Peter Nares and SEDI
By Louise Chatterton Luchuk
May 25, 2009
NORTH YORK, ON // The current economic climate is creating an exciting opportunity in Canada, according to Peter Nares, founding executive director of Social and Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI). Not many people can say that right now, so what exactly is he referring to? Explains Nares, "The current economic hardship is creating a lot of pressure for a lot of people, but it is shaking up traditional thinking in a lot of institutions in the government and private sector. With that kind of vibration comes this notion that doing business the way we've always done it needs to change. When that thinking starts permeating into the marketplace, that's when we start thinking differently and getting more open. It's very depressing in terms of the hardship on people, but it's exciting in the sense that there is more space for being socially entrepreneurial now."
What does it mean to be socially entrepreneurial?
Ashoka, a global association of leading social entrepreneurs, defines them as:
Individuals with innovative solutions to society's most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change. Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps.
Nares fits this description and was accordingly awarded an Ashoka Senior Fellowship in 2008. Ashoka recognized him for stimulating new forms of community practice and public policy to combat poverty by expanding opportunities for those with low incomes to participate in and benefit from the mainstream economy. In Ashoka's words, "Peter is one of the international leaders of the transition from income maintenance and social support to the Investment State, which is one of the dominant development paradigm shifts of our time."
One of the gratifying benefits of being named an Ashoka Fellow is the acknowledgment of the value of the work, but Nares is quick to point out that he hasn't done it alone (however, the fellowship is tied to an individual's name.). For more than 22 years, SEDI (the organization Nares founded) has dedicated itself to helping low-income Canadians achieve economic self-sufficiency. SEDI's initiatives focus on three areas: financial literacy, asset-building and entrepreneurship. They have worked with more than 800 nonprofit and government agencies across Canada, narrowing the gap between communities and policy-makers and influencing social policies that affect low-income Canadians.
A very good example of SEDI's innovative and successful work is the Canadian Centre for Financial Literacy, the first of its kind in this country, which launched this past November. The Centre's mandate is to create opportunities for lower-income people to plan and invest their savings. There are more than 4.7 million Canadians living on a low income, according to Statistics Canada, and the Centre's objective is to improve the economic situation of more than 230,000 Canadians within its first five years of operation. Its activities will include building the capacity of community organizations to deliver effective financial education services, and consulting on financial literacy to businesses, policy-makers and not-for-profit organizations.
Why be socially entrepreneurial?
Nares identifies a number of benefits of being socially entrepreneurial: "First, it's an outlet for your imagination. You are thinking outside the box and then you allow your imagination to play a role. It stretches you and that's when you come up with a new solution to old issues." Nares also points out that how you think frames how you respond. For example, if people think of poverty as only about income, it constrains the responses. For SEDI, poverty is also about assets, which then broadens the responses when you consider this issue from this different perspective. A social entrepreneurial approach also leverages new resources in new ways. Being entrepreneurial means coming into contact with people you wouldn't normally come into contact with and provides a wider range of people who can work on something creatively.
A snapshot of... |
Who: SEDI
Mandate/Mission: To lead the way in building a society where people can realize their full economic and human potential and where social, cultural and economic supports are available to enable people to learn, invest wisely and participate in the economic mainstream.
Location:
406 - 1110 Finch Avenue West,
North York, ON
M3J 2T2
When established: 1986
Number of staff: 9 full time, 3 part time
Number of volunteers: board of directors: 8; advisory committee on financial literacy: 9
Budget: $1,516,666 (fiscal year ended on March 31, 2009)
Awards won: Ashoka Senior Fellowship, 2008; SEDI's ILA program received the Toronto Community Foundation's Vital Ideas Award in 2008
SEDI's latest innovation is the Canadian Centre for Financial Literacy. To learn more about the CCFL, sign up for the e-newsletter. You can also find the CCFL on Twitter and on Facebook. |
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Factors in the market drive the sector to go to new places and, while social entrepreneurship opens up new possibilities, it may not be the solution for all nonprofit organizations. Nares acknowledges that being entrepreneurial in how you manage is a useful skill to have as a manager of a nonprofit. However, not all nonprofit organizations with entrepreneurial managers should start a social enterprise. Not wanting to discourage entrepreneurial thinking, Nares cautions, "It's very important for sector organizations to not drift away from their mission by being starry-eyed. Social entrepreneurship could be helpful to clients but it's not for everyone. It is hard to be successful at it so I encourage business diligence."
Doors opening
The Ashoka fellowship has given Nares the opportunity to continue working on his social entrepreneurship dream. As a result of the recognition from Ashoka, new doors are opening for Nares and SEDI. Ashoka has a strong reputation in the private sector and Nares finds that the honour intrigues people in the private sector that may not have paid attention to his organization otherwise.
New doors are opening globally, too. As part of his fellowship, Nares must develop his ideas further. To this end, he is taking the notion of savings and asset-building and building a global network of others that believe in the approach and have had success. Not only is there greater success when working as a group, but there is a mass of knowledge that needs to be collected and disseminated. Currently, Nares is working with 15 countries and anticipates that there will probably be a total of 20 involved in a meeting in Toronto or London, England to discuss whether the network is something worth sustaining. The fellowship underwrote the early costs and Nares will be raising funds from outside of Canada to cover the costs of the meeting. All this work could take quite a while but, according to Nares, he and SEDI are like dogs with bones – once they are on an idea, they are not easily shaken!
Louise Chatterton Luchuk is a freelance writer and consultant who combines her love of writing with experience at the local, provincial and national levels of volunteer-involving organizations. For more information, visit www.luchuk.com.
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