Small potatoes for some make a big impact for social enterprise
Although it says nowhere that social impact businesses must be small, the reality is that most social enterprises and responsible businesses in the room at the Social Impact Purchasing Summit in Vancouver on November 8th were small. Sadly, what prevents many social...
The need for failure in impact investing
Social Finance Forum 2012 failure panel Nobody likes failure. The associations aren’t pretty: loss, disappointment, bankruptcy. Admitting failure in social finance is particularly taboo. In a space still fighting to establish legitimacy, few social entrepreneurs...
What’s the best language for social impact stories?
As David LePage took the stage on Wednesday evening at the Social Impact Purchasing Summit in Vancouver, he comfortably set a conversational tone for the summit. I felt like a welcome guest to a difficult conversation many small business owners and socially conscious...
Fighting poverty through purchasing: ZOË Alliance turns to corporate spending to effect change
As mentioned in an earlier post, this year’s TEDxToronto saw an impressive group of speakers working to achieve Alchemy. In their effort to “bring ordinary elements together to make something extraordinary,” SEE Change was particularly inspired by...
What’s flax got to do with it: TedxToronto speaker Jon Dwyer talks sustainability
As mentioned in an earlier post, this year’s TEDxToronto saw an impressive group of speakers working to achieve Alchemy. In their effort to “bring ordinary elements together to make something extraordinary,” SEE Change was especially intrigued with...
TedxToronto: Alchemy in action
When you hear the word “alchemy” what do you think of? I remember my first “taste” of alchemy. I was on a travel assignment in Ottawa three years ago, searching for the city’s most newsworthy culinary establishments. I found a hands-down...
Working together to inspire investment
As anyone who has worked to urge behavior change will tell you, people can be stubborn. Resistance to change is something we all have in common, but in the developing world, there are added challenges – like families with limited financial resources and long-held...
Social Impact Purchasing: Buyer be aware
Vancouver-based Starworks was established in 2000 with the goal of providing packaging and assembly services to small and medium-sized businesses. A social enterprise, their model offers its 45 on-call employees work opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise....