Social Innovation Generation

• The McConnell Foundation launches the Applied Dissemination granting program
  

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• McGill-McConnell Program for National Voluntary Sector Leaders launches

• McGill-McConnell Program for National Voluntary Sector Leaders closes
• McGill-DuPont Social Innovation Think Tank opens
• Applied Dissemination Peer Learning Group launches and runs until 2007.
  

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• The McConnell Foundation asks Al Etmanski & Vickie Cammack to explore social innovation program options through the Sustaining Social Innovation initiative (SSI)

• Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman and Michael Quinn Patton publish Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed
• Tides Canada hosts early social finance field-building work, with a branded project, Causeway
• Causeway becomes the precursor for the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance convened by SiG in 2010
• The McConnell Foundation approves SiG, with five years of funding and a sunset clause
• McConnell puts out a RFP to create a social innovation centre; the University of Waterloo, under the leadership of President David Johnston, is selected

• • McConnell publishes Accelerating Our Impact: Philanthropy, Innovation and Social Change
  • The Government of Ontario confirms $10 million in funding for SiG@MaRS
  • PLAN Institute hosts SiG@PLAN
  • SiG@Waterloo starts up with Frances Westley and Cheryl Rose
  • Causeway and MaRS organize Canada’s first Social Finance Forum, welcoming Sir Ronald Cohen of the UK Social Investment Task Force as a featured speaker
    
  • MaRS hosts the Social Entrepreneurship Summit initiated by David Pecaut of Boston Consulting Group and the Schwab Foundation

• BC Premier Gordon Campbell meets with Al Etmanski about social innovation
• The SiG National office forms to support partnership activities and integrates the social finance work
• MaRS hosts an expanded Social Finance Forum
• SiG@MaRS hosts Social Tech for Social Change training leading to Net Change 2009–2012

• SiG National partners with Volans in London, U.K. to organize a social innovation and social finance study tour to London, inviting all the SiG nodes, plus additional potential partners
  
  

  

• SiG meets with federal Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty to seek his sponsorship of a Social Finance Task Force; he responds he cannot sponsor, but if SiG proceeds, he will receive the findings. SiG proceeds knowing he would receive it.

• SiG convenes the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance (CTFSF), which presents its report to federal Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty in December
• MaRS announces its intention to create the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the McConnell Foundation and the Young family
  
  

  

• The BC government announces an Advisory Council on Social Entrepreneurship (later changed to Social Innovation) with Al Etmanski as one of three co-chairs
• SiG launches Inspiring Action for Social Impact, multi-year cross-Canada thought-leaders speaking program
• Tim Brodhead steps down as president of the McConnell Foundation and becomes a Senior Fellow with SiG
• McConnell Foundation appoints Stephen Huddart as new President & CEO
• Federal Minister of Employment and Skills Development Diane Finley appoints Al Etmanski and Tim Brodhead to an advisory council on social innovation
• Federal budget mentions the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance and assigns follow-up to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

• McConnell Foundation decides to renew SiG for 3 years
• The University of Waterloo launches the first Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation cohort
• MaRS organizes the Ontario Social Innovation Summit hosted by three provincial ministers
• McConnell Foundation creates Innoweave
• McConnell deepens integration of social innovation into thematic programs

• The BC Advisory Council on Social Innovation makes 11 recommendations to the provincial government, including the creation of the free-standing Partners for Social Impact
• The University of Waterloo launches the second Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation cohort
• The University of Waterloo and MaRS publish seminal papers on change labs and social innovation labs
• MaRS announces the creation of the MaRS Solutions Lab with support from the Evans family and other funders
• Rockefeller Foundation partners with University of Waterloo to develop a global fellowship in social innovation
• With support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, SiG@MaRS conducts feasibility study, leading to the launch of the School for Social Entrepreneurs Ontario
• McConnell Foundation and SiG National participate in a study tour to Spain, opening relationships with UpSocial in Barcelona, and ESADE Social Innovation Institute
• McConnell develops a Social Innovation Fund as a new funding window
• The Government of Ontario renews MaRS social innovation funding for 3 years

• The University of Waterloo launches the third and final Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation cohort
• The Government of Ontario funds MaRS Studio [Y], a youth social impact and systems leadership program
  
• The federal government funds Innoweave
• SiG nodes partner to support the Trico Charitable Foundation’s hosting of the Social Enterprise World Forum
• Tamarack Institute partners with several SiG nodes to host the Third Inflection Point
• Frances Westley keynotes 1st social innovation research conference, Social Frontiers, London, U.K.
• SiG, MaRS and multiple partners co-host Volans’ Breakthrough Capitalism event in Toronto
• McConnell launches the Social Innovation Learning Program (SILP)

• McConnell Foundation launches Cities for People
• SiG, BC Partners for Social Impact and Social Innovation Exchange (SIX) partner to host the global SIX Summer School in Canada for the first time
• SiG teams up with numerous local partners across the country under the banner of Social Innovation Week Canada, a time-bound national alliance of events and connections
• SiG, KPMG, Volans, and MaRS launch Canada’s first report on Corporate Social Innovation
• MaRS Solutions Lab hosts world-leading lab practitioners for Labs for Systems Change event

• Al Etmanski publishes his book Impact: Six Patterns to Spread Your Social Innovation

  

• SiG co-hosts a Wasan Island exploration of Social R&D that ignites a dedicated focus on the field
• The ABSI Connect Fellowship launches with support from the Suncor Energy Foundation, Trico Charitable Foundation and Mount Royal University to answer the question: How can we do better at solving complex social and environmental problems in Alberta
• WISIR with design support from MaRS Solutions Lab publish the Social Innovation Lab Guide

• SiG hosts The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) on a cross-country 7-city social innovation knowledge exchange and tour
• Social R&D hosts a second annual national retreat
• TACSI invites Allyson Hewitt to be South Australia’s next Thinker in Residence, sponsored by the Dunstan Foundation in partnership with the government of South Australia
• ABSI expands its fellowship program and partners
• McConnell announces the LabWise training initiative

• ABSI Connect Fellowship iterates again to support the social innovation ecosystem in Alberta
• SiG partners with SIX, Nesta, TACSI, UNDP and the McConnell Foundation on the SIX Wayfinder event
• SiG hosts a Social R&D round-table for funders at SSHRC featuring Geoff Mulgan, CEO of Nesta
• McConnell and Simon Fraser University co-host 20 university presidents to discuss a new McConnell, Simon Fraser University and RECODE jointly commissioned paper on the emergence of social infrastructure at advanced education institutions
• Social R&D hosts a practice gathering for over 40 practitioners from across Canada
• SiG joins a collaborative to develop Spark! Canadian Social Innovation Exchange — a three-day national event

• Frances Westley co-authors the watershed article, “The concept of the Anthropocene as a game-changer: a new context for social innovation and transformations to sustainability”
• McConnell’s Cities for People collaborates with partners Evergreen and La maison de l’innovation sociale to host an exploration of a new national network, Future Cities Canada
• Social Finance Forum celebrates its 10th anniversary
• Ministry of Employment and Social Development Canada convenes a Social Innovation and Social Finance Co-Creation Steering Group, including SiG principles Stephen Huddart and Allyson Hewitt for specific policy measures to advance social innovation and social finance
• SiG hosts a capstone event at MaRS to celebrate and close the SiG partnership and launch this legacy book

Still to come..