WOSEN

SUPPORTING WOMEN SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

SUPPORT FOR YOUR WOMEN-LED SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

The Women of Ontario Social Enterprise Network (WOSEN) offers a suite of programs for women interested in starting or growing their own ventures that seek to have a positive social, cultural or environmental impact through their operations, and/or the sale of their products or services.

Although collectively the term ‘women’ is used throughout this page, WOSEN is dedicated to equity and inclusion, and seeks to support women-identified and gender non-binary entrepreneurs from underserved and underrepresented communities. This includes Indigenous women, women in rural or remote regions, racialized women, newcomer women, LGBTQ2+, women with disabilities, and those who identify as gender non-binary.

WOSEN works to unleash the entrepreneurial energy and capacity of women who have solutions that put people and the planet first. Together, we are redesigning how business supports are provided so these entrepreneurs can build the skills, make the connections, and receive the coaching needed to achieve their missions.

CSI is offering four initiatives within the WOSEN program:

One-to-one coaching to help your enterprise flourish.

An ongoing support system for women and gender non-binary entrepreneurs looking to get investment-ready!

A free, 9 week program for women and gender non-binary people who are at an ideation stage.

Support for women entrepreneurs and changemakers navigating the competing demands of a growing venture.

CSI Coaches

Creating a resilient, sustainable social enterprise model involves community – not only those who support your business, but also those who support YOU, the entrepreneur. Through CSI Coaches, we offer one-on-one coaching to help you create long-lasting positive impact.

Whether you are looking to

Looking to develop and validate your business model
Establish your value proposition
Build a sustainable financial model
Create an engaging and effective marketing strategy
Fundraise or secure investment
Hone your pitch and narrative
Refine your leadership style
Pivot or adapt your organization as the impact of COVID-19 continues to develop

or want support in starting or growing your venture, we can help!

CSI in partnership with Lean4Flourishing and WOSEN is offering social entrepreneurship coaching spots to 25 women identified & gender non-binary social entrepreneurs that are creating social and/or environmental impact.

Through this program, we will match you with an expert coach to support you in navigating the challenges of social entrepreneurship.

Application will be based on a rolling intake until all 25 spots are filled.

You will be assigned to a skilled and experienced social enterprise coach and you will receive five, 90-minute coaching sessions.

If you are interested in this program please fill out the application form above. If you are selected for CSI Coaches you will be matched with a highly skilled social enterprise coach. Our team of coaches have valuable experience in various aspects of social entrepreneurship in a variety of sectors and contexts – from building robust financial models to pitch deck presentations. Through our intake process you will be matched with a coach that is most aligned with your work and can provide the best support to you and your organization.

Applicant Requirements

You identify as a woman or gender non binary
Leading a social purpose business – that can be a charity, nonprofit, or social enterprise (Note: you do not have to be revenue-generating yet)
The social enterprise is at least 51% women or non binary owned or led.
Your social enterprise has a product or service that will create measurable positive impact in your community
You are motivated and receptive to learning, feedback, and new ideas
You want to be part of and contribute to an outstanding community of women
You reside within Central Ontario
You are at least 18 years old

Canadian citizenship is not required to participate in the Women Coaching Women Program.

Participant Commitment

Be able to commit to your assigned coaching sessions. If you have to cancel, please do so at least 48 hours in advance.

Investment Readiness Sandbox

As an entrepreneur it can be hard work searching and preparing for the right grant, loan, or investment. You want to use your time well when looking for opportunities and being positioned to succeed.

The Women of Ontario Social Enterprise Network (WOSEN) is hosting the Investment Readiness Sandbox for women and gender non-binary people who lead established social ventures, who have a defined capital need, and who are preparing for funding or investment in the coming year.

Program Dates: January 2020 – June 2021, meeting once a month on the first Wednesday of the month.

What can you gain?

Prepare for current funding opportunities matched to your needs
Learn how to articulate your value proposition and venture purpose in a way that helps build relationships with prospective funders
Understand when a grant, loan, or investment is best for your venture and how to prepare
Partake in peer-to-peer learning and facilitator-led discussions which will help you map out a clear and actionable capital plan
Tailored approach to meet the needs of your venture and industry

What will you do in the Sandbox?

Participate in one three-hour overview of your Social Venture Financial Planning Tool on Wednesday, January 6th, 9:30-12:30
Once accepted you can choose to attend the following activities as it fits for you:
- Join monthly sessions on investment readiness topic areas that meets your current needs
- Connect with investors
- Access to individualized advisory supports
- Monthly peer circles
- Monthly buddy calls
- Receive funding and opportunity updates in our Slack Group

Criteria

Women identified or gender non-binary
Founder or 51% ownership of a social purpose business – that can be a charity, non-profit, or social enterprise that is revenue-generating and has a defined social or ecological purpose
Must be incorporated as a for-profit, not-for-profit, cooperative, or charity with:
- Working full-time on the venture with
- Earned revenue from the venture
  - Seeking to raise capital for a defined purpose through a loan application, or a grant, or an equity raise over the next 12- 24 months; or seeking to receive COVID response supports
- Submit a business plan or an outline of the capital needs of your organization

If you are thinking about this opportunity but are in an earlier stage of development please see our START and GROW programs on this page.

