A smart, essential look at the ideas, trends, and innovations blending purpose and profit, from the Future of Good editorial team.
The aftermath of COVID-19, along with ongoing systemic racism, will require hefty investments in everything from public health to community economic development. Impact investment is one way to do that, but some leaders say there isn’t a lot of coordination among investors themselves.
“A key strategy in the colonization process, the residential school system, and the Indian Act, was to remove Indigenous Peoples from the land and displace Indigenous economies for the benefit of the settler population,” reads the Sage Initiative website. “This initiative is designed to reverse that process.”
Social purpose organizations need help preparing for investment, but some sector leaders say the IRP is not quite as flexible, equitable, or fair as it should be — which makes readiness difficult.
It’s estimated that, even before COVID-19 struck, 700,000 small businesses in Canada were already at risk of closure in the next ten years, because they don’t have viable succession plans. And the pandemic made local business and community self-sufficiency even more urgent. Social acquisitions could be a big part of the solution.
Hudson’s Bay Company was deeply involved in British colonialism across a third of what is now Canada for 200 years. The company’s monopoly was based on the racist ‘doctrine of discovery’ and helped to destroy traditional Indigenous ways of life.