Indigenous women entrepreneurs are opening businesses at twice the rate of non-Indigenous women. As Canada looks to rebuild its economy, it’s more important than ever to back Indigenous entrepreneurs — but despite this, there're still significant barriers to funding, including to the $755 million Social Finance Fund.
In a post-pandemic reality, non-profits will need to digitize — in one way or another — most of their processes, services, and activities. But for many, the capacity to embark on digital transformation just doesn’t exist. Gibson says a cross-sector, systems-level approach is necessary.
While the social impact sector aims to solve a lot of societal problems, it has a real lack of inclusion, making it much harder for leaders from equity-seeking groups to scale their organizations or share their expertise. This leads to a continuous cycle of inequality, especially when it comes to accessing new financing — including the $755 million Social Finance Fund.
During the pandemic, charities have been working hard to meet increasing demands, despite a drop in donors and volunteers. The $755 million Social Finance Fund offers access to new financing — but with the majority of smaller charities unable to take on debt, many remain resource-strapped, despite our population’s growing needs.
The federal government’s $755 million Social Finance Fund is expected to launch sometime this year, and the need for that capital is high. But design matters — and the government has a chance to implement a year’s worth of accelerated learning on the future of social finance.
Deploying $200 million worth of funding to assist the social impact world will be welcome during the pandemic. Outcome-based models are relatively new, but appear to be gaining in popularity. However, it isn’t clear whether they actually provide the sort of innovative thinking they claim to.