I founded Social Strategies after years of working impact jobs that left me feeling like I wasn't really making an impact.

I did everything I thought I should do. I traveled, studied, took innumerable jobs abroad in the non-profit sector. More often than not I ended up feeling ... stuck. Like I was making a fraction of the impact I wanted to make, either because of constraints facing the organizations I worked for, the red tape associated with getting projects approved, or both.

My colleagues often felt the same. The relatively lower paychecks compared to the for-profit sector didn't help either. I was surrounded by good-hearted individuals whose desire to make a difference was held back by limited time, power and resources. Fast forward a few years and I saw many of my peers leave the non-profit space for better-paying positions in for-profit companies, often cringing while they did so. Many talked to me about the difficult reality of taking work they felt didn't align with their values or feed their desire for impact.

As I considered what this all meant for me, a lightbulb went on. What if there was another way? What if I could get away from the traditional non-profit model and find another way to make an impact? This led me to pursue professional development in social enterprise development and take several jobs in consulting firms focused on social innovation. My work let me be part of teams that helped big-name organizations build impact-driven businesses, test ideas and amplify their impact. I was hooked.

‍Enter Social Strategies, the brain child of my years in the social impact space. I founded Social Strategies with two goals:

➜ to increase the number of social businesses out there solving problems in the world

➜ to make social enterprise development accessible to regular, everyday people who don't have big-name funding or institutions behind them, and don't feel like business wizzes

Through my work I have had the opportunity to help some truly amazing initiatives move forward. A snapshot of some of the businesses I have had the honour of working with include:

➜ a home decor and plant e-commerce business that employs and supports people with mental health disabilities
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➜ a local food initiative that allows customers to support their local community by buying boxes of locally-sourced produce online, with the option to donate boxes to individuals in need

➜ a security firm that employs and supports at risk youth with barriers to employment

➜ an urban hydroponic farm that sells organic produce at cost to promote food security in its community

‍➜ an online english language tutoring platform that sells low cost tutoring packages to help newcomers gain employment-focused language skills

... and many more.

Come say hi and learn more about me and the work I do with with my network of amazing collaborators!

xx

Hannah
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