The Start Program

Trying to figure out whether or not you want to be a social entrepreneur?

Join the Start program to explore an area that matters to you and your community and uncover the possibilities of what your social impact can look like. If you’re ready to invest in your personal and professional growth and motivated to learn new skills, this is the program for you!

Applications to the Fall 2020 cohort are now closed. Sign up here to be the first to know when applications for the Winter 2021 cohort open.

INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP COACHING

PEER CIRCLES

TOOLS AND RESOURCES

NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES

We’ve designed this program to allow you to explore whether social entrepreneurship is right for you, while gaining valuable skills that will help your career regardless of the path you choose.

After the 9-week program is done you will have a deeper understanding of social entrepreneurship and will have:

Explored an issue that matters to you
Engaged in a deep dive to understand why it matters to you and your community
Unraveled what your social impact could look like as you develop your enterprise idea.

You will also be connected to an experienced coach that will help you with the next steps of your journey.

Applications to the Fall 2020 cohort are now closed. Sign up here to be the first to know when applications for the Winter 2021 cohort open.

Week 0: Onboarding & Orientation!

This is a wonderful opportunity for us to get to know each other and create connections. We will also help you unpack some questions you may be wondering about, such as:

How do I navigate this online offering in the most efficient way?
What is WOSEN? Exploring the WOSEN network & Design Principles that are incorporated into programming.
Setting intentions: What is my vision & personal learning goals?
How can I engage better with my peers? Exploring the Active Listening Framework.

Weeks 1-4: Explore and gain a “bird’s eye view” of the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Expand your knowledge of systems you are part of. Discover your network and how you can utilize it.

Together, we’ll begin with some of the big questions you may be asking yourself, such as:

What is entrepreneurship and what is social entrepreneurship?
What is it really like? Exploring a day in the life of an entrepreneur.
How do I define success? What does that look like for me?
What does social impact mean? How do you generate social impact?
How do I navigate through this complex ecosystem?

Weeks 5-8: Discover and explore your purpose and areas of interest. Build on your skills, and strengthen your entrepreneurial competencies. Create an action plan for yourself.

Questions answered during this phase include:

What skills and resources do I need to get started? Where can I find them?
How do I create social and/or environmental impact?
How do I build an action plan to move my idea forward?
How can I learn from other women’s entrepreneurial journeys?
Who am I as a leader? And how can I utilize people within my network as I take the next step?

After the 9-week program is done you will have:

Explored an issue that matters to you
Engaged in a deep dive to understand why it matters to you and your community
Unravelled what your social impact could look like as you develop your enterprise idea.

You will also be connected to an experienced coach that will help you with the next steps of your journey.

You will gain a deeper understanding of social entrepreneurship and also gain entrepreneurial skills that will help you in any career path, regardless of whether or not you decide to start a social purpose business.

Week 0: How to navigate the online offering, awareness of WOSEN, creating connections, setting intentions, importance of active & deep listening skills through the program.

WEEK 0 – Onboarding & Orientation Session

Weeks 1-4: Igniting imagination, discovering and expanding your understanding of yourself, larger networks and social impact.

WEEK 1 – Social Entrepreneurship & your story of self
WEEK 2 – Exploring orthodoxies & awareness of the entrepreneurship ecosystem
WEEK 3 – Exploring inner journeys & definitions of success
WEEK 4 – Taking an ecosystem approach for social impact & navigating systems

Weeks 5-8: Themes: Building skills while strengthening, practicing, and experimenting.

WEEK 5 – Unravelling your entrepreneurial toolkit & building networks of support
WEEK 6 – Fostering mindsets & building action plans
WEEK 7 – Exploring first steps & cautionary tales
WEEK 8 – Expanding networks of support & connecting with your coach

Entrepreneurial Competencies You’ll Gain

The Start program will allow you to gain many entrepreneurial competencies no matter what path you decide to take after the program ends! Here are some of the skills you will learn from this course:

Personal & Community Asset Mapping: Identify your strengths (assets) and gaps, and learn how to connect to external resources to help you succeed.
Storytelling: Crafting and telling stories to understand the impact you want to make and learning how to connect with audiences.
Critical Thinking & Research Skills: Learn how to problem solve, collect data and analyze it.
Design & Systems Thinking: Understanding the numerous factors that contribute to a problem you are wanting to solve.
Active Listening: Learn how to listen deeply and effectively in order to build strong relationships.
Inner Confidence & Awareness: Gain inner strength to connect to your values and goals.
Time Management & Goal Setting: Set realistic goals for your action plan.
Decision Making: Selecting the best course of action that will bring about authentic change.

