Social Impact and Innovation (Class 6)

Oct 28/2016

This class was a more in-depth look at the charitable sector, and was followed up with a discussion of social entrepreneurs, social innovation, and social financing. We discussed impact investing and the concept of selecting a portfolio of stocks that offer a good return, while still supporting companies that promote social change. We then had a guest speaker: Mark Stewart, Associate Director, Advancement Development & Outreach, for the DeGroote School of Business talk to us about his journey through the NFP sector. We learned that MBA graduates and those with business backgrounds are in large demand within the NFP sector, and that even in a seemingly non-related field (i.e. an art museum) a business student can still find work meaningful work.

Video Interview 2: Professor Lynn Fergusson: Why Do You Teach This Course?

Professor Lynn Fergusson Video Interview

Written Interview 3: Isa Mulder: How Does it Feel to Have Real Money to Give Away?

        “It feels great. When real money is involved the decision becomes more important, in the sense that there are more things to consider. The decision is real, its no longer hypothetical. This class is different from most of my classes because I’m able to make a difference. I feel that we’re very fortunate to have real money to work with, and we’re richer for the experience. It’s a good opportunity for experiential learning, and because of that you learn something different. While the money that we have to work with is relatively small ($10,000), the experience itself is priceless.”

 

Written Interview 2: Laiba Noor: Why Did You Sign Up For This Course?

       
        “I took this course because I’m interested in the not-for-profit sector. I volunteered as the marketing director for The Citizen’s Foundation (TCF) and through that role I began to learn more about the NFP sector. I learned a lot of things from that role, but, I still had questions about the NFP sector. This course seemed like a great way to answer my questions and learn more about NFP organizations. I’m passionate about the NFP sector, and I’m still the marketing director for TCF, so I see this course as a way to indulge my curiosity about the sector; while still learning new things that I can continue to use in my role with TCF. I feel that the skills that I’ll learn from this course will continue to be useful in the future, and will be applicable to a variety of situations.”

Written Interview 1: Diana Albanese: Why Did You Sign Up For This Course?

“I took this class because I’ve always been interested in philanthropy, and I saw this as a great opportunity to learn more about it. I’m excited about learning both the processes and procedures of giving, and it’s great to see all the different perspectives come together in class. A lot of the students have different backgrounds and it’s interesting to hear their take on what we should be doing with the RFP and how we should go about the selection process. It’s nice too that everybody gets to shape the impact that we’ll make, and help determine where the money goes. Another driving factor for me was my experience with the NFP sector. I was in a similar role when I was on the Hamilton Youth Advisory Council, which is a part of the Hamilton Community Foundation. I was part of a council that reviewed RFPs and determined a selection process whereby several organizations were selected to receive a $5000 grant. I helped rank these organizations by establishing some criteria that needed to be met for them to receive funding. When I heard about this course it seemed like the next logical step for me, as it overlapped with my experience; but on a much larger scale. I look forward to where we are headed with this course, and I can’t wait to see the impact that we’ll have on our local community. “

Return from Reading Week (Class 5)

Oct 21/2016

This class was spent learning more about the non-profit sector in general. The class had just returned from reading week, and many of us had spent part of the week meeting with a charity, social enterprise, foundation, or philanthropist for an assignment due that class. Several of us shared the target of our profile paper with the class, and we got some insight into the various charities within our local community. As a class, we were then divided into groups to create a fictitious charity (small and large), social enterprise, foundation, and philanthropist; modelled after the groups that we visited for our profile paper. Our goal was to create this organization, for lack of a better word, from the ground up and explain who they were, what they did, and how they were founded and funded. Then the groups informally presented to the class; as a way for us to provide more detailed examples of the challenges and opportunities that these organizations or philanthropists might face. This exercise was a great way to give the class a better understanding of the difficulties that various NFP organizations face; and help us to understand how they may overcome them.

Video Interview 1: Daniel Higgins: How Does it Feel to Have Real Money to Give Away?

 



 Daniel Higgins Video Interview

The RFP Wars Part 2 (Class 4)

Oct 7/2016

This class was the final class for our RFP discussions. As a class, we needed to finalize our RFP and get it out into the community so that various charities had a chance to submit their application. In our previous class, we had agreed upon the topic, yet we still had a lot of ground to cover before the RFP was finalized. We took an “old-school” whiteboard approach to this. Professor Fergusson had two white boards and a list of criteria on post-it notes, two student volunteers (one being yours truly) took to the board and created their ideal criteria. Fortunately, the criteria were similar and the end result was a choice between an organization based, or program based RFP. After much discussion and a class vote, it was determined that the best approach was to go for an organization based RFP. This had two key reasons; first, supporting an organization entailed supporting its programming; as such, it was a way too encompass both RFPs. Second, by supporting an organization we can also allow for some of the funding to go towards overhead; which we learned is an important aspect for the growth and sustainability of charities, which unfortunately has a negative connotation due to how we view charities. By the end of class, we had created and finalized an RFP that we could all agree upon, and it was released into the community later that day.

Meet the Class Part 6: Instructors

Our final group in the class is our Instructor; Professor Lynn Fergusson, and our Teaching Assistant (TA) Sarah Wardrope.