1. SiG@MaRS
Building Canada’s next generation of
social ventures.
Presented by: Hadley Nelles
November 2011

2. Memory at Work
Social Innovation as a
Tool for Poverty Reduction
• What is Social Innovation?
• What is SiG@MaRS?
• How is social change, e.g. poverty
reduction, catalyzed?
• Examples of poverty reduction tools.
Pg 2

3. Memory at Work
Social Innovation Ecosystem
Social Social
Finance Innovation
Positive
Social
Change
Social Social
Partnerships Entrepreneurship
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4. Memory at Work
Social Innovation
is about finding new ways
to address unmet social needs
Social innovation is an initiative, product or process which profoundly
changes the basic routines, resource and authority flows or beliefs of
any social system in a direction of greater resilience. Successful social
innovations have durability, impact and scale.
The capacity of any society to create a steady flow of social
innovations, particularly those which address vulnerable populations and
ecosystems, is an important contributor to overall social and ecological
resilience.
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5. Memory at Work
Social Entrepreneurship
is the practice of responding to market
failures with transformative and financially
sustainable innovations
A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and
uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a
venture to make social change.
Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit
and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the
impact s/he has on society as well as in profit and return.
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6. Memory at Work
Social Finance
is an investment approach to solve social
or environmental challenges while
generating financial return
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7. Memory at Work
Social Partnerships
cross or multi-sectoral collaborations
“There is growing
that work together to bring
understanding that many good ideas to fruition
of our largest social and
economic challenges
cannot be addressed by
government alone nor, for
that matter, by business
or community
organizations by
themselves.”
Tim Brodhead, former
President, J.W.McConnell
Family Foundation
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8. Memory at Work
SiG@MaRS
SiG@MaRS is actively developing
programs to support the launch
and growth of social ventures by:
• enhancing the skills and
networks of social
entrepreneurs
• building the social enterprise
community
• exploring new instruments of
social finance
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9. Memory at Work
SiG@MaRS
• Advise: social venture advisory services
• Information and referral
• Market Intelligence
• Access to networks
• Access to capital
• Help with governance
• Innovation in program design + delivery
• Legal Issues
• Workshops
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10. Memory at Work
Social Ventures
defined by a social and/or
environmental purpose
Social Enterprise: a business operation run by a charity
or non-profit where revenue raised is reinvested into
the charity or non-profit to support program and operations.
Social Purpose Business: is a profit-making enterprise
that has a positive social and/or environmental return
on investment.
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11. Memory at Work
SiG@MaRS
• Convene: events, thought leaders, social
partnerships
• Social Innovation Summit
• Net Change Week
• Inspiring Action for Social Impact series
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12. Memory at Work
SiG@MaRS
• Accelerate: School for Social
Entrepreneurs - Ontario
• SSE-O Collaborative
• SiG@MaRS
• Social Housing Services Corporation
• ACCESS Community Capital Fund
• Social and Economic Development Innovations
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13. Memory at Work
Social Innovation
• Social innovation as a poverty reduction
tool:
• Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP)
• Social innovations in the Immigrant
Serving Community
• SiG@Waterloo Graduate Diploma in Social
Innovation
• Assisting Local Leaders with Immigrant
Employment Strategies (ALLIES)
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14. Memory at Work
Conclusions
• Social innovation, social entrepreneurship, social
partnerships, social finance are intertwined vectors for
positive social and environmental change.
• Some social innovation depends on social enterprise
models, but not all; social enterprise is in itself a social
innovation but social enterprises do not necessarily
drive social innovation.
• Entering new era of problem solving: from silos to
cross-sectoral partnerships.
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15. Hadley Nelles
hnelles@marsdd.com
SiG@MaRS Info page on MaRS