Social Innovation

Want to Learn More about Social Banking and Social Finance?

Are you interested in learning about social banking and social finance? Look no further than the Institute for Social Banking (ISB). The ISB is opening up registration for its upcoming Summer School session entitled, “Money rules the world – who rules the money?” The session will take place from July 3 to 8, 2011 in Canterbury, U.K. There are 110 spots available.

The application and submission criteria can be found on the ISB website. The deadline for applications is April 15, 2011.

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SOCAP/Europe: A Stand for Meaning

Countless moments in history have shown the irrefutable power of taking a stand for meaning. Today, the events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and the wider Middle East are a poignant reminder that systems failing to support our common well being can be challenged to do better.

From May 30th to June 1st, Amsterdam will host SOCAP/Europe, the largest interdisciplinary gathering of individuals and institutions at the intersection of money and meaning in Europe. SOCAP/Europe will challenge one of the most prominent economic systems in history. Whether directly invested or indirectly affected, capitalism’s influence is global; consequently, it unites us all in a great opportunity to insist that our capital markets work better to reflect our shared meaning – to enrich our health, environment, education, economic opportunity and local communities in a sustainable way.

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Innovative Financing for the Social Economy

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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Shared Values - The Next Big Idea

Perhaps an old concept for many of us, this article in the Harvard Business Review, "Shared Values" by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer may be a defining moment in the transformation of thinking about capitalism.

The social innovators in the world know and understand that that the economy versus environment paradigm is dead. We inherently embrace that within a 'collective interest' framework exists the 'self-interest' needed to sustain a living. We see the potential of making a living by doing good. We also know that the very best social innovations emerge out of community, aka... knowing ones customer.

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Social Capital Markets: A Conference, Community, and Movement

Below are some reflections I wrote up following my attendance at Social Capital Markets 2010 in San Francisco last October.

As a scholarship recipient at SoCap10, this was my first time at the conference. The conference was overwhelming, both because of its sheer size (approximately 1,200 attendees) and the breadth of expertise represented by conference attendees. What stood out to me was that SoCap is so much more than a conference. It represents a community. And communities are capable of creating movements, which is exactly what the social finance and impact investing communities need in order to take off. 

As a social entrepreneur launching a business on social metrics, I thought I would naturally gravitate to the Metrics track, yet I found myself moving between tracks, and often finding other people doing the same. If SoCap is an event that checks the pulse of North American social innovation, then I can surmise that this is a group of people where cross-pollination of ideas are drive innovation.

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