Victor Beausoleil is the founder of Social Economy Through Social Inclusion (SETSI) and board president of the Canadian CED Network.

PANL Perspectives spoke to Victor Beausoleil about leaders in social enterprise in Canada, especially organizations doing extraordinary work with newcomers and youth in the nonprofit and private sectors. Beausoleil is the founder of , co-founder of聽, board president of the聽 and a Board Chair of the , among other leadership roles in the sector.

Question: How do you define social enterprise?

Victor Beausoleil: Social enterprise for me is when the well-being of communities, families, individuals, our planet, are the main drivers of activities, not profit. In a social enterprise, people pay more for a product or service because they know the social impact and ramifications, and patrons, donors or investors are in it to create employment and benefits for communities and the planet.

In a social enterprise, profit is a factor, but not a key performance indicator. We have to do better at getting this across. We have to do better at creating greater cultural context around the importance of social enterprises, because if a business isn鈥檛 doing something that’s empowering people, employing people, supporting individuals, families, communities, helping our planet, then it shouldn鈥檛 be in business. Being part of the extractive economy, with profit as the main driver, is what’s killing our planet, is what’s terminating us as a species.

Q: In terms of social enterprise and in particular, entrepreneurship with newcomers and youth, what approach works best in your experience?

The SETSI coalition is a group of young executives, social entrepreneurs, community organizers, economists, researchers, lawyers and social justice advocates.

Victor Beausoleil: When working with newcomers and young people around social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in general, you have to go to first principles. A lot of times, there鈥檚 a racist assumption that folks coming from different parts of the world don’t have experience with social enterprise or entrepreneurship when actually, a lot of people come from countries that organize their economic relationships very differently. They have the Susu framework, framework, and other ways that people put resources together to accomplish a goal. These initiatives lean towards mission-driven businesses, because the entrepreneurs actually have to innovate or pivot — and have to be very adaptable.

My mother was a susu banker for 39 years. A lot of her friends who were starting their first businesses, or trying to get their first vehicles, came together, organized economic relationships and started. That informal economy is what drives folks who don’t have access to capital in the same way that others have access. So, the assumption that newcomers and refugees aren鈥檛 familiar with models to advance a business is a wrong assumption. Lived experience has to be valued, weighed and assessed.

After that, best practices and promising models from various regions have to be connected. Social enterprise, social innovation or social impact shouldn鈥檛 be seen only through a white or Eurocentric lens. If we’re really trying to engage newcomers, immigrants and refugees, we have to use a lens of justice, access, inclusion, diversity, decolonization and equity.

If you’re going to build capacity around social enterprise, or around business development in general, you have to give them practical, hands-on opportunities — and that requires immersive activities, mentors who are relatable to their lived experiences and cultural contexts, and a lot more.

Q: What are a few outstanding nonprofit organizations in Canada that are serving newcomers and youth?

Beausoleil: Definitely OCASI, the , which has 200 community-based members and is a collective voice for immigrant-serving agencies. They’ve been doing phenomenal work for a long time. Debbie Douglas, the Executive Director, leads the organization. OCASI has been able to harmonize the supply and demand side of capital to advance not just newcomers and refugees, but racialized newcomers and refugees. A lot of times, folks don’t look at intersectionality as it relates to service provision, resource allocation and opportunity provision — and OCASI looks at all that.

I would also flag the , which has been doing exemplary work for almost 40 years. Their executive director, Peter Frampton, has led the organization for a significant amount of time and has found ways to edify and build the capacity of newcomers, refugees and immigrants in York South-Weston, one of the poorest ridings in the country, and also, one of the wealthiest in terms of diversity and richness of culture. I’m excited about what LEF has been doing — best practices and promising models — with communities there.

Also, our colleagues at , a social innovation hub at Simon Fraser University, have built out some incredible labs for newcomers and refugees, and these labs are thought provoking, innovative and have deep social impact.

And is a national charity that provides loans to skilled immigrants, refugees and newcomers who don鈥檛 have credit ratings or collateral. The organization was started by a psychologist who noticed that many of the janitorial staff at the hospital where she worked were internationally trained professionals who couldn鈥檛 practice their professions due to Canadian obstacles, such as high licensing fees. Windmill is committed to supporting immigrants and refugees on their journey to success. They offer affordable loans and professional development resources to help pay for upskilling, accreditation, education, training and living costs. They also support credential recognition and assist with integration into Canada鈥檚 economy.

Q: Where are the best spaces for social entrepreneurship for newcomers in Canada? Are they cultural associations and religious charities?

Read more stories in the PANL Perspectives series, “Leadership in Working with Newcomers and Youth,” introduced by Anil Varughese, Graduate Supervisor of the MPNL program: /panl/leadership-in-working-with-newcomers-and-youth

Beausoleil: I don’t think any one group has the solution. It’s not just the cultural associations and mosques, synagogues or churches. It’s not only the community centres or nonprofits and charities. Success requires public, private and philanthropic resources. There’s more than $200 billion in capital in philanthropy in Canada, so philanthropists play their roles in terms of leveraging catalytic capital.

The public sector is crucial, as it provides scaffolding, or social safety nets, to ensure that new Canadians who are vulnerable aren’t falling through because they’re not able to access services from the government.

