Who is the man behind Social Capital Partners and what led him down the social enterprise path?

The Globe and Mail profiles SCP Founder, Bill Young, in documenting why he chose to leap from traditional private sector work to forming a national not-for-profit organization. $2M in financing and hundreds of community hires later, hear firsthand about how Bill feels about the frustrating yet rewarding mission he has undertaken.

Rt. Hon. Paul Martin and Bill Young spoke at a session moderated by John Tory titled ""Impact Investing: Building Prosperity Outside the Mainstream". The session at the MaRS Centre on November 6th 2009 explored how market forces can be used to effectively to solve social challenges in Canada. The panelists spoke to the impact social purpose businesses have in effecting social and environmental change in Canada, and how with changes to the Canada Revenue Agency regulations and better tax incentives, corporations could start looking seriously at the nonprofit sector as an investment opportunity.

Impact Investing: Building prosperity outside the mainstream from MaRS Discovery District on Vimeo.

What are boards, investors and management teams to do when there is tension between the financial and social bottom lines of social enterprises? And are there ways of optimizing the financial performance of the business without negatively impacting the social performance?

This article describes some of the learning Social Capital Partners has gleaned from seven years of investing in employment-based social enterprises. We identify what we believe to be the five most important factors that determine whether a social enterprise will be profitable or require some form of subsidy.

Read the Summary Version

Read the Full Paper

SCP was featured in an article titled "Market-savvy benevolence: There's profit potential in social enterprise" in the Financial Post.

The article, which features quotes from former Primer Minister Paul Martin and SCP President Bill Young, describes the new generation of market-savvy philanthropists that has emerged. They see the profit potential in employing market-based strategies for a social purpose. The article also describes how and why Canada is lagging behind other country in the development of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship. It highlights the lack of government involvement and misaligned incentives that have slowed the development of this sector.

SCP's work with social entreprise and franchisees is highlighted as a an example of how non-profits can be innovative around working with the private sector. Citing examples of TurnAround Couriers and Active Green + Ross, the article summarizes SCP's social hiring approach as well as the socially-adjusted interest rates.

We just sent out our Fall 2009 newsletter, our first in a quarterly series designed to keep "friends of SCP" updated on our activities, accomplishments, and challenges.

This issue features a number of exciting developments:

• SCP and our investees have recently featured in prominent national publications
• We continue to grow our franchise strategy - increasing the number of Active Green and Ross locations, as well as investing in a new franchise partner - We Care
• Meet the people we work with - this quarter, we profile our first Active Green and Ross investee, Jennifer Fedus, and one of her earliest (and most successful) social hires, Joel Oliver.

Click here to access the newsletter, and if you haven't signed up yet, you can do so at this page.

Bill Young, President of Social Capital Partners, recently participated on panel discussions at two prominent international conferences.

The first, at the Social Capital Markets conference (SoCap09) in San Francisco, was a panel discussion on building successful social venture funds. The panel included Paul Richardson from renewal2 and Derek Gent from Vancity, and was moderated by Tim Draimin from Social Innovation Generation. From the description in the official program:

Building Successful Social Venture Funds: Sage Advice in Today's Context.

Social venture funds are an emerging asset class for financial institutions, fund managers, and philanthropists alike. Over the last decade, Canadians have quietly pioneered some of North america's foremost examples creating
the case for this intersection of money and meaning. Join veteran fund leaders from Vancity, Renewal Partners, and Social Capital Partners in a discussion of how to build successful funds and how that's changing in today's context.

The second was the Global Economic Symposium in Germany, where Bill participated in a session on "The New Wave of Social Entrepreneurship". The group discussed new models for solving societal challenges through the principles and practice of social entrepreneurship.

We’ve recently had a couple of organizational updates at SCP that we’d like to share.

Joanne Norris, Director of Social Returns, has recently moved to Vancouver to set-up an SCP office on the west coast. Originally from Vancouver, Joanne has decided to move back to where the weather’s nicer so that she can be closer to her family. Joanne will continue in her current role, as well as provide increased support for SCP’s investments in BC and Alberta.

Chris Crowell, former Director of Investments, recently left SCP to run for the Liberal Part of Canada nomination in his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Now that Chris’ passion for social change has extended into the political realm, we wish him the best of luck in seeking the nomination and in his future endeavours.

Magnus Sandberg is our new Director of Investments. Magnus brings a wealth of experience from the private sector, most recently in his role as divisional director , managing operations and acquisitions for Constellation Software, Canada’s 5th largest software company. A native of Sweden, Magnus has worked and lived in numerous countries throughout the world including Australia, the United States and Austria in his previous roles with a Fortune 500 company and as a management consultant with Accenture. Magnus has also had a go as a social entrepreneur, launching a new business model that utilized art to raise awareness of social injustice. Magnus holds a Masters in Engineering and a business degree. We are pleased to welcome Magnus to our team at SCP.

Inner City Renovation, an SCP social enterprise investment, was recently featured on a special edition of CBC's The National titled "Making Canada Proud". The clip aired on June 30, 2009, and runs for about 4 minutes.

At the CBC website where the clip was originally posted, Marty Donkervoort from ICR left the following message:

After nearly ten years of planning, start-up and managing Inner City Renovation, I have decided to take some time to write a book..so I will be hanging up my tool belt around May 2010.

The Board has identified finding a successor as a critical issue to maintaining a sustainable future as well as maintaining ICR's social mission. The new general manager, my replacement, has to possess a passion for maintaining the social mandate as well as business, construction and human resource management skills.

SCP's social enterprise investments - TurnAround Couriers, Atira Women's Resource Society, and Inner City Development - were all prominent in an article titled "Do-gooders can earn a good living". The article references the leaders at each of these investments as examples of Canadian social entrepreneurs who are carving out new and innovative ways of simultaneously yielding in financial, social and/or environmental returns.

Drawing on the experiences of building these three businesses, the entrepreneurs describe how the "road to success is full of speed bumps". Yet, as Richard Derham of TurnAround Couriers notes, "You can actually run a successful for-profit with a very strong social agenda and not compromise on either."

Newspaper article that profiles Inner City Renovation, one of SCP's social enterprise investments. The article describes the employment opportunities that have been created by ICR, and how these have had a positive impact on the local community.