RECODE provides social innovation
and entrepreneurship opportunities for
College and University students
to become drivers of progress and change.
Our Story
Launched in 2014, RECODE is an initiative of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, created in collaboration with thought leaders and partners from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.
“RECODE builds on the Foundation’s long history of support for Canada’s post-secondary sector, and aims to strengthen support for students who want to work on creating new approaches to the challenges of our time.” ~ Stephen Huddart , President and CEO, The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation
In the Spring of 2014 we invited universities and colleges from across Canada to apply for RECODE funding to support the development of their on campus social innovation and social entrepreneurship initiatives and activities. In November 2014, 19 grants were provided to 26 schools. To learn more about these schools and the work they’re doing, visit our On Campus section.
What RECODE Strives For
RECODE is a call to social innovation—to redesign public institutions from the inside out; to disrupt business as usual; to found and grow new social enterprises; to create partnerships across institutional and sectoral boundaries – in short, to ‘recode’ our culture’s operating systems in order to achieve a more just, sustainable and beautiful world.
RECODE’s Goals
- Support the development of ‘ecologies’ of social innovation and entrepreneurship within and in proximity to colleges and universities, along with business, community and public sector partners.
- Establish a national network to advance systems-level change in Canada through collaboration, knowledge mobilization and storytelling, research and experimentation, the dissemination of competency and capacity-building tools.
- Provide opportunities for students to learn about (and experiment with) social innovation and entrepreneurship through experiential, cross-curricular and multi-disciplinary learning on campus, MOOCs and other online learning platforms, student clubs, conferences and competitions, exchanges and events.
- Support the incubation and growth of new social enterprises, and social innovations.
- Foster the growth of social finance and impact investing.