Before it was brought up in class, social enterprise was not something I was overly familiar with.  Upon learning more about it during the lecture, and subsequent video of Save on Meats I quested to delve into it further, and discover more, or at least other social enterprises around Canada.

Along the way I stumbled across this article, which presented not only tales of social enterprise but statistics and recent developments surrounding it as well.  A staggering one third of social enterprises operating in Canada have opened in the last two years. What would cause such a sharp rise in a short period of time? Well, just as we touched on in our class, MBA schools around Canada are trying to shape the budding minds of business students to put to use their business acumen to address social issues.

Also contributing to the sharp rise, is the availability of government and United Way grants for social enterprise. The example used in the article, St. John’s bakery has received $350,000 from the two since 2004. In that time, their profits have risen dramatically, spurring hope they will be self-sufficient in the near future.

Universities educating young minds on not only future self-interest, but societal interests, is a welcome evolution and should continue to spur changes for the good of all.

Image 1: http://www.google.ca/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&biw=1054&bih=655&tbm=isch&tbnid=zUHTmLaR_rtX8M:&imgrefurl=http://www.stjohnsbakery.com/&docid=HR_ekxyrndtD_M&imgurl=http://www.stjohnsbakery.com/media/img/sidebar/stjohns6.jpg&w=180&h=235&ei=5gyqUO-pF83zqAGc14GgBg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=393&sig=102121070711547161704&page=1&tbnh=149&tbnw=111&start=0&ndsp=13&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:72&tx=68&ty=68

Image2: http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/abe/migration_catalog/article4052285.ece/ALTERNATES/w620/WEB-sr-sustainability20rb1.jpg