Community Ownership Solutions Inc. (“COS”) is unique in Canada.
COS is a registered charity which functions as a development corporation working to support Canadian Social Enterprise and poverty reduction. Working with an established and growing network of donors, we receive charitable donations, provide donors tax receipts, and deploy donated funds to affiliated donee enterprises.
COS Affiliates offer quality jobs to low income populations in Canada. We are headquartered in Winnipeg and registered in Manitoba, Ontario, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.
COS is set up to own social enterprises and to assist non-owned enterprises. The COS strategy cuts across the sectors of the Canadian economy that typically offer low barrier employment with structured training and that have a high impact on community well-being. Our Affiliates are most active in building renovation and construction, healthy food, energy development, and neighbourhood improvement. We will entertain proposals from any sector as long as a poverty reduction goal is well conceived.
COS has a rigorous approach to identifying, qualifying, and engaging potentially affiliated enterprises. Prospective Affiliates are required to apply to COS with a standard Application Form. Once we find that there is symmetry between our goals and the avowed intent of an Applicant, a Memorandum of Agreement is signed to confirm Affiliate status, and a Funding Agreement is arranged to confirm the flow of donated funds and donee reporting requirements.
Reducing poverty is a big goal. Focusing poverty reduction on business models and on high quality employment practice requires a lot of collaborative team work.
COS associates with a growing range of organizations and individuals in Canada that value collaboration as a way to maximize impact. We are located in and associate with the Social Enterprise Center in Winnipeg and collaborate with its affiliated firms. We have an established interest in the work of Tides Canada, The Lawson Foundation, and the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (“BALLE”). Creating wider collaborations with the range of other Canadian Foundations and organizations that have an interest in Canadian Social Enterprise is a basic intention of our work.
We are serious about our work. We are diligent about administration and reporting to donors. We are fair and supportive with affiliated enterprises and managers. We expect results.