Point A to B 

 

Points of Interest. Shortest Point. Get the Point.

L-R Mary McGrath, Nancy Neamtan,

Itifo Engulu, Tessa Hebb, Tonya Surman

 Celebrating Women in 

Impact Investing

On Thursday Nov. 6th, an evening reception was held at the Social Finance Forum 2014, by the Women in Leadership Foundation for four outstanding women who work in the impact investing field in Canada. Partnered with MaRS Centre for Impact Investing in Toronto, the celebration highlighted the years and dedication plus vision needed by the women to create the industry that exists today. 

The evening was an opportunity for Forum attendees to celebrate the achievements of the four successful women and their tremendous contributions to the sector. Without them, Canada could not be providing the opportunity for people to invest in businesses and causes that benefit society. Social Finance leads the way in doing business differently and the four women represented have taken the steps to make it possible.

Emceed by the ever popular Allyson Hewitt, the Awards ceremony began with Itifo Engulu of CIBC and formally of the Montreal Community Loan Fund, providing terrific summaries of the many achievements of the award recipients while emphasizing that these achievements had formed the foundation for Canada’s impact investing field today.

Nancy Neamtan has been working to develop investment in the social economy in Quebec since the late 1980's. Currently, she is the President and Executive Director of the Chantier de l’économie sociale. She was the first person to convince government and various corporate funders to invest millions of dollars in the non-profit and cooperative sector, laying the groundwork for future investments and providing a model for partnership for the social finance sector.

Tessa Hebb is currently the Director of the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation and also a full-time professor at Carleton University in Ottawa. In the mid 1990's, Tessa attended Harvard and Oxford universities pursuing post-graduate degrees in her field now known as Impact Investment. However, at the time of her studies, this term and everything associated with it did not exist. As Canada’s longest standing academic in the field of impact investing, Tessa had the vision to work in the field before it had words. She has since helped to form the policies, structures and terminology for impact investing in Canada.

In 2007, Mary McGrath, working in collaboration with Ruth Richardson, co-founded and developed Canada’s first crowdfunding site ‘Small Change Fund’. Pre-dating Kickstarter and Indiegogo, Small Change Fund allows Canadians to fund issues of environmental sustainability and social justice. The organization has enabled support for grassroots projects, mostly in rural and isolated locations. Mary’s leadership has given the sector its best tool to engage Canadians to connect to, care about and support the environment.

In 2009, Tonya Surman created Canada’s first community bond to buy and renovate the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. Now with three additional locations including one in New York, CSI leads the sector in innovative finance development made available to all people who want to build their communities. With facilities housing more than 800 social enterprises and non-profits, CSI has given impact investing a large scale, direct way for individuals to enact change.

The women were awarded certificates of achievement for their outstanding efforts in the field of Impact Investing. The 200+ crowd signified loudly that the awards were well-earned. From the achievements of the award recipients, it is obvious that Canada has had tremendous female leadership for many years in the social finance sector. The Women in Leadership Foundation was proud to have participated in a significant night of recognition.

Tina Crouse
WIL Ottawa

Point A to B 

Points of Interest. Shortest Point. Get the Point.

Social Finance + Social Enterprise 
For Ontario and all of Canada

By Michelle Guevara
Government Liaison

From SocialFinance.ca

In November 2012, the Canadian government put out an open call to Canadians to bring forward their most innovative ideas to tackle pressing social issues.  Over 150 individuals and organizations from across the country submitted ideas.

15 of these submissions were selected to be profiled in a report that was unveiled at Women in Leadership’s Women in Social Business Forum May 2013. The summary report, entitled 'Harnessing the Power of Social Finance' highlights ways in which social finance tools and structures can be utilized.  



But what can social finance be used for? Many, many issues.

Youth, Health, Aboriginal people,  Housing/Homelessness, People with disabilities, Public Safety, the Unemployed, Seniors, New Canadians.

With support at the federal level, the provincial Government of Ontario also sees a need to support the growing field by specifically investing in social enterprises; businesses that couple profit with social benefits. Impact a Social Enterprise Strategy for Ontario  outlines the steps the government will take to support social enterprises in the province, accelerate their growth and establish Ontario as a global leader in the area of social enterprise.

With all this government attention, how much is happening?

Currently, there are 10,000 social enterprises in the province of Ontario alone. In the world of social finance, Canada is catching up to the front runners; the U.K. and the U.S. with Australia close behind. And where is social finance and social enterprise catching on the fastest? Developing countries. 

The world is changing; people can see a way to make a living and help other's at the same time. At Women in Leadership, we think it's about time.