I was asked to contribute comments based on our experience at Access Community Capital Fund in providing loans to social enterprises but in the process I also hope to learn more about social finance.

First, a word about Access. We provide guarantees which enable loans to be made to individual entrepreneurs who would otherwise not qualify for credit. Our clients may be relative newcomers to Canada and can’t get credit from others because they don’t have a credit history or collateral, and may not be able to find a guarantor; or they may have a bad credit history which makes them ineligible for credit. We rely less than formal banks on an applicant’s credit history and collateral, and much more on the feasibility of their business plans and their personal drive, integrity and experience. Many of our clients operate what I guess are called social enterprises - for example, a lady operating a hairdressing salon who reaches out to women who have lost their hair from cancer treatments, or a lady who teaches French and French culture to schools around the province. But many of our clients operate regular businesses – flower shops, book shops, sausage making etc. I sense that the social finance world views such businesses as somehow being on a lower plane, less worthy, than “pure” social enterprises. But all of them need to make a profit, all are driven by the entrepreneur’s passion and all provide needed benefits to our society. Is any one less worthy than another?

Being rather ancient (no, I have never used the term “dude”), it seems to be that there is a lot of hype around the term “social finance” and “social enterprises” and also a lot of fuzzy thinking. If as Wikipedia says, “social finance is an approach to managing money that delivers a social dividend and an economic return” we could surely apply this term to most businesses. For example, is a bank a social finance organization? Access to credit is a critical ingredient of a sound economy and banks definitely serve a social purpose – yet am I right in thinking that banks aren’t typically regarded as serving social finance? I have worked for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in many countries and it is a fact of life that they have to become banks - donors are fickle and microfinance institutions need to attract low cost funding and gain access to capital. And many MFIs that become banks continue to focus on a triple bottom line of profit, outreach and impact. Access does not wish to compete with banks, but if we thought we could increase our impact by becoming one, we wouldn’t hesitate.

If you are not a social enterprise what are you? Anti-social? For profit? Yet all of the examples I quoted above need to make a profit. And society benefits from their profit drive.

Ultimately whether or not an organization calls itself a social enterprise, or is part of the social finance arena matters less than being socially responsible and true to its mission and the passions of its people. And that is true of any enterprise.

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