Channeling investment into the citizen sector

ASHOKA FELLOW, TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA

Aaron Pereira is pioneering Canada’s only national financial institution dedicated to serving citizen sector organizations (CSO). CSOs are integral to the Canadian economy - employing over 1 million people and comprising 9%of the GDP - but are largely denied access to the credit and advisory services essential to their fiscal growth. His project, Vartana, targets this problem by providing the resources that CSOs currently lack: savings accounts, credit, investments, and financial advice. The financial institution will be governed by CSOs themselves, with investments from a variety of stakeholders, and yields that are reinvested with tax benefits to sustain a sound financial base.

Vartana's new national financial platform has been under development since 2004 and will unlock tens of millions in new financing. Aaron has collaborated across sectors, with banks presidents, law firms, business schools, and foundation leaders, and his initiative was endorsed in the 2004 Federal Budget. Through Vartana, Aaron is laying the foundation of an infrastructure that will sustain CSOs, and changing the system of investing in citizen sector organizations. Most recently, Aaron has been developing a new initiative, SharePower, to increase shareholder activism.

Speech Topics

• Social Financial Services
• Youth, Social Entrepreneruship and Innovation
• Cross-sector Collaboration