Background

Social finance is an approach to managing money that delivers a social and/or environmental dividend and an economic return. This capital complements philanthropy and government grants and serves to increase the available dollars to address societal challenges at scale.

At the 2008 Canadian Social Finance Forum held at MaRS Discovery District, a national cross-sector social finance strategy emerged. Since then, many different organizations and networks have been working on its implementation. One of the chief objectives of the strategy--to create conditions that empower entrepreneurs and community organizations to sustainably achieve their social or environmental missions--has led to research in a number of areas that address common barriers.

Solutions in the form of creative recommendations from a national network of sector stakeholders have begun to take form. These recommendations have evolved through extensive discussions at events such as the 2009 Social Enterprise Council of Canada conference, the Public Policy Forum's social innovation policy discussion, and as recently as the Canadian Community Economic Development Network conference in May of 2010.

We now face an exciting opportunity to strengthen and hone these ideas, building the case for the economic and social impact of accelerating Canada’s social finance marketplace.

Contact: For more information about the Task Force on Social Finance, please email (taskforce@socialfinance.ca).

SocialFinance.ca is pleased to serve as the online repository for information and discussions about the Task Force.