Most students of history can recount in detail the long and painful story that accompanied the rise of market-dominated consumer societies. From Slavery to Colonialism to disease epidemics, capitalism has taxed communities and the environment as much if not more than it has given back. But ultimately, the process has fallen short of reducing men and women to consumers only. We’re still self-organizing into non-market communities of support, faith, and friend networks. And we still care deeply about our one another and the environment.

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In June of this year, I had the privilege of debating Michael Edwards, author of Small Change: Why Business Won’t Save the World at the 2011 Canadian Business & Community Partnership Forum, organized by Imagine Canada and Volunteer Canada. In Parts 1 and 2 of this blog post, I weave together some of the notes I made prior to debating Michael Edwards with commentary with the more recent #occupy protests.

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It's hard to believe a year has passed since I introduced myself to the SocialFinance.ca community. Our online community devoted to all things #sofinance has come a long way in the past twelve months.

Building on the previous work of Karim Harji, we’re now regularly postsing 4-5 articles per week. Unique visitors to the website have more than doubled to 3,000 per month. Our Twitter followers have tripled to 2,300+. We’ve made significant improvements to the design, stability, and content of SocialFinance.ca, including the introduction of Your Guide to Social Finance. In addition, SocialFinance.ca has served as a key platform for advancing the hugely influential work of the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance, and will soon play an important role in contributing to the launch of The SVX.

As a testament to the growth and accomplishments of SocialFinance.ca to date, SiG@MaRS is formally in the process of assuming full responsibility for the platform, and has plans to tightly integrate SocialFinance.ca into a growing cluster of social finance related initiatives housed at MaRS. 

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SiG @ MaRS is hiring two paid summer interns. This is an excellent opportunity for those of you who follow SocialFinance.ca and would like to get involved in all things social innovation and social finance. Descriptions of the two positions are pasted below and attached as PDFs. 

Both internships will span up to sixteen weeks from May to August 2011. The successful candidates will receive a stipend equal to $15 / hour on a full-time basis for the duration of the internship, paid bi-weekly subject to applicable payroll taxes.

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SocialFinance.ca produces a weekly round up featuring social finance related news, insights, job openings, and events. We source the content for these round ups from Twitter, an RSS reader, and directly from our community of social finance practitioners. Below is our round up for the week of April 11, 2011.

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SocialFinance.ca produces a weekly round up featuring social finance related news, insights, job openings, and events. We source the content for these round ups from Twitter, an RSS reader, and directly from our community of social finance practitioners. Below is our round up for the week of March 14, 2011.

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Last night, I was invited to present on "Innovative Financing for the Social Economy" in Jack Quarter's graduate class, "Non-profits, Cooperatives, and the Social Economy" at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). To accompany my talk, I put together the presentation embedded below using a tool called Prezi.

Click here to view the presentation >>

The presentation concludes with the following questions, which I'm hoping to discuss here on SocialFinance.ca:

• If start-ups using social technology are in fact innovating more quickly than others, how do government agencies, impact investment funds, and large financial institutions align their efforts in support?
• What do more established non-profits, co-operatives, and social enterprises stand to gain from a high tech social finance ecosystem? Does it favour the smaller-scale social ventures, capable of taking greater risks?
• What will it look like when mainstream actors start working in the cloud to deliver innovative social finance solutions in addition to marketing campaigns?
• How do organizations providing social finance on the ground but not in the cloud connect with one another to do more with their collective resources? Who do they partner with to get this done?

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I wrote the following letter in response to The Philanthropist’s Point/Counterpoint entitled “Social Enterprise Is a Nice Idea, But It Is Not a Panacea that Justifies Rewriting Charity Law” (Vol 23, No 2, 2010).

After reading the polite exchange between Bob Wyatt and Don Bourgeois, I was left feeling that both authors somehow missed the fundamental point of social enterprise. Social enterprise, as a field, exists first and foremost to serve people, communities, and the environment. The approach of social enterprises is often embodied by a “whatever it takes” attitude that results in hybrid legal formations and impact-generating products and services, as well as more traditional charitable programs.

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This is the third blog post in a series on the development of an open business plan for SocialFinance.ca. For the previous post, see Road to Social Impact Lined with Enabling Support.

This morning, I had the privilege of attending an informal discussion featuring Sean Stannard-Stockton of Tactical Philanthropy Advisors, fellow colleagues at SiG @ MaRS, and a collection of leaders within Canada’s philanthropic and social innovation community.

Sean had more than a few insights to share with the group, notably that:

• Every business creates social value although its often overlooked, and every non-profit creates economic value that’s also often overlooked;
• Investments in a non-profit’s overhead (talented staff, ongoing evaluation, and program innovation) are key to creating long-term social and economic value; and
• Effective use of blogging and social media combined with a willingness to share ideas exponentially increases an organization’s capacity to create enduring social impact.

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For the last several months, SocialFinance.ca has been fortunate to have two outstanding Volunteer Assistant Editors on board to help with various aspects of the editorial process. I am happy to announce that Bethany Pickard and Michelle MacLeod have volunteered to extend in their stay at SocialFinance.ca through March 2011.

We are currently looking for two qualified individuals to join them, beginning in January 2011 for a period of four to six months. The successful candidates will have strong written communication skills, an intuitive understanding of how to leverage social media, and an interest in the field of social finance.

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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?

