Social Purpose Organization (SPO) is the umbrella term for both for-profit and non-profit social impact organizations in Canada. These organizations are key contributors to the Canadian economy but have historically faced barriers to receiving funding. To combat this issue, just over a year ago the Canadian government announced the $755M Social Finance Fund to help fuel impact investments in Canada, with the goal of enabling SPOs to continue realizing social, economic and environmental change. Funds will managed by three fund managers—Boann Social Impact, Fonds de finance sociale -CAP Finance, and Realize Capital Partners—and will be distributed over the next 10 years.
The above-noted fund managers will distribute funds to intermediaries who will each select SPOs to invest in based on their interests, including indigenous populations, women, black communities, healthcare and more. In order to be eligible for receiving funding from the SFF, SPOs must report their impact results in accordance with Common Approach's Common Impact Data Standard. A handful of software applications are currently aligned to the Common Impact Data Standard, including b.world, which not only enables reporting against this data standard via a simple data export, but also offers other features like AI-powered program design and storytelling.
Ready to keep making your mark in the Canadian social impact world? We're ready for you too.
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