Social Enterprise

Enhance your mission by selling a product or service

Introduction

How can we achieve and sustain impact with different revenue models?

This coaching stream helps organizations explore ideas for how they can further their social impact goals and generate revenue through an enterprise model. The focus is on helping established social-purpose organizations identify business opportunities, assess viability, and plan for launch.

Social Enterprise 101

A social enterprise:

Is an ongoing organization or venture
Is created with the primary goal of achieving an environmental, social and/or cultural mission
Uses earned income strategies by selling products and/or services in its operation.

Main types of social enterprises

Social enterprises are often launched for one or more of the following three reasons:

Employment-based: to meet an employment need in the community that is not being met through traditional business models. For example, Eva’s Phoenix Printing in Toronto trains at-risk youth in the printing business, preparing them to leave the streets and enter the labour market.
Mission-based: to advance or achieve a specific environmental, social, and/or cultural mission. For example, Haida Gwaii Higher Education Society operates an accredited university-level academic program that brings students to their community to learn about local First Nations culture and arts, as well as the unique biology in the local environment. In addition to student learning, there is an important local economic impact for the remote region of Haida Gwaii.
Profit-based: to contribute to the financial sustainability of a community organization. For example, the Prince George Aboriginal Friendship Centre rents out the extra space in the building they own. The income from rent covers the mortgage payment and their program administrative costs.

The Innoweave self-assessment tool is designed to help you determine your organization's readiness and whether your initiative or program model is well suited for Social Enterprise.

Self-
assessment

This assessment has 5 questions.

Please respond to each of the questions to the best of your ability by choosing the option that most accurately reflects your organizational context.

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Does your organization have a clear and shared definition of the impact it seeks to achieve and how your work generates this impact?

Our definition of the impact we seek to achieve and how our work generates this impact is not clearly shared across the organization.

We have a clear and shared definition of the impact we seek to achieve and how our work generates this impact, but we are thinking of revisiting this.

We have a clear and shared definition of the impact we seek to achieve and how our work generates this impact.

We have limited openness to risk due to issues such as having a single, long-term funder for our program, having the same board and staff for years, etc.

We are somewhat open to risk and realize that our previous funding and program formats must be adapted to a changing funding environment and changing community needs.

We are open to risk and have structures in place that allow us to adapt to changes in our internal and external environments (e.g., long-term goals, a feedback evaluation process).

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Does your staff and board of directors have the business experience and skills to plan and operate a social enterprise?

We have limited business skills or experience internally (e.g., because we are driven by our passion and mission, and/or funded by grants or donations).

We have board members with business expertise (e.g., from a private sector background) who are excited about the idea of a social enterprise.

We have a high level of business skills internally and have been applying this type of thinking to our work for some time.

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Do you have an idea for a social enterprise that fits with your organization’s mission and values?

We are so new to this that we aren’t even sure what might fit for us or how to take the first steps.

We’ve had some discussion about business ideas but have not considered their fit with our organizational mission.

We’ve explored a number of ideas that fit well with our mission and have narrowed them down to just one or two priorities. Or, we are already operating a social enterprise but want to improve our model and/or increase our impact.

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Are you able to raise the funds and commit the resources needed to launch and operate a social enterprise?

We are currently struggling financially and have weak organizational stability. We see social enterprise as a way to generate much-needed revenue.

It’s in our strategic plan to find the internal resources to support a Social Enterprise, but we haven’t taken any significant steps in that direction.

We have identified a source of capital and have carved out the necessary staff time to develop and run our Social Enterprise.

For groups interested in Innoweave’s Social Enterprise stream, we encourage you to review our Social Enterprise Info Session:

Watch a recording
Download the slides

Events

Innoweave Q&A: Ask Us Anything!, Online (Zoom) March 30, 2023 Innoweave will be hosting a series of four live “Ask Us Anything Sessions” leading up to the April 15 Expression of Interest deadline. These...
Provided in Bilingual (French/English)
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Innoweave Q&A: Ask Us Anything!, Online (Zoom) April 4, 2023 Innoweave will be hosting a series of four live “Ask Us Anything Sessions” leading up to the April 15 Expression of Interest deadline. These...
Provided in Bilingual (French/English)
→
Innoweave Q&A: Ask Us Anything!, Online (Zoom) April 6, 2023 Innoweave will be hosting a series of four live “Ask Us Anything Sessions” leading up to the April 15 Expression of Interest deadline. These...
Provided in Bilingual (French/English)
→
Innoweave Q&A: Ask Us Anything!, Online (Zoom) April 12, 2023 Innoweave will be hosting a series of four live “Ask Us Anything Sessions” leading up to the April 15 Expression of Interest deadline. These...
Provided in Bilingual (French/English)
→

Can’t find what you’re looking for? We might have more events in French. Or, contact the Innoweave team to discuss hosting a learning event for you and other organizations in your community.

Relevant Resources

Additional Resources

Coaches

Innoweave offers coaching support to organizations that are well positioned to implement a Social Enterprise approach. You can connect with an Innoweave coach to help you explore and implement your initiative. Then apply to Innoweave for funds to support that coaching engagement.

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Apply for support

Your organization is eligible to apply for Innoweave coaching support if you have submitted an Expression of Interest and it has been approved.

Apply Now

FAQ

These are our most frequently asked questions.

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What types of social enterprises does Innoweave support?: Innoweave focuses on supporting social enterprise ideas being launched by established nonprofits and charities. In rare cases, we may support stand-alone social enterprises at the start-up phase.
Will Innoweave invest in my social enterprise?: No, Innoweave does not provide investments or loans to projects. Innoweave support is strictly for coaching.
What social impact does the social enterprise have to generate for Innoweave to support it?: Innoweave is happy to support models that generate positive impact across almost all domains in Canada. We do not, however, support projects where the primary beneficiaries are outside of Canada (e.g., international development projects).

Social Enterprise

Introduction

How can we achieve and sustain impact with different revenue models?

Main types of social enterprises

Self-assessment

Info Session

Events

Relevant Resources

Coaches

Apply for support

FAQ

Self-
assessment