Application Period

August 19: Applications Open
September 13th: Applications Close
Week of September 21st: Selected Participants Notified

Program Dates

Wednesday October 7th, 6 – 9pm: Orientation & Onboarding Week 0
Online, every Wednesday (October 14th – December 2nd), 6 – 9pm: Programming Weeks 1-8
TBD once program starts: 1-hour, weekly peer support groups (in between workshops)

Note: Start will be offered again for 9 weeks online (daytime programming from 9:30am – 12:30pm) beginning February 2021. Stay tuned for the next round of applications in December 2020.

Are you motivated to explore what it’s like being a social entrepreneur to create a positive change?

Applicant Requirements

You identify as a woman or gender non binary
Your social enterprise idea is a produce or service the will create measurable positive exchange in your community
You are at least 18 years old
You are interested in becoming a social entrepreneur
You are motivated and open to learning, feedback, and new ideas
You want to be part of & contribute to an outstanding community of women
You are available to join evening programming (Wednesdays from 6pm to 9pm).

Canadian citizenship is not required to participate in the Start program.

Participant Commitment

Attend 9 online workshop sessions (Wednesdays from 6pm to 9pm)
Be able to commit between 4-6 hours per week
Participate in a 1 hour weekly peer support group session (throughout the program)
Complete relevant coursework and exercises at your own pace
Attend three one-hour, one-to-one coaching sessions (a three-hour commitment outside of class)
Always show respect and empathy towards your fellow participants
Supporting WOSEN’s commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility

Questions? For more information, please contact Mitalie Makhani, Senior Programs Manager & WOSEN Central Ontario Program Lead, at mitalie[at]socialinnovation.ca.

The Grow Accelerator

Ready to take your social purpose business to the next level? This program is for you!

Grow is a three-month accelerator launching in 2021 designed to support women-led, validation-stage social enterprises. Participants will benefit from one-to-one coaching with experienced coaches, in-class learning opportunities, and workspace at the Centre for Social Innovation.

To qualify for Grow you will need to meet the following criteria:

You are woman-identifying or gender non-binary
50% or more of your business is women-owned
Your business or start-up is a for-profit or a nonprofit
You have a social purpose business with some initial traction
You are motivated and open to learning, feedback, and new ideas
You want to be part of an outstanding community of women
You are available to join daytime programming in Toronto held at CSI Annex (720 Bathurst Ave.) or online programming

Canadian citizenship is not required to participate.

Interested in Grow? Sign up to be notified when applications open!

More About WOSEN

The Women of Ontario Social Enterprise Network (WOSEN) is a collaborative led by Pillar Nonprofit Network alongside Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), SVX, NORDIK Institute and Lean 4 Flourishing. WOSEN proposes to broaden and diversify the entrepreneurial ecosystem supporting women through inclusive program design. This will support 150 new women-led social enterprises across Ontario and help grow 75 existing ones, as well as offer 10 women-centred innovation training sessions to 250 people in 12 communities. CSI, along with members of the WOSEN partnership are committed to moving forward a set of key design principles in our Start program & Grow accelerator.

Our programs are designed to be:

Inclusive and accessible
Systems-informed
Decolonized
Responsive
Human-centred

Inclusion and Diversity

CSI is dedicated to equity and inclusion, and encourages participation of women entrepreneurs from underserved and underrepresented communities – including Indigenous and two-spirit women, trans women, women with disabilities, racialized women and newcomer women, and all other women-identified people experiencing systemic barriers to success.

Partners and Funders

WOSEN is funded in part by the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. The Government of Canada is advancing gender equality, women’s economic empowerment, and supporting women entrepreneurs through the new Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, announced in the Budget 2018. It is a $2-billion investment that seeks to double the number of women-owned businesses by 2025.

Fed Dev Ontario

Women of Ontario Social Enterprise Network

Part of the CSI Accelerates Initiative

At CSI, we support entrepreneurs’ success with resources, mentors, expertise and connections that lead to viable enterprising solutions. Learn more about our approach here.

WOSEN

SUPPORT FOR YOUR WOMEN-LED SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

CSI Coaches

Applicant Requirements

Participant Commitment

Investment Readiness Sandbox

The Start Program

Entrepreneurial Competencies You’ll Gain

Application Period

Program Dates

Applicant Requirements

Participant Commitment

The Grow Accelerator

More About WOSEN

Inclusion and Diversity

Partners and Funders

Part of the CSI Accelerates Initiative

CSI Life

CSI Spaces

CSI Connects

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR Newsletters

Programs & Projects »

WOSEN

SUPPORT FOR YOUR WOMEN-LED SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

CSI Coaches

Investment Readiness Sandbox

The Start Program

The Grow Accelerator

More About WOSEN

Inclusion and Diversity

Partners and Funders

Part of the CSI Accelerates Initiative

CSI Life

CSI Spaces

CSI Connects

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR Newsletters