And the private sector plays a huge role as well — and a lot of folks don’t realize this. There are many parts of the private sector that are seeking, actively seeking, a steady pipeline for employment opportunities. For decades, they’ve been able to drive economic value by engaging and hiring newcomers, refugees and immigrants.

Q: Who or what else it outstanding in terms of social enterprise in Canada?

Beausoleil: The (ACBN) has a remarkable program, specifically around newcomers, refugees and social entrepreneurship. It provides Black businesses with resources to start, grow and scale up. It was founded by Ryan O’Neil Knight, who also runs a social enterprise called , a mobile, waterless, car-wash enterprise that recently won on and that hires newcomers, refugees and folks who were incarcerated. He literally just hired a brother from Ghana, about four months ago, and changed his life as he went through a visa process.

When I think of a social enterprise, I think of right away. It was founded by our brilliant colleague, David LePage, who passed away a few months back. He wrote a book called .

And have you heard of Eric Hoskins? He was a government minister in 2015 or 2016, and he developed a for Ontario. It wasn鈥檛 used, even though it contained best practices that came from various jurisdictions within Canada.

If we could use jewels like these, from the past, we could create a future that’s more accessible and just for everyone.

Photos are courtesy of Victor Beausoleil, SETSI, LEF and Vanguard News. Beausoleil is on .

Keith Sj枚gren

By Keith Sj枚gren.

At the end of 2022, Canadian foundations held a total of — almost two thirds of charitable sector investment assets. These assets are vital to the work and sustainability of foundations although there are some questions as to how well those assets are being managed.

One of the findings of the recent (PFC) deals with the role of investment managers in furthering the mission of a foundation (or charity), and ensuring that either personal (in the case of private foundations) or institutional values are not at odds with investments made by external asset managers engaged by the foundation.

Two Sides of the Coin

“On the flip side, it would seem reasonable to expect various foundations to include certain types of investments in their portfolios.” (Photo is courtesy of Pina Messina.)

On the surface, or obverse side of the coin, it would seem straightforward that values not be at odds with investments. MADD should not invest in companies that either manufacture or distribute alcohol; CAMH Foundation should avoid holding shares of a cannabis grower or retailer; and The Canadian Council of Churches (the home of Project Ploughshares) should avoid having any exposure through their investment portfolio to shares of weapons manufacturers.

On the flip side, or reverse side of the investment coin, it would seem reasonable to expect various foundations to include certain types of investments in their portfolios. For example, foundations aligned with the LGBTQ community should only invest in businesses that have progressive benefit programs and strong DEI policies. Similarly, foundations whose mandate is focused on the rights of children should invest in companies that manufacture in countries with protections for child labour.

Reality Bites

“Portfolio managers and relationship managers at most asset management firms are more familiar with pension management, and bring little expertise and fresh thinking to foundations.” (Photo is courtesy of Jason Leung.)

But, in reality, this is generally not happening. Foundation assets are primarily managed by firms that do not specialize in foundations and endowments but, rather, in pension fund assets or portfolios of wealthy individuals and families. Of the approximately , pension assets represented almost 20%. High net worth assets managed on a discretionary basis made up 14%, and foundations and endowments made up just 1.5% of the managed asset pie in Canada. At the end of 2023, the largest Canadian pension manager had pension assets under management of $125 billion. That same manager, ranked second in the foundations and endowments league tables, was .

The outcome of this client bias is that portfolio managers/relationship managers at most asset management firms are more familiar with pension management and bring little expertise and fresh thinking to foundations. The task is complicated by the fact that objectives of defined benefit pension funds are universal, whereas the goals of charitable foundations are customized by their purpose. To be fair, a number of major public foundations have asset management executives as directors or members of an investment committee that has led to some improvement in bridging the knowledge gap.

In terms of small public or private foundations, many engage the services of a full-service brokerage advisor who, in many cases, has no fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interests of the client and whose experience in managing charitable assets may be limited to a few accounts and a handful of donor-advised funds.

An associated concern is the near absence of professional investment guidance and management for foundations with less than $1 million in assets. Currently, based on the database , of the 11,163 foundations in Canada, 61% have less than $1 million in assets with the majority of those being private foundations. (It is worth noting that over the past decade there has been a net increase of 1,335 in the number of private foundations in Canada and a decrease of 394 in the number of public foundations.) A brief survey of investment managers suggests that most do not accept investment accounts with less than $1 million in total, irrespective of the nature of the asset owner.

Those Darn Fees

“As managers encourage foundations to shift assets into private market securities to enhance returns (albeit at the expense of liquidity), fees have risen with seemingly only limited pushback from the foundations.”

A lack of specialization is one of the challenges, another is cost. The core objective of most foundations is to protect donor capital, to preserve the gifting power of the assets (as opposed to purchasing power), to have sufficient liquidity to meet both pre-determined and spontaneous granting, and to keep fees paid to external managers and advisors to a minimum in order to provide the maximum capital for charitable purposes.

Asset managers claim that fees charged to charities and nonprofits are based on fees applied to institutional investors (or private clients, if the amounts are below, say, $5 million) to which a modest discount 鈥� in the range of 10-15 basis points 鈥� is applied. While fees always reflect the size of the account and the nature of the assets being managed, through comparing sector average fees charged to pension funds and large foundations of similar size that the discount may not be as meaningful as some managers suggest.

