Social Enterpreneurship
You are an investor at a fund that is looking to support a social enterprise and there are three
social enterprises in the Greater Toronto Area that have caught your attention: Furniture Bank,
A-Way Express and Toronto Tool Library. You are to conduct an in-depth review of each social
enterprise (check out their websites, facts, and profiles) and as an investor, you are to choose
one of the three that your fund will support.
§ Furniture Bank accepts furniture donations, which they then provide to those in need. The
enterprise generates revenue by charging a pick-up fee for furniture donations (donors
can also opt to deliver their old furniture themselves).
§ A-Way Express offers same-day courier service within Toronto, generating revenue by
charging their clients for each delivery. Couriers make their deliveries on foot and with
public transit.
§ Toronto Tool Library, a non-profit organization that offers access to thousands of tools for
home renovations, gardening and lawn maintenance, repairs and more through
membership fees which help provide the organization with revenue.
For your report, you are expected to provide a background and analysis of each company based
on your findings (not the summary that is listed above). Your objective is to pick one of the
three that you would support based on your findings. Discuss why you chose the social
enterprise that you did by presenting a rationale based on your analysis (be sure to compare to
the other two social enterprises and discuss why you would not choose them – i.e., what is the
information that is missing or challenges that you can see arise with the enterprise). The
analysis of each enterprise should seek to answer the following guiding questions:
1. What is the company’s mission statement? Social value proposition?
2. How is the company challenging the existing problem, identifying opportunities and
creating new possibilities?
3. What kind of operating model does the company have?
4. Is the company addressing short vs. long term needs? Symptoms or underlying causes of
problems?
5. What kind of potential do you see in the company? Explain.
