October - Big News
I get excited about everything, so to me it’s always ‘Big News’.
October has come and gone and what a beautiful month it was to enjoy. But boy, was I was busy. I spent some time in Kimberely, BC, taking in the fall colours and attending the KORE 2023 Summit. What an engaging event! KORE is a network of outdoor gear manufactures and designers in the Kootenays. They are leading the industry with their innovative collaborations and sustainability initiatives. I had the pleasure of working with their Director, Kevin Pennock on a funding proposal and I am excited to see all the amazing things they are going to do going forward.
I was invited to sign-up with the Columbia Basin Trust’s Non-Profit Advisor’s Program as a consultant. I look forward to the opportunity to work with more area Not-for-Profits through this initiative. And like so many of you out there, I am very grateful to the Columbia Basin Trust for all of the innovative and progressive projects they support in our region.
Communities Futures East Kootenays is hosting a six-month Communities of Practice around Social Enterprise in partnership with Purpple - a social impact organization based in Kelowna - and I feel so lucky to be a part of it! Social Enterprise is a brilliant model for sustainable Non-Profit funding. I also read Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus’s ‘Building Social Business’, which explores an emerging business model that is built around solving social problems. Social businesses are ‘free from profit’ - meaning the objective is to make a positive contribution to society, remain self-sufficient, without making money for investors beyond repayment of their initial investments. The take away for me is - there are many models of social enterprise, and I am determined to deepen my understanding and familiarity with them all.
I have also been reaping the benefits of working with my business coach - Jess Piccinin. Jess is a Self-Employment Business Counsellor with Community Futures Central Kootenays, and a successful entrepreneur and business owner in her own right. I mean she runs a farm and feeds people. Talk about social purpose. Check out her successful enterprise - Root & Vine Acres - and get locally grown meats and produce delivered to a local communal pick-up site. And if I wasn’t just basking in all the community support available to us here in our rural small-town communities, along comes an amazing opportunity to partake in a national e-series for self-identifying female entrepreneurs with The Forum. And that’s not the best part - the 6 day live sessions with a community of peers, and 12 months of 1:1 mentorship, with a valued cost of $3500, was generously covered by Teck because of where I live - what! As a gold sponsor for the program, Teck covered the costs for any registrants who reside in a community where they operate. Thank you Teck, what a gift.
So that was October. Productive, engaging, full of hard work and great conversations. As of today, I am on track to bring $1.3 Million in funding into our communities through my grant writing activities. And to me, that is BIG News.