As managers encourage foundations to shift assets into private market securities to enhance returns (albeit at the expense of liquidity), fees have risen with seemingly only limited pushback from the foundations. This trend of rising fees is the reverse of the wishes of the foundations. In a recent , 28% of respondents 鈥渟trongly agree鈥� with the statement that fees should be lower and 62% put a check mark against 鈥渟omewhat agree鈥�. To add to the sense of dissatisfaction, only 10% of the foundations surveyed were satisfied with their ability to benchmark the fees that they were being charged.

In order to offer fees that more closely meet the needs of foundations, asset managers have moved away from providing customized, segregated portfolios made up of individual securities. Instead, foundations are now offered pooled solutions for various asset classes or, in some cases, mutual or exchange traded funds. This approach seems eminently reasonable as the solutions meets the economic goals of both parties.

Influences

A nonprofit organization’s portfolio may hold investments that conflict with their mission.

What is lost, however, is the ability of the charity to directly influence what specific investments the manager holds in the pool. As a result, foundations can discover that they are holding an interest in shares issued by a business that fails to reflect the purpose of the foundation and may, in fact, have a corporate mission that is almost diametrically opposed to that of the charity. For example, Doctors Without Borders deals with the victims of war and conflict yet, within their portfolios may be an equity pool that holds a position in General Dynamics Corp, a manufacturer of advanced military vehicles.

In order to be socially responsible or to align mission and investments, foundations are asked to pay a 聽price. Segregated portfolios carry far higher fees than pooled, exchange traded or mutual funds. Segregated portfolios that veer away from the normal models employed by asset managers to accommodate exclusions or inclusions become even more expensive. The reason is that charitable assets, although nice to have, do not represent the bread and butter for asset managers. The absence of clout and the lack of concentration of charitable assets leads to a quiet sometimes inaudible voice at the asset management table.

Options

Read Keith Sj枚gren’s past analysis of financial issues related to philanthropy: /panl/2023/drivers-of-philanthropy-in-2023-by-keith-sjogren

There are a range of options open to foundations, both public and private. They can accept the status quo and negotiate with asset managers for either lower fees or more tailored solutions. Secondly, the sector can identify a select group of Canadian asset managers and work with them to develop a unique offering for the charitable sector. Alternatively, they can individually (if large enough), or collectively, follow the lead of the Mastercard Foundation and the University of Toronto and establish their own asset management company and/or an OCIO (Outsourced Chief Invest Officer), such as Commonfund in the United States.

As indicated at the beginning of this article, at the end of 2022, total long-term investments of both types of foundations in Canada totalled $107 billion. Removing the $39.3 billion reported by the Mastercard Foundation and the $3.8 billion of endowed assets at the University of Toronto, leaves a total of $62.5 billion. While this may be a modest amount in both relative and absolute terms, it is an amount big enough to attract attention, whichever option is selected. The importance of the charitable sector to Canadian society cannot be measured by the size of investment assets.

The key to improving the manner in which charities are perceived and managed by asset managers is to work together to force change and not to try and address the shortcomings on an individual basis.

Investing for Impact

The also highlighted the interest of many foundations 鈥� most likely private foundations 鈥� in moving a larger share of their investment portfolio into social or impact investments. This laudable strategy is not hard to establish but far from simple to implement.

One reason why there seems to be foot dragging on this matter, despite evidence that some major foundations are taking bold steps, is the unpreparedness of, or lack of interest by, conventional asset managers to provide opportunities and access to impact investments. As a result, a new breed of impact investment managers and advisors is emerging.

However, despite the heightened public awareness of social finance 鈥� of which impact investing is one element 鈥� following the creation by the federal government of the $755 million , and notwithstanding a growing body of research, there remain some high hurdles to jump before a robust impact investing infrastructure is put in place.

High Hurdles

“The task of the community of Canadian foundations is to determine ways to deal with these hurdles not to stop entering the steeplechase.” (Photo is courtesy of Darren Wilkinson.)

These hurdles include attracting nationally focused foundations, such as those that offer donor-advised funds, to consider what are generally local and small opportunities that, for one reason or another, may not be supported by their donors. Secondly, the very nature of impact investments, often, but inaccurately, compared to venture capital, may generate an annual rate of return that is well south of market rates of return, not to mention the disbursement quota (5%) which has become the focus of many foundation boards and investment committees. Thirdly, along with a sub-market rate of return, impact investors must accept high transaction costs, a lack of liquidity, greater risk, transactional complexity, and a lower level of regulatory involvement, all of which may have a negative impact on the ability of the foundation to deliver against its primary mandate.

The task of the community of Canadian foundations is to determine ways to deal with these hurdles not to stop entering the steeplechase. The funding developments that have taken in place in the charitable sector and the creativeness of leaders lead to the conclusion that bold steps can be taken to unlock what many observers still categorize as idle capital. This is capital that was originally accumulated for social good and but needs to be freed from the bounds of low risk, conventionally managed investments that are mainly held in non-Canadian businesses focused on returns to shareholders and not benefits to Canadians.

