A special edition of the Making Waves magazine has been launched, titled "Capital for Communities". This edition explores the the central question of access to finance for community-based initiatives. Most nonprofits, social enterprises, and co-operatives identify capital as their key constraint, and when it is available, it if often not in the right form to meet the needs of these organizations. These organizations, and the respective sectors that they represent, continue to be undercapitalized related to the needs and pressures being placed on them, particularly in this economic environment.

This issue draws on perspectives from across the country in understanding and addressing the issue of access to finance. The articles range from a mapping of the financial ecosystem of the social economy, the challenges of financing social ventures, the importance of intermediaries, examples of how institutional investors can be engaged in social finance, and lessons from Quebec's experience with developing innovative social finance instruments. Collectively, these articles provide an excellent, multi-dimensional understanding of the key issues and opportunities around delivering more capital to communities.

Contents

• Capital for Community ... What?: We've come a long way since the previous special edition on capital (1998). We've also come to realize that the only future worth capitalizing is one that is low carbon and environmentally sustainable. (Mike Lewis, Canadian Centre for Community Renewal) Read it now.
• Delivering More Capital to Canada's Communities: A supply-side analysis of the social capital market reveals that there is not so much a lack of social finance, as a plentiful supply of it misaligned with a plentiful demand for it. (Karim Harji, Social Capital Partners) Read it now.
• The Financial Ecosystem of Canada's Social Economy: By what interplay of sources, intermediaries, and transactions does money enter the Social Economy? What returns close each of these loops? Read it now.
• "That's a Great Idea! How can we finance it?" Five things that social entrepreneurs, bankers, and investors can do to resolve financial bottlenecks. (Derek Gent, Vancity Community Foundation) Read it now.
• Equity Tax Credits as a Tool of CED Two provincial tax credit programs; two very different results. What enables Nova Scotia's to mobilize so much more capital than Manitoba's in the service of social change? (Stewart E. Perry, CCCR, and Garry Loewen, Garry Loewen Consulting) Read it now.
• The Triple Bottom Line and Community Development Finance: How one community development corporation is making triple-bottom line investment part of its own practice, and advancing this transition across the community sector. (Keith Bisson, Coastal Enterprises Inc of Maine ) Read it now.
• Engaging Institutional Investors in Social Finance: Building intermediary networks to channel investment monies from private financial institutions to Canadian communities. (Tessa Hebb, Carleton Centre for Community Innovation) Read it now.
• Towards Fair Trade Banking: A journey from Market Freedom to Mutual Liberty How do we make the banking sector "people-worthy"? In the U.K, Community Banking Partnerships integrate the resources and skills of multiple sectors in order to balance economic regeneration with financial inclusion. (Pat Conaty, New Economics Foundation) Read it now.
• Financing the Social Economy in Québec: Which factors enable Québec to channel more and more patient capital into diverse, complex projects of social economy? (Margie Mendell, School of Community and Public Affairs, Concordia University) Read it now.
• Sweden's JAK Bank: Here is a banking system that divorces local and regional finance from compound interest and all that implies about long-term indebtedness and short-term, high-yield investment. (Pat Conaty and Mike Lewis) Read it now.

Supplementary Contents

The following valuable articles on this subject have also been contributed, but will not appear in the print edition:

• Financial Literacy and Community Banking Projects: When they work together, inner-city organizations and banks can create effective venues for fundamental financial skills as well as services. (Jerry Buckland, Menno Simons College, and Rick Egan, St Christopher House) Read it now.
• Partnerships for Community Banking: Partnerships between banks and community organizations work best when there is sustained, cross-cultural dialogue to resolve the differences in their interests, to improve services, and to build friendship and trust between current and future leaders. (Jerry Buckland, Menno Simons College, and Rick Egan, St Christopher House) Read it now.
• Strategic policy initiatives: what federal actions could help funnel financing and investment towards the Social Economy, and encourage its expansion in the service of all Canada's vulnerable populations? (Jessica Notwell, CCEDNet)

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