Business degrees are the most sought-after post-secondary education in Canada. But if students graduate without learning about how business can be a force for good, Canada risks having a corporate class that only orients toward profit.
Access to finance is a major difficulty for social innovation leaders, but some countries around the world are overcoming these difficulties through national policy. Canada could stand to learn a few lessons.
Social finance and philanthropy leaders hold a lot of power in the social purpose sector. These nine leaders say 2021 brought them lessons that will change the way they work in 2022 and beyond.
With a background in the technology sector, tech investors could help to scale social impact solutions quickly, and offer new ideas and tools to transform social impact organisations. In turn, however, long standing social impact investors have a thing or two to teach tech in achieving meaningful impact. This could transform the social impact sector.
While it’s true that many of the promises federal candidates make on the campaign trail never make it into policy documents, when something becomes a major election issue, there’s pressure on the eventual elected official to act — and social impact funders say they need major policy change to boost the solutions they fund.
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.