Keith Sj枚gren is Chair of the Advisory Board for the Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership program and a member of the Donor-advised Fund Working Group of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners. Keith is also a member and former Chair of the Investment Committee of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation.

Leo Nupolu Johnson, founder and Chief Empowerment Officer (CEO) of Empowerment Squared.

is the founder and Chief Empowerment Officer (CEO) of , a nonprofit organization that works with newcomer youth and families primarily in Southwestern Ontario and West Africa. His expertise spans nonprofit management, international development, immigration and resettlement, fundraising, and financial management 鈥� and he’s received many awards for his groundbreaking work over the past two decades. He spoke with PANL Perspectives about the organization鈥檚 unique approach to working with youth and newcomers.

Question: How did you start Empowerment Squared, and how does it work with young newcomers?

Leo Nupolu Johnson: Empowerment Squared started as a combination of my experiences as a government-sponsored refugee and the realities of what I encountered as an unaccompanied minor when I settled into Canada in 2006. A number of things shocked me, like finding out that kids dropped out of high school, especially a lot of kids from the Black community, even though school was free. Where I come from, in Liberia, if your parents can鈥檛 afford to pay up front, you’re not going to school.

Another thing was that nothing was tailored for young people; I was completely lost, because all the immigration information, orientation, shelter and everything was tailored to adults, except that I didn’t arrive in Canada with my parents or adults who could understand the language. Then I quickly noticed that young people who arrive with their parents face the same problems, have similar challenges as youth without parents — and that’s why my interest developed in trying to understand how to better integrate young newcomers.

At the time, there was a lot of emphasis on adults getting jobs and shelter, with the assumption that when adults do well, kids follow, but I quickly found out that wasn鈥檛 the case. In reality, it鈥檚 the kids who venture into the community, daringly; they go to school, get to know people and make friends to learn the language. Parents are often more set in their ways and are more careful, and, as a result, they rely a lot on their children to do banking, listen to phone messages, accompany them to a doctor鈥檚 appointment, rely on them for everything — and the children become super-parents.

I found out quickly that the education system still plays a massive role in integration, and not just for newcomers, but for families living in poverty or dealing with marginalization. The education system has the single greatest impact on a young newcomer鈥檚 journey. The ones who do well or who can navigate the education system tend to show more positive outcomes, and not just economically, but also for mental health, emotional health, all of it.

So, Empowerment Squared improves educational outcomes primarily for newcomer youth and families, but we don’t turn anybody away. Our doors are open to everyone.

Q: How did the Southwestern Ontario Black Entrepreneurship Network start, and why is it a success?

Zuleeats, famous for its traditional Ghanaian meat pies and diverse menu, is a celebrated, family-owned, women-owned, Black-owned business in Windsor-Essex County, Ontario.

Leo Nupolu Johnson: provides access to education, resources and advisors for Black entrepreneurs, including business owners and nonprofit leaders. One reason it鈥檚 successful is that it helps people to figure out what they need to do in terms of tools and resources, such as creating feasibility plans, creating business plans, approaching a bank, using an innovation hub 鈥� but that鈥檚 only part of it. We contextualize these tools and resources, which is more important.

I鈥檒l use the innovation hub, present in most cities, as an example. When you visit one, you see, predominantly, a population of non-marginalized community members. When a marginalized entrepreneur goes to an innovation hub in Hamilton, they hear the language about business plans, the terms being used about strategies, the talk about this and that, and they get lost, because they don鈥檛 have the context, don鈥檛 understand some of the assumptions or don鈥檛 know the cultural foundations. As a result, many people, especially Black entrepreneurs, don’t go to innovation hubs, because, for them, it feels a bit embarrassing, because they can鈥檛 relate, even though they鈥檝e been successful or entrepreneurial for years.

Also, there鈥檚 a lot of focus on 鈥渂usiness鈥� when Canadians talk about entrepreneurs 鈥� perhaps too much focus on business. Business is a big part of entrepreneurship, yes, but you can be very entrepreneurial in your life, in your career, as a person and as part of the nonprofit sector. SWOBEN is successful because it teaches Black people, Black business owners, about tools and resources and contextualizing those in culturally relevant ways.

Q: What is Empowerment Squared doing in Africa?

Leo Nupolu Johnson: We鈥檙e in Liberia and Ghana. We see our work there and in Canada as intertwined. The sooner that kids know there鈥檚 a world that鈥檚 bigger than Canada, bigger than North America or Africa, the better they鈥檒l prepare for the realities of getting an education, of a career, of life, and of all the things they have to do when they grow up.

Empowerment Squared offers structured, four-month placements in Liberia and Ghana for youth aged 18-30. The paid internship focuses on culturally relevant research. The first cohort starts in January 2025.

We run many international programs. We recently launched the (IYIP), providing four-month placements in Liberia and Ghana for youth aged 18-30 years old from marginalized communities or youth of African descent in Canada. The paid community-based research internship in Ghana will look into improving educational facilities and outcomes in rural areas, and in Liberia, it focuses on research that empowers grassroots organizations to overcome substance abuse and mental health challenges in a culturally relevant manner.