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Among the 1,200+ participants in next week's Social Capital Markets 2010 conference, a small but passionate group will hail from Canada. They represent a cross-section of government, finance, philanthropy, and social enterprise professionals. SocialFinance.ca recently asked members of the Canadian delegation for a testimony on why they're headed to SoCap10 and participating in the collection of side events affectionately referred to as Canada Day @ SoCap10. Below are their responses.

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On Wednesday, September 29th, SocialFinance.ca will be co-hosting a live chat on Twitter about the upcoming Social Capital Markets 2010 conference, specifically on how philanthropic capital and investment capital can align to maximize social and environmental impact.

Here's a brief description of the #SoCap10 Twitter Chat: 

 You’re invited to a live discussion about the intersection of philanthropy and impact investing, featuring Kevin Doyle Jones of Good Capital and Social Capital Markets. Join fellow Twitterers in a 45 minute chat on Wednesday, September 29th, beginning at 2pm ET / 11am PT.

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SocialFinance.ca is looking for two qualified individuals to share responsibility for the position of Volunteer Assistant Editor from October to December 2010. The candidates should have strong written communication skills, an intuitive understanding of how to leverage social media, and an interest in the field of social finance.

The Volunteer Assistant Editors will be asked to commit to approximately 4-7 hours of work per week, performed remotely and on their own schedules. The successful candidates will share responsible for helping the Managing Editor source, edit, and distribute compelling content across SocialFinance.ca’s online presence.

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Hello SocialFinance.ca Community! This is a reminder that registration for Canada Day @ SoCap10 ends next week Wednesday, September 15th. We are expecting a lively group of social finance practitioners from across Canada.

Confirmed attendees include representatives from Phillips, Hager & North, Vancouver Foundation, SHSC Financial, Wellesley Institute, Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion (BACI), Sarona Asset Management, Social Venture Exchange (SVX), Social Capital Partners, Igniter Inc, SiG National, Causeway, SiG @ MaRS, and SocialFinance.ca.

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Last week, R. Andrew Sweeny, President of The Philadelphia Foundation, published an editorial in the The Philadelphia Inquirer that includes some tough-love but sound advice for nonprofit managers. The editorial, although targeted at nonprofits operating in the Philadelphia area, rings true north of the Canada-U.S. border.

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I'm pleased to announce that SocialFinance.ca will be helping to coordinate the social media coverage of the Social Capital Markets 2010 conference in San Francisco on October 4th, 5th, and 6th. For those of us north of the U.S. / Canada border, SoCap represents an annual opportunity to check in with our dynamic neighbours to the south as well as many of the movers and shakers in social finance internationally.

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Nova Scotia faces a difficult situation in which less than 2% of investment capital placed in mainstream RSPs, mutual funds, and stocks remain in the province. The rest of the investment capital ends up supporting companies operating in the rest of Canada and internationally. Faced with the challenge of match-making local investors with local companies, the CEDIFs were born.

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For the last 10 years, Chris Payne has headed up an innovative program to drive hyperlocal investing in the province of Nova Scotia. Chris doesn’t use the term ‘hyperlocal investing’, but it seems apt. Nova Scotia’s Community Economic Development Investment Funds (CEDIF) offer unique opportunities to help local farmers and small businesses gain access to capital on a county-by-county and town-by-town basis, and sometimes even more local than that.

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SocialFinance.ca exists to track the big stories of social finance in Canada. Strangely, one of the biggest success stories of social finance in Canada has managed to avoid the spotlight, and as a result, has gone under-reported on this platform. That is the Government of Nova Scotia's Community Economic Development Investment Funds (CEDIF).

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Hello colleagues across Canada and peers following this website internationally. Today is a very exciting day for me. I get to introduce myself to all of you as the new Managing Editor of SocialFinance.ca.

In the past year, SocialFinance.ca has emerged as a go-to resource for discussions about the social finance marketplace and movement taking form in Canada. I am extremely honoured to help deepen and expand the conversation at this important moment.

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Second only to tightrope walkers, social innovators are people who often have to block out the world around them in order to get from point A to point B. The process of creating a successful social enterprise requires nothing less than total concentration, often at the expense of getting to know one's peers and following their progress. This blog post is an effort to reverse the trend by crowd-sourcing a directory of individuals and organizations who make up Canada's social innovation sector.

To get the list started, I would like to draw attention to three Canadian social innovators whose paths I have crossed recently but whose work I have not yet had a chance to fully explore. While these innovators are far from representative or complete, they illustrate the important role that young people are playing in the formation of Canada's social innovation sector.

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Social innovation is one of those phrases that can mean different things to different people. In fact, its versatility has probably led to its popularity in recent years.

Like 'social change', 'social entrepreneurship', and 'corporate social responsibility' before it, the term social innovation is both vague enough to attract a diverse following and specific enough to afford its followers a sense of identity. But left poorly defined for too long, I worry that social innovation could lose its followers like chewing gum loses its flavor.

This blog post is an attempt to start a conversation about what the term social innovation means (and doesn't mean) in the Canadian context. To get the conversation started, I have three questions for those who identify as social innovators and/or who support the field of social innovation.

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Microphilathropy is an approach to philanthropy based on smaller, more direct interaction between those who are in need and those who can give. Platforms such as Kiva, DonorsChoose and Facebook Causes have the ability to aggregate thousands of relatively small donations to make a big difference.

I had the honour of presenting at Social Venture Partners Toronto's panel discussion on, "How Microphilanthropy Is Changing Giving".

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