Amid a number of recent initiatives aimed at bolstering investment in so-called "social entrepreneurship," which refers to the utilization of business strategies and plans as a means to address social or humanitarian concerns, a Canadian organization has launched three major funding campaigns that will seek to further promote this fledgling movement.
Trico Charitable Foundation Executive Chairman Wayne Chiu announced this week that his group will pledge $500,000 to each of the three initiatives.
"The Trico Charitable Foundation is focused on being a catalyst and incubator for the Social Entrepreneurship Movement and Social Enterprise in the non-profit sector. Today's announcement clearly demonstrates how we are going to do that," Chiu said in a statement.
The Canadian Youth Business Foundation's "Socialpreneur" initiative will focus on social entrepreneurship initiatives in Alberta, while the Enterprising Non-Profits program will focus on the non-profit sector.
The final program, the Social EnterPrize competition, will award socially-minded ventures over the next five years in sums that totall the initial $500,000 investment.
Last fall, former U.S. president Bill Clinton's Clinton Global Initiative maintained a central focus on the emergence of social entrepreneurship. One of the participating entrepreneurs owned a company that promotes job creation for women in Africa.