And in Liberia, we are set to launch the country鈥檚 first state of the art comprehensive learning center, which will include a public library, children鈥檚 library, co-working spaces, incubation spaces, and sports and event facilities, all for a catchment area of more than 250,000 community members. We鈥檙e aspiring for the best resources and facilities with the Liberian Learning Centre.

The Liberian Learning Center is being built on the grounds of Paynesville City Hall with the support of the Paynesville City Corporation.

Someone once asked me why we鈥檙e doing this project for $2 million when we could build a small reading room or something else for Liberian youth instead, and I knew that that person had sent their children to one of the most expensive private schools in the city. I asked, 鈥淲hy don’t you send your child to the local school around the corner? Why does it have to be the best school?鈥� He understood. We all have an innate desire of wanting the best for our youth. We should keep pushing and encouraging youth to aspire for the best, no matter where they live.

My approach is to find solutions in Canada and to share the things that we have in abundance with other parts of the world, where people are literally dying to get access to solutions. We can do both 鈥� work with youth here and there. It’s not about only resources. It’s about doing what you can within your means; that’s our approach at Empowerment Squared. We’re not going to save the world. We don’t have to save the world. But what can we do? We can do something with $2 million and we do something with $5,000. We do our part.

Q: I鈥檝e read about your approach with entrepreneurs who work outside of formal economic systems in Africa. Can you explain it?

Empowerment Squared is implementing the Harnessing Opportunities to Promote Entrepreneurship (HOPE) program to empower 75 economically and socially disadvantaged Liberians aged 18-35 through digital literacy, financial literacy and basic entrepreneurship skills.

Leo Nupolu Johnson: Usually, when people go to countries like Liberia and talk about entrepreneurship, they go with the same old idea about 鈥渂usiness,鈥� about a 鈥渂usiness plan,鈥� about working with financial and government institutions — and many Liberian entrepreneurs lose interest. In a country where close to 75% of the economy is informal 鈥� with local markets, street hawkers, and people who don鈥檛 pay taxes and still run their own small businesses — there’s more cash outside of the banks than inside the banks, more cash outside of economic systems. The situation is similar in most African countries. At Empowerment Squared, we approach Liberians who work in the informal sector, people who already know how to produce, sell, hustle, and run successful informal businesses.

Let me give you an example. We approached a young woman who was paying for five children to go to school on a business inventory of less than $50 in total. She managed to turn around and run a small business without any of the 鈥渂usiness鈥� skills that you鈥檙e supposed to need. She already had the discipline of an entrepreneur. We offered training about some practical skills, like financial literacy and tax laws, and about how to strategize, to take her business from a table market to a shop, and how to structure a salary for herself, including hiring a person who could help expand her business and revenues.

Here鈥檚 another example. We had an event in Liberia, and we wanted to hire a caterer, but we couldn鈥檛 give her the contract, because she didn’t have a bank account, didn鈥檛 pay taxes, and wasn鈥檛 registered anywhere formally. I explained to her that, as an organization, we can’t hire people with cash-only transactions who are not operating legally, because we have to track our spending, we have to show how we use our money, we have to report to auditors.

This became a good learning moment: she opened a bank account, registered legally and paid less than $500 in taxes for the whole year 鈥� and gained a catering contract of $6,000. So, she saw that, yes, taxes can be a burden, but that there are other benefits to expanding into the formal economy and contributing to the development of the country.

The first time we ran this program, in 2021, 65% of the participants grew their businesses from travelling vendors to permanent shops. Now, most of them are part of the formal economy in Liberia.

Q: What can governments or the nonprofit sector do better, given what you’re saying about young newcomers and entrepreneurs?

Johnson: Consistency. It’s not about how much money. It’s about consistency. As someone who came as a refugee and went through programs, including in the refugee camps — I spent a little more than eight years in two refugee camps — it鈥檚 amazing what consistency does.

A lack of consistency keeps people in a temporary situation, keeps people in crisis. For example, we ran a sports program for one year, and the kids got used to it. The program became a source of positive, social-emotional-health for them, and they had a great place to go. Two years ago, the funders decided not to fund it anymore, so we closed it down. Youth experience this kind of thing all the time; just as they’re settling into something, it gets shut down or it shifts to something else entirely. The nonprofit sector needs to have a serious conversation about evolving from short-term crisis mode to long-term planning mode — and evolving from donations to investments.

Don’t get me wrong, donations are great. Empowerment Squared accepts donations, but donations are more crisis prone. A $500 donation to do something is great, but that something ends. However, when someone invests $10 or $200 a month, then our organization can plan for a longer term in a more consistent manner.

It鈥檚 the same with funders and grants. We transitioned most of our relationships to three to five years of funding, minimum, because we can鈥檛 plan and hire for less than that without unsettling and dislodging communities. We can effect real change if we plan for five to 10 years; a kid who joins at 15 years old will be 25 years old after ten years 鈥� and that means the program was their life and became part of their community.

What鈥檚 important is investment, not charity. What鈥檚 important is empowering nonprofits to provide solid returns on investment in terms of improved mental health, poverty reduction, educational attainment or better training 鈥� all with meaningful measurement indicators. This kind of investment in youth isn鈥檛 about a charitable contribution or conversation; it鈥檚 about fulfilling a return on investment to improve lives.

