Opportunities & Awards for Social Enterprises

Seeking Social Enterprises for the 2011 Ottawa Community Challenge (OCC)!

OCC is a community-wide initiative supported by OCRI TalentBridge, Hub Ottawa, and CISED that seeks to bridge young socially-conscious enterpreneurial talent with commnity organizations, specifically not-for-profits and socially-driven enterprises.   As a social enterprise, you get to present a mission-critical problem related to business,  marketing, communications or technology. 

For  the 2011 OCC, non-profits or socially driven enterprises are the focus.  Over 48 hours on the weekend of November 18-20, youth leaders will come up with creative and implementable solutions for your specific challenge.   For further info contact Manu at msharma@ocri.ca or Vinod at vinod@rajasekaran@gmail.com

Apply by October 28, 2011, by sending a brief (half-page max) Expression of Interest detailing the background and focus of your organization together with a clearly articulated statement of your challenge to Vinod Rajasekaran at Hub Ottawa at vinod.rajasekaran@gmail.com  

 

Could you be the U of O Social Innovation Enterprise of the Year??

This award will be announced at the upcoming Corporate and Community Social Responsibility Conference taking place November 15, 2011 at Algonquin College.  Click here for more information on this award and how to apply.

Check out these upcoming events for social enterprises

October 14 – enp-Ottawa   Building Your Social Enterprise Workshop     (Ottawa, ON)

We invite you to join CISED and Enterprising Non Profits  for a day-long workshop to learn more about social enterprise and to become qualified to apply for an enp technical assistance grant.  Registration is limited.

Nov 15 – Corporate & Community Social Responsibility Conference   (Algonquin College – Ottawa, ON)

Do you want to learn about innovative practices in corporate/community collaboration?    The 4^th annual CCSR conference will showcase new ways that corporations are engaging with the community and the not-for-profit sector, in the pursuit of social and environmental good.  Registration is now open.

Nov 20-22 – Fourth Annual Conference on Social Enterprise  (Halifax, NS)

Join hundreds of social enterprise practitioners for 3 days in Halifax to learn, share, network, and build the social enterprise sector in Canada.  Registration is now open.

For more events, click here.

Is your organization exploring, starting or growing a social enterprise?

If you are, then you will want to check out the new resources available for local non-profits.  Enp and CISED are partnering to bring technical assistance and grants to Ottawa to support the development of social enterprises. 

For more information, click here.

Enterprising Non Profits Comes to Ottawa!

Exciting News  – CISED is launching the enp-Ottawa pilot !

This fall CISED will be piloting the Enterprising Non Profits (enp) model using the widely recognized and successful model from British Columbia that has recently expanded to Alberta and Toronto.  enp is a collaborative program that provides grants, resources, and technical assistance to non-profit organizations to support the creation and growth of social enterprises.

The formal launch of the enp-Ottawa pilot will take place on October 13th followed by a day-long workshop for potential applicants on October 14th.    Stay tuned for more information about the enp program, eligibility, and application process which will be posted shortly on our website and in our blog .

Welcome to  CISED’s a new Social Enterprise Coordinator !

We are very pleased to announce that Jonathan Wade will be joining the CISED team on September 12 in the role of Social Enterprise Coordinator.  Jonathan brings a wealth of knowledge and experience including project management, social financing and enterprise development, fundraising and marketing, and a passion for social enterprise and innovation.

CISED thanks the over 150 individuals who applied for the Social Enterprise Coordinator position.  Clearly, there is a keen interest in social business in Ottawa!  Lastly, CISED wishes all the best to Jessica Lax as she heads for BC where she will no doubt be making waves in the social innovation sphere.

CISED is hiring!

There are many changes ahead for CISED in coming months, with one major change being Jessica’s departure.  Jessica has been running CISED since Nov.2010 and will be moving to Vancouver in the fall.  She will be missed!

Brenda Richardson, who worked on CISED in its first year and currently manages Causeway’s three social businesses, will be taking on some aspects of CISED, however we will be hiring someone to work with her.

Do you anyone who is passionate about social enterprise or has experience in marketing and communications? If so, please pass on the job posting.  Deadline for applications is July 17th.

Social Enterprise Support Across Ontario!

On June 7th-8th I had the opportunity to attend the Ontario CCEDNet conference in Toronto.  After an exciting learning tour which visited six social enterprises in Toronto, I then attended a full day session with other community economic development folks in Ontario.  I presented a workshop with the wonderful, Cathy Lang, on the social enterprise capacity building work that is being done across Ontario.  The workshop was full of people interested in bringing similar supports to their own community.

The workshop began with the question “If money were no object what would be the ideal way to build the capacity of social enterprises in your community?”.  This visioning exercise brought out a range of ideas – everything from stronger community networks, integration of SE into academic institutions (and even primary and secondary schools), and funding for experimentation as organizations try out different business models.

Our workshop also presented information from three initiatives: The RSEP – Rural Social Enterprise Project (across Ontario), the CISED – Collaborative for Innovative Social Enterprise Development (Ottawa), and the SECSC – Social Enterprise for Creative and Sustainable Communities (London-Middlesex).  Presenting the three projects together did point out that we need to use fewer acronyms (!), but also showcased the similarities in our work.   The importance of place based work, seed funding, and a mix of general and customized technical assistance came through as common themes.

Check out the full presentation for a good snapshot of social enterprise development in Ontario and let me know if you have anything to add!

