What is Social Innovation?
Before you get in too deep, you might want to know what we mean by “social innovation.” At CSI, we define social innovation as the creation, development, adoption, and integration of new and renewed concepts, systems, and practices that put people and planet first.
Social innovation comes in many forms and spans many sectors, but put simply: it’s people looking for inventive ways to help each other.
We’re often asked how social innovation occurs. We’ve learned there is no single or simple answer. Social change is the result of a tremendously complex mix of ingredients. Environmental conditions, social conditions, and individual actors collide to spark world-changing ideas. There is an underlying magic to social innovation that precludes any simple recipe for success.
Looking for proof that social innovation works? We’ve got it. We believe that shared resources bring us all closer to the Next Economy, so we’re sharing all our ideas here!
On This Page
Our Innovations
Our Publications
The Collider Magazine Series
The Collider is CSI’s community magazine! It connects and champions our members, and showcases social innovation in action.
CSI IMPACT REPORT 2012-2022
A Decade of Building Community Wealth in Regent Park
UNLOCKING CANADIAN SOCIAL INNOVATION
Our landscape paper explains the importance of social innovation ecosystems to the success of any individual initiative and ways it can help Canada take on challenges and continue to thrive.
Unlocking the Potential for Community Wealth Building in Regent Park
A feasibility study to inspire a new way to work within our communities.
UNLOCKING CANADIAN SOCIAL INNOVATION – Our landscape paper explains the importance of social innovation ecosystems to the success of any individual initiative and ways it can help Canada take on challenges and continue to thrive.
PILOT LESSONS – Co-presented with the Mowat Centre, this report examines the potential for a Ontario basic income pilot and explores how basic income could impact entrepreneurship, innovation, and our relationship to work.
BASIC IMPACT – Report on the potential impact of Basic Income on Social Entrepreneurs done with the Mowat Centre and University of Toronto’s School of Public Policy & Governance.
EMERGENCE – Starting back when we were just a glimmer in the eyes of a few social entrepreneurs, Emergence follows our growth from concept to operation to scale.
RIGOUR – A manual for planning or operating shared space. It reveals our experience and offers tips, lessons, and tools for developing a vibrant organization and community.
PROOF – Our impact report that demonstrates just what shared spaces for social innovation can accomplish, or as we like to call it “proof”.
FROM SOCIAL ENTERPRISE TO SOCIAL FRANCHISE – An introduction to the concept of social franchising that explores benefits and challenges of the approach.
CROWDFUNDING GUIDE FOR NONPROFITS, CHARITIES AND SOCIAL IMPACT PROJECTS –
This comprehensive guide will help your nonprofit or charity in the journey for crowdfunding success.
NETWORK EVALUATION – This book explores the unique character of networks and offers a new framework for assessing their impact. Its goal: to further empower the success of networks that are making a difference.
More Publications
Looking for our landscape paper about unlocking Canadian social innovation? Lessons from a basic income pilot project? Learnings about the magic of shared spaces?
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Our Videos
Here is a sampling of some of the video content we’ve made over the years. Want more? Check out our Youtube channel!
Looking for more reading material? Check out our blog!
CSI Stories is our way to share new ideas, community & member updates, learnings from the social innovation field, and more.