Social Finance Fund: glossary

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• Equity-Deserving Groups (alternatively known as equity-seeking or equity-denied groups)
• Social Finance Intermediary (SFI)
• Social Purpose Organizations (SPOs)

Equity-Deserving Groups (alternatively known as equity-seeking or equity-denied groups)

Communities who have been historically marginalized and excluded from participating in society and face particular and significant barriers due to their intersecting identities, including race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, age, and disability. Equity-Deserving Groups include, but are not limited to:

• 2SLGBTQI+
• black peoples
• first generation immigrants, refugees and newcomers
• Indigenous peoples: First Nations, Inuit, Métis
• official language minority communities
• other racialized peoples
• people living with a disability (including invisible and episodic disabilities)
• women and gender diverse peoples

Social Finance Intermediary (SFI)

Financial entities (e.g., community loan funds, venture capital funds, housing funds, credit unions) that raise money from investors to make Social Finance Investments.

Social Purpose Organizations (SPOs)

Organizations dedicated to a clearly articulated social or environmental purpose. To be considered social or environmental, an organization's purpose must aim to deliver better outcomes in an area related to the well-being of individuals and communities, including, but not limited to: innovative provision of social, health and housing services; the prevention or relief of poverty; the preservation of the natural environment; support for civic engagement and participation; the advancement of the arts, sports, sciences, education or knowledge; or the delivery of supports to individuals in vulnerable situations.

The social or environmental outcomes must be at a level where a reasonable person would consider its achievement the focus of and not incidental to the organization's purpose. For example, the creation of jobs, provision of training, creation of financial benefits, or environmental mitigation that may occur as a by-product of the organization's activities would not be a sufficient demonstration of purpose to qualify the organization as a Social Purpose Organization.

In addition to having a clearly demonstrable social or environmental purpose, a Social Purpose Organization may also have a profit purpose (i.e., generate profit for individuals, owners, and members).

A Social Purpose Organization may be a registered charity, a non-profit organization, a non-profit co-operative, a for-profit co-operative, a hybrid corporation or a for-profit business. A Social Purpose Organization is autonomous from government unless that government is an Indigenous government. A business will not automatically be considered a social purpose organization by virtue of being collectively owned (e.g., community-owned enterprise, Band-owned enterprise, or a co-operative).

It is expected that, generally, the purpose of the Social Purpose Organization shall not be to make further Social Finance Investments in other entities or persons, in which case they would be considered a Social Finance Intermediary.