Empowerment Squared is on , and . Leo Nupolu Johnson is on .

Question: Why or how did CEE start, and how did you get involved?

Gessesse: CEE is one of 34 initiatives that came out of the Youth Challenge Fund (YCF), which was established in 2006 in response to the rise of youth violence in Toronto back then. Dr. Kofi Hope founded CEE in 2012. The YCF had focused on young people trying to solve complex challenges in their communities. CEE and Nia Centre for the Arts are the only two out of 34 initiatives that are left.

I had worked with the YCF and, later, the United Way 鈥� and joined CEE six years ago. I have a lot of lived experience, so working with young people and creating opportunities for them is something I’m called to do. I’ve centred my education around that. I’ve centred my work experience around that.

CEE runs programs for five labour gaps in the Canadian market: information technology, trades, entertainment, finance and hospitality. The purpose is to move Black youth from the back of the unemployment line, which where they usually are, to the front. And the way we do that is by providing them with skills for jobs of the future.

The organization鈥檚 vision is to create an economy where Black youth can become financially prosperous, live high-quality lives, and contribute to the advancement of Canada.

Q: How many youth have been through the programs 鈥� and how does CEE work with them?

“We’re not focused on only jobs. We’re focused on careers, and we鈥檙e committed to working with young people who are furthest from the labour market.” –Agapi Gessesse

Gessesse: In our 12 years of existence, we’ve served more than 1,400 young people 鈥� and 85% of youth who graduate from our training programs are working in the industry within two years after they’ve graduated.

We have three distinct approaches. Number one is a trauma-informed approach, understanding that by virtue of being a Black youth, you鈥檙e probably dealing with a level of trauma that your peers aren鈥檛, and that’s going to be compounded by life experiences by the time you show up at CEE’s door. So, we have full-time psychotherapists to work with our young people, to go a bit deeper and to support them. Often, their biggest challenge is to undo the lies that have been told to Black youth. That’s a big part of the work.

“We have a curriculum that we call CEE Essentials, which is a suite of modules that are centred on Black identity and the workplace. Whether you’re a newcomer or have been here for generations, what brings us together and defines our experience is the Black experience.” –Gessesse

The second approach is person centred. Every young person is different. Some are entrepreneurial, some want to work nine to five, some have children, some have a post-secondary education, some don鈥檛. Social workers talk with youth at CEE before they even enter a training program to figure out what their needs are and to discuss what their plans could be in a program and in the workforce. For example, where do they see themselves going and how do they want to contribute to the economy? These are questions that oftentimes, young people, particularly Black youth, aren鈥檛 being asked. They’re just kind of being told, 鈥淭ake what’s in front of you, and make it work.鈥� Social workers are there to support them with what we call 鈥渓ife stabilization,鈥� such as food security and housing security.

The third approach is a culturally relevant approach. We have a curriculum that we call CEE Essentials, which is a suite of modules that are centred on Black identity and the workplace. Whether you’re a newcomer or have been here for generations, what brings us together and defines our experience is the Black experience. So, how does a Black youth deal with a 鈥渟ituation鈥� at work? How do they even have a conversation with someone in a workplace who, outside of this workplace, they have nothing in common with? How do they communicate so that they’re seen and heard, and so that they can be received? It鈥檚 a module focused on soft skills, communication and being Black in a workplace.

Q: Are people tempted to put this kind of training and employment into a DEI box?

“Whether you buy into the DEI conversation or not, Black youth are a solution to Canada’s problems.” –Gessesse

Gessesse: This isn鈥檛 about diversity, equity and inclusion. I encourage people not to think solely of the DEI conversation. I think when we box it into that, then employment, jobs, careers become something else, when, actually, Black youth are an untapped talent pool. These young people are brilliant. They’re ready. They’re able.

Whether you buy into the DEI conversation or not, Black youth are a solution to Canada’s problems. They can solve some of this country’s immediate problems related to a shortage of skilled workers in specific industries. This is about empowering our community and our young people. This is about skills and jobs of the future 鈥� and for Black youth to decide how they want to contribute.

Organizations like CEE are telling the country: this is what you need to do to get an 85% retention rate with Black young people. Why not invest in them? Black youth and new immigrants are going to be the solution to this country’s job needs. However you feel about DEI, they’ll be the solution — and diversity in the workplace is going to make us much greater and more economically successful as a country.

Q: What’s in the future for CEE in terms of programs?

We want to focus on information technology, entertainment and finance — all three of those areas. How does technology affect industry? How is AI going to affect these industries? How can we teach our young people programs and skills so that, when the time for digital transformation takes place in many of these organizations, they’ll be at the front of the line, with the tools they need.

Agapi Gessesse is on . Photos are courtesy of the CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals.

Barker is the director of , based in New Zealand and specializing in charities law and public tax law. Her 600-page report is the result of two years鈥� work and builds on more than two decades of Barker’s legal practice in New Zealand.

Barker dives into regulation, government contracting, advocacy, social enterprise, appeals, agency structures and draft bills, including Canadian legislation and histories. The report makes 70 recommendations for New Zealand, many of which apply to Canada and its context.

