreneurship over the next ten years and considered everything from the role of technology to the merits of different business models but what remained clear was that funding, whether it be in the wake of the economic crisis or 10 years from now will rely on the creativity and innovation of entrepreneurs. 

Malhotra said that she expects that non-profits will continue to be driven to diversify their revenue sources and will increasingly make use of market-based strategies while Sandburg forsees more partnerships between non-profits and the traditional profit-making sector. He pointed to Starbucks’ partnership with Ethos water as an example of how socially oriented companies could pair up with corporations to spread their message and increase the impact of their business.

Malinsky added, “There is compelling logic to capitalism... the energy it creates, the economic motivation needs to be there to propel the system change.” He noted that while it is not appropriate for every social organisation to draw a profit (ie a food bank) he believes we have witnessed a watershed moment with the recognition of social businesses by the Harvard Business Review in its recent piece on Shared Value.

Throughout the day there were seminars on business building and group discussions on time management. There was much room to meet new potential collaborators and colleagues; and it was overwhelmingly evident by the end of the day that there are many young, eager entrepreneurs, hungry for capital to use to make a difference while also establishing strong businesses and helping to build a socially inclined marketplace for the future.

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