An Open Letter to the Non-Profit Sector: Let’s Build the Community of our Dreams – Centre for Social Innovation

Most people know me for my work co-founding, building, and leading the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI). Some of you will be too young to remember this, but 16 years ago, when we opened the first CSI, it was because we were a sector in crisis. Various governments had spent nearly a decade hollowing out civil society. Funding was scarce, and shrinking, and everyone was looking for ways to survive. It was a situation that demanded new ideas, collaborations and models. This moment of disruption was the genesis of CSI. Of CSI’s founding 14 members, 13 were non-profit organizations who came together to share an office. We alchemized the crisis into the creation of the largest social innovation community in Canada, and from this community, incredible people and organizations have advanced countless solutions to address the complex issues our societies are facing.

Despite our rent pool, we have lost some wonderful organizations. Some have called it quits, many have just moved home to wait out the pandemic. We feel comfortable and safe where we feel at home.

And it is precisely that image, the safety of home, that I want to evoke to my NPO friends when I ask you: . Let us welcome you into our warm, brick-and-beam communities. We have safe spaces for you. We have offices of all shapes and sizes, one for every budget. They are clean, they are sanitized, they are full of smiles behind safe glass walls. They are the right size for you now. They are flexible and will adapt to your growing or shrinking. And most importantly: they are already full of your nonprofit friends and family. There are more than a hundred nonprofits already here who understand you, who want to help you, who want to dance with you when you nail that next grant (and might even help you do it). Let’s build the community of our dreams.

My promise to you is this: we will do all we can to help you get here. We will do everything in our power to match your space and budget needs. When you pay your rent now, where does your money go? Who does it sustain? Do they care about you? Would they risk it all to get you through to the other side?

We will. We have. We are your community-owned home.

Send us an email with what you’re looking for, and let’s get the conversation started.