鈥淯ltimately it comes down to the type of society we want to live in 鈥� it is very important that we get this right,鈥� Barker says of the recommendations.

Download the report from or download this pdf: Charities-Law-Reform-Report-April-2022.

Photo is courtesy of Aachal on Unsplash.

The report examines the relationships between charities and DAF donors and the foundations that act as intermediaries between charities and donors. It suggests strategies for charities and financial advisors to ensure they maximize engagement of DAF donors, and it identifies key areas for improvement in how DAF foundations can support donors and charities.

It also quantifies the increasing contribution of DAF donors to the charitable sector in Canada and examines the challenges, criticisms and misconceptions around DAFs.

Download the free report here: Donor-Advised Funds in Canada, a report from KCI & CAGP, May 2023.

, and , graduate students in the Master of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership (MPNL) program, at 杏吧原创 University, recently released a that examines if and how gift acceptance policies and practices account for: ethics; Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI); and reconciliation, decolonization and Indigenization.

This is an important study. Universities welcome gifts from individuals, corporations and foundations to help achieve their academic missions and to enhance programs and services for students, and university fundraisers consider a number of policies and protocols when accepting or soliciting, most significantly the written gift acceptance policy, but they face challenges. For example, many universities have strategic commitments and/or plans related to reconciliation, though most interviewees in the study indicated there was no or limited specificity regarding the role of advancement-related tactics to support those strategies.

Webinar introducing the study (from Feb. 16, 2023)

Download the report

outlines key findings and provides practical considerations for advancement professionals to consider when creating or revising gift acceptance policies in the short-, medium- and long-term. .

Bios of report authors

Tanya Rumble (she/her) is a fundraising leader who’s raised millions for some of Canada’s largest charities. She’s passionate about equity, diversity and inclusion, and actively works to imbue these principles along with her personal commitment to reconciliation in fundraising and the philanthropic sector more broadly. Tanya holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from McMaster University, earned a Masters Certificate at NYU, and is a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE). Tanya is naturally inquisitive and a lifelong learner — and she’s a graduate of the 2017 Association of Fundraising Professionals Inclusion and Philanthropy Fellowship, and the 2010 DiverseCity Fellowship. Tanya gratefully acknowledges the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples, whose traditional territory she’s a settler and responsible steward of. Tanya Rumble is on .

Bill Mintram (he/him) is M茅tis and a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan, with a Bachelor in Education through the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program. He has more than ten years of experience in senior and executive-level roles within the Friendship Centre Movement, Red Cross and Rideau Hall Foundation. He’s served communities through various appointed and elected roles on boards, advisory and adjudication committees, along with being a fundraiser who’s raised millions within the Indigenous nonprofit sector. He’s driven by working towards improving the quality of life for Indigenous peoples across Canada and recognizes that supporting these outcomes is impossible without his family’s love and support. Bill Mintram is on .

Ellen Doty (she/her) toured full time as a jazz singer-songwriter for several years following her university studies and then moved into programming in the arts, which then naturally led to fundraising. While she had been grant writing and crowdfunding for her own music activities for many years, she’d never considered fundraising as a career path. Fast forward a few years: she now works in university fundraising. She believes in advocating for equity, diversity, and inclusion, not only in philanthropy, but in every facet of our lives. As a settler, Ellen continues on a path of commitment to reconciliation, both personally and in her work in the charitable sector. Ellen Doty is on .

David Maggs is the Metcalf Foundation’s inaugural Fellow on Arts and Society.

As a philanthropic organization, the has three areas of focus: poverty reduction, the environment, and the performing arts. While the first two operate within areas of explicit social concern, we鈥檙e seeing an increase in social priorities within our performing arts activities as well. In our support of organizations and communities, we seek to enable rather than direct, and our increased focus on social issues within our performing arts program comes directly from the sector itself.

Our multi-year, strategic-granting program, , is an example. It focuses on developing an adaptive leadership capacity within the performing arts sector. Responding to complex social issues (race, poverty, access, climate and mental health for example) demands skills different from linear problem-solving. Staging Change equips organizations to inspire, lead and navigate the changes that an organization is facing or is prioritizing within its own operations in order to stay relevant and responsive to its communities.

Michael Trent is the Metcalf Foundation’s Director of Performing Arts.

Our priority to empower rather than direct means that we work more organically with our grantees, avoiding institutional lock-in around our own activities and allowing emerging issues to guide our funding. This requires us to respond to the inspired social visions of the sector and to develop tools to resource those visions. We鈥檝e taken a series of steps in this direction: increasing our annual distribution quota from 3.5% to 5%; adjusting our performing arts internship program to engage marginalized applicants and organizations; and dedicating more than half of our early pandemic performing arts emergency funding to equity-deserving groups that weren’t among our historical grantees.

This strategy of bottom-up, emergent engagement is accompanied by another approach that we鈥檙e beginning to explore: the arts are increasingly viewed as something of a 鈥榤agic bullet鈥� of social change, compensating for the inadequacy of technical and managerial strategies in solving complex problems. In the face of this new societal pressure, we’re helping the arts sector to step out of its familiar position of advocacy, in which it simply proclaims the social goods the arts represent, and into one of research and development (R&D), in which we might find ways to generate evidence of these goods.

