Premier Christy Clark is pleased to welcome prominent thinkers and leaders from the non-profit, volunteer and business sectors to explore new ways of working together to drive social innovation at today's Non-Profit Partnerships Summit: Collective Impact through Social Innovation.

This summit is the first time all sectors have been brought together to discuss innovation and create a made-in-B.C. model for social innovation. It also fulfils a throne speech commitment to host a summit on social innovation with non-profit organizations.

"The province is a participant and supporter of social innovation and entrepreneurship in B.C.," said Premier Clark. "We need to find new ways of doing business - one that involves working with the private, volunteer and non-profit sectors to create solutions that make a real difference in people's lives. Working together, we make real change."

In 2008, the Province gave $2.2 million to Vancouver Foundation to support social enterprise. Using this funding, the Vancouver Foundation and Vancity jointly developed the Resilient Capital Program. The Resilient Capital Program has now achieved its initial target of $10 million and has made its first investments in B.C.-based social enterprises.

To drive social innovation in B.C to a level that's never been seen before in Canada, the Province is partnering with the Advisory Council for Social Entrepreneurship, Ashoka Changemakers, LIFT Philanthropy Partners, Telus and the UBC Sauder School of Business to launch a "collabetition" in 2012. This collaborative competition will invite British Columbians to submit their solutions to our social problems, rewarding community-led innovations that show the most promise of improving the lives of British Columbians.

Vancouver Foundation, United Way of the Lower Mainland and LIFT Philanthropy Partners are the Province's non-profit partners for the summit. IBM, Cisco and Telus are corporate partners and the UBC Sauder School of Business is a public partner.

For more information about B.C.'s Non-Profit Partnerships Summit and testimonials from leaders in social innovation and social enterprise, visit: www.innovateBC.ca

Partner Quotes:

Delyse Sylvester, director of community, Ashoka Changemakers -

"I have an unwavering belief that my province is filled with changemakers - youth, neighbours, elders making a difference in their homes, towns and cities. This collabetition provides us an opportunity to hear everyone's ideas, what's new, what's developing and what innovations are ready to scale provincially and even globally. The visionary leaders supporting this initiative are providing an entirely new way of working - offering the necessary tools and a transparent environment to create our future together."

Bruce Dewar, CEO of LIFT Philanthropy Partners -

"At LIFT Philanthropy Partners, we pride ourselves in advancing social change, and this collabetition offers an opportunity to discover and nurture made-in-B.C. social innovations to address the social and economic challenges currently facing our province. We are proud to partner on this project, which will certainly bring about effective social impact in communities throughout B.C."

Two backgrounders follow.

Contacts:

Chris Olsen
Press Secretary
Office of the Premier
604 220-1640

Cindy MacDougall
Government Communications and Public Engagement
Ministry of Social Development
250 387-5635

BACKGROUNDER 1

Resilient Capital Program highlights

In 2008, the Province provided a $2.2-million grant (seed capital) to the Vancouver Foundation to create a social enterprise investment fund.

The Vancouver Foundation partnered with Vancity to create the Resilient Capital Program, which is funded by Resilient Capital term deposits. This impact-driven program makes debt and equity investments in social enterprises - allowing them to address social and environmental challenges, and build resilient communities. All deposits come with the added peace of mind of unlimited deposit insurance.

Program objectives

• Maximize the community impact of social enterprises, by supporting their growth.

• Develop new models and sources of financing to leverage the growth of social enterprises.

• Raise awareness of the importance of social innovation and develop leadership in the social sector.

Program size

• $10-$15 million, which includes $3.5 million of first-loss reserve from Vancity and Vancouver Foundation

• Loans and investments ranging from $100,000 - $1.5 million each

Impact themes

• Local food and food security

• Aboriginal communities

• Environment and energy efficiency

• Support for persons with disabilities

• Employment of marginalized individuals

• Affordable and supportive housing

• Social purpose real estate

• Arts and culture

• Other opportunities to finance the development and growth of innovative social enterprises

Resilient Capital Term Deposits

• Five-, six- or seven-year fixed term, non-redeemable

• Competitive interest rate

• Fully insured deposit

• Exclusive web access and detailed project impact reporting

Vancity

Vancity manages the Resilient Capital Program through its Community Capital team program founders. In addition to financial prosperity, Vancity is also focused on social justice, environmental sustainability, and community well-being. Vancity is Canada's largest credit union, with more than $15.5 billion in assets, more than 418,000 members and 59 branches throughout Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Victoria and Squamish. For more information, visit: www.resilientcapital.ca or www.vancity.com

