Collaborating across the boundaries of organizations
Part 4 of Mike’s 5-part leadership series Collaboration has surely become one of the all-time great buzzwords. Seemingly everyone aspires to be collaborative. Unfortunately, for every successful collaboration, there are dozens of “partnerships” and...
Realizing value through social impact bonds
5 hurdles to overcome when assigning value to outcomes While the concept of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) jumped the Atlantic from Britain in 2011, it is taking its time to develop in Canada. Unlike American and Australian counterparts that are already testing the...
Four keys to social enterprise leadership
Part 3 of Mike’s 5-part leadership series I like giving information interviews. (There. I’ve said it. If the phone now rings off the hook, it’s my own fault.) At least three times each week, a brave entrepreneur (for the record, I believe they’re all brave)...
Keeping your social enterprise social and profitable
3 factors ensure your enterprise stays social As a social enterprise, your primary goal is to maintain a triple bottom line. People. Planet. Profit. It can be a tough gig. Each business has its own unique opportunities and challenges, but there are three factors to...Four factors to consider when evaluating outcomes
Understanding social change from outcomes to impact. In recent years there has been a shift in the field of program evaluation from activities-based to outcomes-based evaluation practice. While an activities-based evaluation focuses on measuring the outputs of a...
Social enterprise leadership: Engaging others
The Association of Integrated Marketers invited me recently to present on the topic of “Community Marketing.” In a room full of marketers, “marketing” needed little preface. “Community,” on the other hand, is a word for which we...
Understanding social value: The importance of including stakeholders
Social Return on Investment (SROI) is an emerging methodology that seeks to measure the value of social impact. SROI presents the social impact of different initiatives into financial value terms, and presents this value in relation to the investments that lead to the...
How to save the million-dollar cost of a wrong hire: Returnships
Find out why an internship or returnship may be just the thing to help your organization achieve its goals and contribute to the bottom line. I’m a confessed entrepreneur, having all the trappings of bootstrapping, scaling grand ideas, and being an early adopter. I am...