Social Finance
About This Collection
After a turbulent two years of a global pandemic and social unrest, communities are experiencing fundamental shifts to how we work, care, create value, get around, travel, play, learn, and purchase. From child care to affordable housing, from decarbonization to reforestation, from elder care to food security — there are game-changing transitions ahead. Through social finance, we have the enormous opportunity to accelerate solutions by creatively mobilizing private, public, community, and philanthropic capital.
Canada’s Social Finance Fund’s first investment champions outcomes financing
Over the last decades, a vast amount of federal money has been injected to address socio-economic issues. However, there have yet to be outstanding successes in changing the trajectory of socio-economic indicators, such as overall health, education and environmental issues. Outcomes financing might be a valuable tool to address some of these challenges.
Nature Investment Hub hopes to generate $20B for natural land conservation and restoration in Canada
In 2022, the United Nations adopted the first multilaterally agreed definition of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). This December will see Cop 28, the international conference to assess progress on the 2015 Paris Agreement goals to combat climate change. It will include the launch of the first State of NBS report. NBS can save more CO2 annually than the emissions from the entire global transportation sector and reduce the intensity of climate hazards by 26 per cent.
In conversation with Mansib Rahman, co-founder and CEO of Radish
Montreal’s Radish plans to be the first co-op in the world to issue shares. Those shares would not guarantee voting rights, only economic rights. Co-op members would keep all the influence. Will it work? This conversation concerns financial innovation, finance’s role in hyper-local ventures, investors’ extra-financial motivations, and the risk of mixing money and the common good.
A new pilot program aims to encourage equity-crowdfunding — will it work?
Non-profits and co-operatives could be leveraging community bonds and preferred shares to raise capital, but many don’t. A new pilot program in Quebec hopes to change that by matching every dollar invested.
INTERVIEW: Duke Chang talks generational shifts, digital fundraising and changing demographics as he takes the helm of CanadaHelps, which has raised more than $2.5 billion in donations to date
Future of Good’s CEO and Publisher Vinod Rajasekaran sits down with Duke Chang, the newly appointed president and CEO of CanadaHelps, to discuss where fundraising is heading in post-pandemic Canada.
How tax credits and social finance are building a healthy future for Nova Scotians
Canada’s small-scale farmers and food producers face a myriad of challenges, including access to capital. Could community investment funds provide a solution, while also building resilient food systems and healthy people?
INTERVIEW: Karina Gould, Canada’s Minister of Families, Children and Social Development shares her learnings and aspirations for Canada’s new Social Finance Fund
Future of Good’s CEO and Publisher Vinod Rajasekaran sits down with Canada’s Minister of Families, Children and Social Development to discuss how the Social Finance Fund will transform the country’s social finance ecosystem, how will the fund centre social equity, and how those investments can be de-risked going forward.
Curious about the Social Finance Forum? Here are six sessions that will bring you up-to speed
Social finance has the power to bring people together, mobilize capital, drive change and create impact. But access to capital remains a challenge for many social purpose organizations and ventures — understanding the limitations of current systems is the first step towards reimagination and innovation.
“Good political theatre” yields concrete steps at Ottawa gathering of co-operatives and mutuals
Federal grant applications often lack specific direction for co-operatives. Advocacy organizations frequently have to ask the government whether co-ops are even eligible. What’s the best way for co-ops to contact the government if they have questions?
How an $18.6 million dollar fund helps community organizations beat speculators and own their own spaces
The real estate crisis is forcing community organizations to devote more and more of their funding to rent at a time when demand for their services is growing. Moving isn’t an option for community-based organizations who need to be where their clientele is, but innovative social finance could provide solutions.
Government of Canada announces three Social Finance Fund wholesalers
The federal government says its plan is to catalyze $2 in private social investment for every $1 spent throughout the $755 million Social Finance Fund’s administration. That’s a huge amount of money for social purpose intermediaries.
How Greta Thunberg helped one Quebec foundation get hooked on funding social movements
Foundations have finite resources and big social policy objectives. A new report from the Broadbent Institute argues funders can make bigger strides on their social policy goals by funding social movements than they can through lobbying or research alone.
“Totally unethical” charity wage disparities compound effects of inflation, pandemic
Non-profits need staff to deliver programs, but without adequate funding they struggle to recruit and retain employees. Future funding models must take the full cost of doing business into account — and that means fairly compensating frontline workers.
Does an ‘extraordinary’ half-billion dollar donation offer new potential for affordable housing in Winnipeg?
The Winnipeg Foundation, Canada’s largest community foundation, just announced they have been gifted one of Winnipeg’s largest apartment rental companies. How they choose to steward this asset could impact Winnipeg’s housing market in the coming years.
Higher growth through sustainable investment? Winners of Great Canadian ESG Championship think so
How foundations, pension plans, organizations and individuals invest their assets has the power to fight climate change, nurture responsible government and drive social change. Raising awareness of responsible options can push investors towards sustainable options.
Investigation: After George Floyd was murdered, corporate Canada promised philanthropic support for Black communities. What have they disclosed donating since?
Black charities in Canada get a fraction of the donations raised by their white-led peers. When George Floyd was murdered and millions marched for Black lives in communities across North America, some Canadian corporations made six-figure donation pledges in support of Black communities. Whether they and their corporate peers have continued to give has material implications for Black Canadians across the country.
A flipped power dynamic: Philanthropists must apply to a council of aunties to fund these Indigenous groups
Funders and grantmakers often wield considerable power over their fundees, determining what gets funded, when and how. The Right Relations Collaborative flips this power dynamic by putting Indigenous aunties in the driver’s seat. The model is firmly rooted in a local territory, but offers a new approach to grantmaking that could inspire a shift in funding relationships across the country.