The Vancouver Foundation

The Vancouver Foundation is Canada's largest community foundation. Its mission is to harness the gifts of energy, ideas, time, and money to make meaningful and lasting impacts in communities. For more information, visit: www.vancouverfoundation.ca

Contacts:

Chris Olsen
Press Secretary
Office of the Premier
604 220-1640

Cindy MacDougall
Government Communications and Public Engagement
Ministry of Social Development
250 387-5635

BACKGROUNDER 2

Collabetition Sparks Social Innovation

The Province is partnering with the Advisory Council for Social Entrepreneurship, Ashoka Changemakers, LIFT Philanthropy Partners, TELUS and the ISIS UBC Sauder School of Business to launch B.C.'s first collabetition in 2012.

A collabetition is a collaborative competition - a thoughtful social media strategy that invites British Columbians to submit their solutions to our social problems, encourages a friendly 'competition' and rewards them with the resources to improve, perfect and spread their innovation around the province and beyond.

This project will seek innovative solutions that will work in B.C. at the local level and across the province. It will help raise the profile of B.C. innovators who are developing new approaches to care for one another in their communities.

LIFT Philanthropy Partners is contributing $350,000 toward the collabetition. Up to $600,000 in total will be provided from the partnership. The Province is contributing $30,000 toward prizing.

Ashoka Changemakers will manage the logistical aspects of running the collabetition, and more details about the project will be announced when the project is ready to launch in the New Year.

Advisory Council for Social Entrepreneurship

The Advisory Committee for Social Entrepreneurship was established to ensure direct consultation, advice and feedback on proposals to support social innovation in B.C. The council will make recommendations to government on how to maximize social innovation in the province, with an emphasis on social finance and social enterprise.

Ashoka Canada

Along with its global network of Fellows, business entrepreneurs, policy makers, investors, academics, and journalists, Ashoka is working collectively to ensure that social entrepreneurs and their innovations continue to inspire a new generation of local changemakers to create positive social change. For more information, visit: www.ashoka.org

Ashoka Changemakers

Ashoka's Changemakers is an online community of action that connects social entrepreneurs around the globe to share ideas, inspire, and mentor each other. Through its online collaborative competitions and open-source process, Changemakers.com is one of the world's most robust spaces for launching, discussing and scaling ideas to solve the world's most pressing social problems.

Changemakers builds on Ashoka's three-decade history and vision for an "Everyone a Changemaker" world by creating a place where the best ideas in social innovation can be shared, refined and funded. For more details, visit: www.changemakers.com

LIFT Philanthropy Partners

LIFT Philanthropy Partners uses a venture philanthropy approach to support not-for-profit organizations to become sustainable and more effective at delivering measurable social impact that improves the health and productivity of Canadians and their communities. LIFT provides these not-for-profit organizations with a valuable combination of skills, expertise, resources and funding to improve their operations and impact. LIFT evolved from 2010 Legacies Now, which leveraged the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to create social and economic benefits for B.C. communities. For more information, visit: www.liftpartners.ca

TELUS

TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $10.3 billion of annual revenue and 12.6 million customer connections, including 7.2 million wireless subscribers, 3.6 million wireline-network access lines, 1.3 million Internet subscribers and more than 450,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by president and CEO Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video.

In support of their philosophy to give where they live, TELUS team members and retirees will, by year-end 2011, have contributed $245 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered 4.1 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Eleven TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead TELUS' local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition. For more information about TELUS, visit: telus.com

UBC's Sauder School of Business

ISIS at the Sauder School of Business is focused on leveraging business tools to advance social innovation and sustainability, through research, incubation, and application. ISIS defines social innovation as a new approach which fosters initiatives that contribute to solving existing social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental challenges. This encompasses concepts such as social enterprise, social finance, and strategic corporate social responsibility. What it does not involve is simply throwing money at a problem. Rather, ISIS aims to build institutions designed to create value rather than dependency. For more details, visit: http://isis.sauder.ubc.ca/

Contacts:

Chris Olsen
Press Secretary
Office of the Premier
604 220-1640

Cindy MacDougall
Government Communications and Public Engagement
Ministry of Social Development
250 387-5635