This shift was explored and articulated in our recent performing arts Innovation Fellowship report, , and is now a central theme in the continuation of that work within the Metcalf Foundation. With a network of interested sector partners, we’re beginning to co-develop an R&D framework for artistic activities, shaped around appropriate practices and outcomes of artistic activity. Such a framework is designed to grow the sector鈥檚 capacity to recognize the arts-shaped holes in our social challenges, identify the unique value propositions in our practices, and combine them within an R&D framework composed of three broad steps:

1. Problem-Framing & Theories of Change
2. Methods & Hypothesis
3. Data & Evaluation

By cultivating an appetite and capacity for R&D within the cultural sector, we can help organizations make the most of a unique, historical opportunity for the arts to step into more applied and accountable relationships to society, without the arts abandoning the integrity of its identity and practice as art (and as society鈥檚 treasured ability to understand itself in terms of the aesthetic). In this, we feel we can contribute important capacity to the arts organizations, while retaining our priority to enable the priorities they set for themselves.

is the Metcalf Foundation’s inaugural Fellow on Arts and Society (2022-2023). In 2021, he wrote , an extensive report on the disruption and transformation of the arts in the wake of Covid, which led to the creation of a new, full-time role in which he鈥檒l explore the role of art in society, focusing on innovation, climate change and cultural policy.

joined the Metcalf Foundation as Director of Performing Arts in 2015. Over his thirty-year career, he鈥檚 contributed to the development of the dance field as a choreographer, performer, teacher, artistic director, curator and arts community activist and volunteer.

The Metcalf Foundation is on , , , and .

Photo of stage is courtesy of Chris Thomaidis.

The Young Foundation has a culture of 鈥渄oing with people鈥� rather than 鈥渄oing to people.鈥� How does this influence the organization and service you provide?

Smith: That鈥檚 what drew me to working with them. I鈥檓 a big supporter of 鈥渨orking with鈥� not 鈥渨orking to.鈥� I wrote a report for the Young Foundation called The People-Centered Approach, because the Foundation is a leader of this approach in the sector, but no one really had the time to write down how they did the work. Their people-centered approach is something they apply to their researchers鈥� work, their community work, and their social investments; that means listening to communities and allowing them to be drivers of change. The Young Foundation creates space and provides resources for communities to create their own change.

How did you get started in the social enterprise sphere, and how do you see social finance moving within the sector?

Ally Smith and a colleague at Operation Come Home.

Smith: I鈥檓 excited about social enterprise, and I feel like it鈥檚 an untapped area of the nonprofit sector. In Scotland, the social enterprise sector is quite robust, and there鈥檚 a lot of government support for it. I randomly fell into this opportunity. There’s a tech, co-working space in Edinburgh, and I鈥檇 heard that their pop-up coffee shop closing during the pandemic. 鈥淚 could do that,鈥� I told myself. The only reason I want to run a caf茅, a business, is to create social impact, because that’s the thing that gets me up in the morning. I want to tie the caf茅 to youth work. In the past, with OCH鈥檚 employability programs and social enterprises, I helped youth to write resumes, prepare for interviews, and get their first jobs. I feel like there aren’t enough opportunities for folks who just don’t fit the mold of the first-job requirements, and they need a little extra support. The plan with the caf茅 is to partner with an employability program in Scotland to become an employer of youth who face barriers to employment, and to offer barista and customer-service training, so that they have an opportunity for paid employment.

Why do you think Scotland embraces social enterprise and provides a lot of government support, compared to Canada?

Smith: The UK in general has a strong, social-welfare state. There鈥檚 strong community presence, community groups, and unions. Scottish people have a strong sense of taking care of one another, so there鈥檚 a lot more of an appetite for social enterprise. The government has been funding social enterprises here for around 20 years.

Read Imagine Canada鈥檚 2020 report, “Are Charities Ready for Social Finance?,” which discusses how many charities aren鈥檛 interested in taking on social finance loans, and how their awareness of this revenue source is relatively low, particularly among small- and medium-sized organizations.

What barriers or sources of hesitation do you think Canadian nonprofits face when thinking of starting social enterprises?

Smith: The traditional ways that charities think of themselves are barriers. Charities are used to receiving government funding, so they maintain the status quo. It takes money to be able to think outside of your current circumstances, but a lot of charities are in survival mode. Also, the lack of professionalization of the sector — I mean, that’s why the MPNL program exists. It鈥檚 important to have people in the sector who understand the concept of social enterprises; you don鈥檛 know what you don’t know, so that’s probably part of it as well.

Also, I remember fighting to tell people outside of OCH why the organization was doing social enterprise. The charity had an uphill battle for a long time, and led the way in social enterprise in Ottawa. The onus shouldn’t be on nonprofits to convince funders that nonprofits and communities are doing the best things; funders should trust that the sector knows what the sector needs. And funders aren’t always expert in what’s going to best serve a specific community. The community is the expert. And who鈥檚 closest to the community? The nonprofits that work with them. That funding narrative about social enterprise needs to be flipped.

Ally Smith is on . Sherlyn Assam is on and . Photos of Smith and OCH are courtesy of Smith, and photo of cafe table is courtesy of Luke Chesser.