Social Enterprise Capacity Building in Ontario

View more presentations from Collaborative for Innovative Social Enterprise Development

Crowdfund your Social Enterprise?

I recently interviewed 11 social enterprises or organizations looking to start up social enterprises in Ottawa and a lack of funding was such a common theme that we decided to make the focus of this month’s CISED event Crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding as described by wikipedia involves:

“the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money and other resources together, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. “

How is this different than the basic fund raising charities have been doing online with the help of Canada Helps and other online tools?

Crowdfunding usually refers to specific projects with a start and end date (rather than funding an organization), and it implies a new way to connect with donors – mostly through social media.  Many crowdfunding sites also allow ‘donors’ to becomes investors – offering a portion of future revenues (Profounder), facilitating loans (Prosper), or offering other incentives and rewards (Kickstarter).  All of these sites allow ideas to be funded that may not be interesting to typical financiers, as well building a customer/fan base that can help prove the viability of an idea.

However many of these sites aren’t available in Canada, nor are they set up specifically for charities.  And with those that are – how do you figure out if your project/idea/social enterprise is a good fit?

Paul Dombowsky from Ideavibes and Fundchange (Canada’s first crowdfunding destination site for charities) will be speaking at CISED’s next social enterprise breakfast.  Join us May 26th 8:30am-10am in the Causeway Board Room to hear what he has to say.

 

Crowdfunding Social Enterprise

View more presentations from Collaborative for Innovative Social Enterprise Development

The Cadillac of Social Enterprise

Looking on as we watch the woodshop employees at work

Groupe Convex truly is the cadillac of social enterprise in Ontario.  What amazing thing to see it first hand!

Last week,  eleven of us from 4 different organizations (Shepherds of Good Hope/Good Day Workshop, Ottawa Carleton Lifeskills, L’Arche Ottawa, Causeway Work Centre), and one individual from the City of Ottawa showed up in Casselman for the start of an inspiring and eye-opening tour of Groupe Convex’s eight enterprises.

In the Casselman woodshop we watched as employees made wooden lawn furniture for Rona, skids for Alexander Mouldings, and beautiful wooden seats for the upcoming International Plowing Competition!

In addition we visited the antique shop, Recycle Action, the print shop and had lunch at Cafe Le Plateau before sitting down with Caroline Arcand –  GC’s Executive Director.

Here are some interesting notes from her presentation to the group:

Overview

•       GC is 7 years old

•       They run 8 enterprises (had 10 at one point, but closed two that weren’t profitable)

• Groundskeeping, maintenance and moving
• Café and catering
• Antique furniture restoration
• Recycling (pick up from companies, starting municipal pick soon)
• Print Shop
• Manual labour in agriculture
• Packaging and Handling
• Woodworking

Structure

•       Collectively they employ 162 people, 120 of those live with an intellectual disability

•       Set up as a Non-profit but not a charity, set up as a separate entity from the community living centres & social service agencies they work with

•       Each business has a business manager and a ‘product lead’ who trains employees .  The business managers report to the Executive Director of GC.

Revenue

•       3.5 million annual budget

• Started with 100% subsidy
• 4 years in, at 60% subsidy
• Today at 36% subsidy (cumulative for all businesses with the most profitable subsidizing others)

•       Grounds keeping/moving services and their recycling business are the most profitable

•       GC doesn’t use the word client, only the term employee.  They work hard to differentiate the employees relationship with their social worker vs. their manager.

•       Few employees move out to other jobs, this isn’t their goal.  Increasing an employees sense of self-worth is their primary mission. Many employees have been there for 10 yrs.

Social Costs

•  On average their employees with a disability are 26% as effective as employees without a disability
• 60% of their managers time are spent on activities that are not part of a typical business

Other interesting things that came out of the tour included GC’s ability to capitalize on opportunities that present themselves.  Both the printshop and the Cafe were businesses that were closing, or where a manager was retiring.  GC either took over the space (in the case of the Cafe), or bought out the business (in the case of the printshop), allowing them to maintain an existing customer base and reduce risk.

Overall the tour was a huge success and gave all of us some new ideas and inspiration to go home with.  A huge thanks to Groupe Convex for taking the time to show us around!

Groupe Convex

Groupe Convex, a set on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Photos from the CISED field trip to Groupe Convex – April 2011

Interested in a tour of one of Ontario’s most successful social enterprises?

Groupe Convex – one of Ontario’s most impressive group of social enterprises – has offered to host a tour of their nine businesses. They will already be hosting a group from Barrie, so they have extended the invitation to Ottawa folks as well. Unfortunately, they haven’t given me much notice – but I hope some of you can make it!

Date:  Wednesday, April 27th, leaving Ottawa at 9am to arrive in Casselman at 10am.

About Group Convex:  GC is an umbrella organization with nine social enterprises. Collectively, they employ 75 people who face significant barriers to employment, most of whom live with an intellectual disability. Group Convex has won multiple awards for the work, and hosted organizations from around the world interested in learning more about their innovative model.  For more info check out their website, or this case study.

Tour:  We’ll start the tour at the Casselman Woodshop, and then proceed to Hawkesbury for a tour of their other businesses.  We’ll have lunch at Café le Plateau which is one of their enterprises, and then meet up at the offices of Groupe Convex for a talk with the Executive Director – Caroline Arcand.

Contact jlax@causewayworkcentre.org for details.  Check back for a review of the trip next week.