As the impact investing ecosystem continues to grow, and powerful voices speak up in support of it (think Larry Fink’s letter to BlackRock’s portfolio companies’ CEOs), investors are increasingly looking to combine profits with purpose. Canadian research has focused primarily on investments made by large institutional investors and funds, rather than on individual investors. To […]

In social services, intuition does not always produce results and long-funded programs do not always achieve what we hope. As we realize the complexity of changing people’s lives, evidence has become the watchword. Service providers want to know that their work actually helps those they serve. Governments and other funders want to know that their […]

A gap between the capital sought by social enterprises and the capital supplied by the market may dampen sector growth. To maximize jobs, revenue and social good, policy-makers must know if a capital gap exists and, if so, at what size. We wrote this paper to help fill those blanks. We report the findings from […]

Since November 4, 2015, Canada has admitted more than 40,000 Syrian refugees. More than 25,000 of these refugees arrived between November 4, 2015 and February 29, 2016. These refugees are now settling across Canada. Many are or soon will be looking for work. To help refugees find work, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) funds […]

Impact investors are buying into social enterprises through community bonds. Some of those investors want to put their community bonds into their RRSP accounts. We investigated why mainstream financial institutions usually hesitate to accept community bonds into their clients’ RRSP accounts. Our interviews revealed key barriers that render the bonds expensive and difficult to process […]

A new way to pay for social progress No matter how good our intentions or how much money we spend, we continue to struggle with many of the same problems. Solutions to deep social ills—chronic disease, homelessness, children in government care—seem distant despite constant effort. Tying social spending to outcomes attempts to make our efforts […]

Why Canada and Ontario should invest unclaimed assets for social good The Bank of Canada holds $626 million in unclaimed assets, a sum that grew by $49 million in 2015. An asset that remains unclaimed will eventually turn into national revenue, but until then it is held in low-yield investments. British Columbia, Alberta and Québec […]

A scan No matter how good our intentions or how much money we spend, we continue to struggle with many of the same problems. Solutions to deep social ills—chronic disease, homelessness, children in government care—seem distant despite constant effort. Tying social spending to outcomes attempts to make our efforts more effective. Outcome funding pays social […]

Report of the 2015 Social Enterprise Survey for Ontario There has been a lot of talk about social enterprise (SE) over the last few years, with many ideas about what it is and what it means for the future of our communities. While there is no one definition of social enterprise, most agree it involves […]

Seed-stage investing is attracting an increasing amount of attention from Canadian impact investors.1 At the same time, new accelerator programs tailored to the needs of seed-stage impact ventures are emerging across the country. These trends point to a growing interest in seed-stage impact ventures and their capital needs. As impact investing market builders, we at […]