Social innovation has become a popular policy buzzword globally, prompting strategies across all levels of government, as well as in business and philanthropy. Unfortunately, as many of us interested in philanthropy have noted, it is not clear why, how, and what actors are doing when they claim to do social innovation.

We wanted to understand how social innovation is being practiced in Canada; to do that, we spent a year studying the social innovation activities of Canadian philanthropic foundations. We interviewed 38 staff and board members from 18 Canadian philanthropic foundations operating in all regions of Canada and working on an array of issue areas. Our aim was to understand what foundations mean when they use the term social innovation and how, if at all, they are acting to promote it.

We interviewed 38 staff and board members from 18 Canadian philanthropic foundations operating in all regions of Canada and working on an array of issue areas. Our aim was to understand what foundations mean when they use the term social innovation and how, if at all, they are acting to promote it.

Read the full article by Kristen Pue and Dan Breznitz at Medium