Commissioned by SiG@MaRS, with funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, MASS LBP conducted a study on the opportunity for Britain’s School for Social Entrepreneurs to succeed in Ontario. Our research combines insights from recent news articles, academic papers, online resources and an extensive series of interviews held with thirty-five practitioners and opinion leaders from the US, UK, France, Australia and Canada.  We also conducted five half-day community consultations with more than forty social entrepreneurs, educators and potential students in Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Waterloo and Toronto. Finally, we spoke with program directors of existing SSE locations to learn more about their experience establishing a franchise.

Our job was to assess not only the soundness of the SSE’s program, but also to gauge its fitness for the Ontario marketplace.  Along the way, we’ve had the opportunity to reflect on the development of social entrepreneurship more generally and to think about its future. Most importantly, we’ve learned about the needs and ambitions of Ontario’s social entrepreneurs. This has been one of the joys and real privileges of this research.

Download the final report here.

Download the executive summary here.