Facilitated by Zahra Qureshi, Founder of Social Venture Circuit

Kayla Isabelle is the Chief Executive Officer at Startup Canada, the gateway to Canada’s entrepreneurial ecosystem that points entrepreneurs in the right direction, eliminates barriers, and champions their needs to private and public sector partners. Startup Canada’s mission is to connect Canada’s entrepreneurs with the tools, community, and support they need to start and build their businesses. Kayla has dedicated her career to supporting entrepreneurs, both in Canada and internationally. As an award-winning strategic communications consultant and change management facilitator, Kayla is passionate about mentorship and leveraging the power of storytelling in the entrepreneurial community.

Social enterprise and social finance are two related, but distinct concepts.  While both ultimately exist to aid in the fulfilment of social purposes, the former focuses on the activities engaged in to provide a public benefit, while the latter is defined by the tools used to harness capital for the purpose of creating a social/environmental impact.  Although social enterprise structures have existed for some time, new legislation and increasing competition for funding has caused organizations to consider integrating social enterprises into their revenue generation toolbox.  Further, the increasing awareness and availability of social financing is enabling organizations to kick-start and scale their social/environmental goals.  This session will review the various corporate structures available for operating a social enterprise and how organizations may engage in social finance to create positive social impact.

Natasha Smith is a partner in Miller Thomson’s Social Impact Group, with a practice dedicated to providing practical legal advice to charities and non-profits, exclusively. Her practice focuses on helping her clients to determine the best structure for their organization and to navigate the complex regulatory environment in which they operate. Specifically, she provides tailored advice on issues including incorporation and charitable registration, operating in foreign jurisdictions, structuring complex gift agreements, and general compliance under legislation governing the voluntary sector.  Natasha has experience structuring merger and asset-transfer transactions between non-share capital corporations, advising on social enterprise and social finance ventures, and facilitating corporate re-organizations.

Chris-Beth Cowie will lead a conversation with Hailey Hechtman, Executive Director at Causeway Work Centre and Ryan O’Neil Knight, CEO at Detailing Knights and Executive Director at Afro Caribbean Business Network Canada (ACBN). Together, these leaders will explore how social enterprise models can be created to improve economic welfare and reduce inequalities through unique employment programs, benefits and learning programs. Come and learn from their journeys what it takes to start and manage employment social enterprises. They will share how key human resources and community building augmented their impact and helped the vision flourish.

Causeway Work Centre is a not-for-profit agency that empowers and supports people in overcoming disabilities and other challenges to help them find rewarding work and live more independently. They do this through an integrated network of innovative training and employment programs, one-on-one support, cross-sector partnerships and by creating socially minded businesses.

Detailing Knights is a social enterprise providing mobile auto detailing and car cleaning services across North America and soon the world. Their cleaning professionals come to your location and use gentle, environmentally friendly cleaning products.

Take a break or stay and chat. The conference space will be available for you to interact with other attendees

Panel moderator: Christine Lieu is the expert behind CL Designs and the Brand Party Podcast. She’s a graphic designer who’s traded in climbing the corporate ladder for climbing mountains around the world. Christine helps purpose-driven businesses create cohesive branding, web design, and social content to drive your impact and sales. As featured in Top 10 Canada Design, the Brand Party Podcast delivers fun, honest, to-the-point advice that you can implement RIGHT AWAY in your entrepreneurial journey.

Panel guests:

Maria Locker is an advocate and champion for the advancement of women and female entrepreneurs across North America, and is sought as a speaker, contributor, and expert surrounding topics including economic empowerment, gender equality, lifestyle and business trends, and products that women love. As Founder and CEO of RevolutionHERTM and its sister non-profit organization The Momentum Foundation, Maria and her team have welcomed over 30,000 members and subscribers, presented over 800 events, and given back over $200,000 in funding and business mentorship to women through their annual awards programming. RevolutionHERTM is dedicated to bringing women together worldwide with impactful events and a community of like-minded peers, providing support and inspiration to help women unleash their potential and live their lives to the fullest.

Rachel Kelly is a small business owner, community builder, rides a motorcycle and even climbed to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro once upon a time. But what makes Rachel Kelly a true master of her craft, is her commitment to supporting new entrepreneurs get sh*t done in a hustle less, dream big, grow more kinda way. Make Lemonade is Rachel’s business baby. Opening up a brick and mortar coworking office in downtown Toronto at age 26 is what put her on the map, but ask her about her beer yoga business and she’ll have stories for days. ‘Pivot Queen’ is Rachel’s unofficial nickname as she successfully took her “in real life” community and brought it online with the Get Sh*t Done Club: a business community supporting new business owners turn their WTF’s into OMG’s.

As organizations and businesses in the impact sphere, you are competing for your audiences’ time, money, and participation.  Meanwhile, you know that change comes from the wider public taking action and changing behaviours, and that change was needed yesterday. In this workshop, you will learn strategies for your social enterprise to make a stronger connection with your audiences and reach your fundraising, sales and participation goals with their support. Communicate a relevant and consistent message to share your organization’s goals and values. We will also define and explore concerns for greenwashing and social washing and how to avoid these with commitment, consistency and transparency.

Julianna Van Adrichem of Promosaurus has been working in promotions and communications in the environmental sector for 17 years, creating change by increasing residential solar installations, increasing recycling rates, increasing the consumption of organic produce, and more. 

Building a social enterprise can be a challenging journey to address social or environmental issues in meaningful ways while maintaining a financially healthy and positively remunerative organization. The EDGE community in Peel/Halton region has become a haven for founders interested in accelerating the growth of their enterprise to maximize their impact and establish operational sustainability. This session will explore how the right community can help the social entrepreneur on the path to scaling impact.

The panel will be moderated by Lisa Kember. A serial entrepreneur with experience building companies in four very different sectors, Lisa Kember consults with entrepreneurial companies and is building a social enterprise herself too. At EDGE, her role is in leading the mentorship and advisory services, including in the RISE program for growth-focused entrepreneurs. She is passionate about helping ventures drive revenue growth and fiscally sustainable operations. 

The panel will feature Mark Rodford, Social Impact Advisor, Kristel Manes, Venture Growth Coach and Noora Sharrab, co-founder of Sitti Social Enterprise.