We're in this together

In Part One, we looked at innovative solutions from SPOs across the sector, who stepped up to the challenge of the pandemic and saw the opportunity to ensure responsive service delivery. Through this lens of opportunity, SPOs in our portfolio have also emphasized the value of developing partnerships and working more closely across the sector to collectively support their communities.

Partnerships emanate the opportunity to incorporate the ideas, feedback, and thoughts of people with different points of view. Listening to these perspectives enables the realization of synergies, which helps build trust, create an atmosphere of positive problem solving, and results in bigger, bolder solutions.

We have also seen this play out in our own partnerships as well. In October, LIFT partnered with the Canadian Women’s Foundation to help strengthen the impact measurement and revenue diversification capabilities of women-serving SPOs pursuing impact investment. The partnership has shown us how we can continue to reach more communities and create a bigger impact through collective efforts.

Our most recent partnership with Social Venture Connexion (SVX) has also shown us how we can combine our social impact toolkits to increase support to more SPOs during the pandemic. Together, we recently launched an 8-week pilot project to help a handful of SPOs in Eastern Ontario recover from the impacts of COVID-19 and scale innovative solutions while learning from others facing similar goals and challenges.

As we move into pandemic recovery and beyond, we have learned:

• Inclusive innovation through collaboration will lead to better outcomes. Real change can be achieved through collective action that includes all voices.
• Partner with unusual suspects to achieve a shared vision. It is important that a partnership strategy cast a broad and strategic net to identify like-minded organizations, sometimes unusual suspects, that share your vision and goals.
• The power of peer networks. Sharing and learning from diverse insights and perspectives helps work through the ‘stickiness’ of adapting and evolving to unforeseen demands.

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LIFT is grateful for the continued support of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, our corporate partners, pro-bono partners, and individual investors.