Dear friends of SCP,

Welcome to our Spring 2010 newsletter! We hope you're enjoying the reprieve from the winter months.

2010 has been an exciting year for SCP thus far, and hopefully this newsletter will give you a perspective on things we have been working on and what is still to come. We've included:

• video and written profiles of an Active Green and Ross franchise owner and employee
• our second blog series on "How We Do What We Do"
• a video of a talk on SCP's successes, failures, and lessons
• a paper on some of SCP's most important learnings from working with social enterprises
• video discussion with myself, Paul Martin and John Tory
• a quick update on recent operational developments

More than enough, I am sure, even for our most ardent followers!

Finally, we'd like to give you a small taste of things to come from SCP this year. We see tremendous opportunities to work with large employers to bring social hiring to the mainstream, and we will provide regular updates on our website and forthcoming newsletters.

As always, we appreciate your support and interest and we would be very interested in any feedback you could provide us on how to make this newsletter better.

All the best,

Bill Young
President, Social Capital Partners

Profiling Success: Active Green and Ross

Doug Moody is a seasoned veteran of the tire business, and he knows that it's all about people.

Lee Johnson is one of his social hires, and is working his way to a successful career.

Find out what they have to say »

How We Do What We Do

"Our modus operandus as a do tank is one where we operationalize a strategy with the goal to figure out how to scale that strategy and have more social impact."

Joanne Norris, Director of Social Returns

"Our belief is that we can learn more by doing than we can by thinking, although we also believe that the two must be interconnected if we are going to have the most impact."

Bill Young, President

"We utilize a circular approach and for every time we have gone around the circle, we come out with a bigger idea and improved social impact."

Magnus Sandberg, Director of Investments

"SCP's role is to understand the employer's HR needs, find the right match with local community employment agencies, and build an ongoing relationship that delivers a social dividend."

Karim Harji, Manager/Partnership Development

Read more at the SCP Blog »

Bill Young Delivers Lived It Lecture

Bill spoke about SCP's experiences over the last decade of trying to grow and develop the field of social enterprise in Canada. He covered SCP's successes, its failures, the lessons learned along the way and what we hope to accomplish over the next ten years.

Click here to view a video of the session »

The Five Critical Factors of Social Enterprise Profitability

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 article here »

Impact Investing: Building Prosperity Outside the Mainstream

Rt. Hon. Paul Martin and Bill Young spoke at a session moderated by John Tory , which explored how market forces can be used to effectively to solve social challenges in Canada.

Click here to view a video of the session »

Operations Update

Much of our work over the last few months has been around developing our "Change HR" strategy. We are actively engaging strategic partners, including some of Canada's largest employers. Stay tuned for more information in the upcoming months.

We are continuing to build on our successful franchise strategy, and have recently signed up an Active Green and Ross location in Ottawa, and are constructing pilot programs with several other franchisors.

Read more about our Portfolio »