This is the second blog post in a series on the development of an open business plan for SocialFinance.ca. For the first post, see Ready, Set, Open: SocialFinance.ca Launches Open Business Planning Initiative.

I’ve often wondered how important energy drinks and cheering fans are to marathon runners and long-distance cyclists. Would the athletes take short cuts or collapse from exhaustion without this support? Do they perform better in the company of fans?

If the development of high-impact social ventures offers any parallel, then the answer to both questions is a resounding yes. Enabling support, whether in the form of energy drinks and cheers or financial support and in-kind investments, is critical to achieving results.

In social finance, we sometimes focus too much on the story of the lone social entrepreneur who builds something out of nothing, gets angel funding, and then produces financial and social value in ways that society at large would never have thought possible. This is a story line that pulls on our heart strings but fails to reflect the full story of how social impact is created.

The story of SocialFinance.ca and its open business plan captures an alternate but more accurate narrative of enabling support leading to enduring social impact.

Yes, SocialFinance.ca co-founder, Karim Harji probably consumed a few more energy drinks than an ordinary person in order to get SocialFinance.ca to where it is today. And he probably had to pull them off the shelves of a local grocery store at odd hours of the night to keep plugging away on one of the only platforms devoted to all things social finance.

His efforts, however, have been corroborated by institutional partners and good timing. Key staff at Causeway Social Finance, SiG @ MaRS, SiG National, the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, and Social Capital Partners have made available financial support and in-kind investments since the beginning. The mandates of these partners attracted them to the topics that Karim was focusing on at just the right time.

Combined with support from a much broader and emergent community of social finance practitioners, these contributions are now permitting SocialFinance.ca to hone its business plan in the open and from a position of strength. The example of our open business planning, in turn, may serve as enabling support that another social venture needs to enhance its operations.

As of this week, we have filled out the initial content for the Needs and Opportunity and Social Impact Model sections of the business plan. Please note that all aspects of the business plan are still a work in progress.

Below is an excerpt we’d like to highlight:

Unlocking the requisite supply and demand as well as creating effective intermediation are the most often cited challenges in catalyzing a robust social finance marketplace in Canada.

While these challenges are significant, there is a human barrier to advancing this field that also must be overcome. This second challenge relates to effecting a culture change across multiple professions so that mainstream investors, financial advisers, and non-profit leaders all see themselves as having a role to play in strengthening communities and restoring environmental equilibrium through investments in high-impact social enterprises.

Without broad culture change across multiple professions, social finance is destined to become a niche field of practice, reserved for the true believers. (Think computing before the personal computer.)

While our peer organizations address the supply, demand, and intermediation needs of the social finance marketplace, SocialFinance.ca is in the business of changing the culture of finance and challenging the assumptions that investors, government, and the non-profit sector may bring to this field.

Continue reading SocialFinance.ca’s Open Business Plan >>

Your input on our business plan is an important part of the enabling support that will ensure SocialFinance.ca successfully transforms itself into a financially sustainable high-impact social venture. Please have a look and let us know to what extent you think we’re on the right track.

Finally, I’d like to welcome Kerri Golden of MaRS, Michael Lewkowitz of epic.io + igniter (+ SocialFinance.ca co-founder), and Shawn Smith of Global Agents for Change and Education Generation, who have offered their support as informal advisers on our business plan development. Welcome Kerri, Michael, and Shawn.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/2335716785/

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