Trico Homes builds social enterprise
As a homebuilder, it helps put roofs over people’s heads, and as a community- builder, it helps give dreams legs.
Trico Homes, which has built more than 8,000 single- and multi- family homes, established the Trico Charitable Foundation in 2008 under the leadership of Wayne Chiu, the company’s founder.
Wayne and Eleanor Chiu have a passion for entrepreneurship as well as an awareness for the need for creative solutions to ensure sustainability in the non- profit sector.
“We want to be an encouragement to those in the non- profit sector by enabling and empowering them to address social issues in a sustainable way,” says Wayne Chiu.
“As a business, we want to bring social value to what we do.”
Social entrepreneurship pursues innovative solutions to social problems by adopting a mission to create and sustain social value, while social enterprises are business operations run by charities or non- profit organizations in which
Wewant to be an encouragement to those in the non- profit sector by enabling and empowering them to address social issues in a sustainable way.”
— Wayne Chiu, Trico Homes
any revenue generated is reinvested into the charity to support its programs and operations.
Chiu says social enterprise encourages greater resiliency and independence within the non- profit sector, since it helps non- profits stabilize and diversify their funding sources while contributing to their programs or services.
The Trico Charitable Foundation supports social entrepreneurship in several ways.
It helped launch Enterprising Non- Profits Alberta, which provides funding and educational opportunities for Alberta- based non- profit organizations to evaluate and enhance their social enterprises.
As well, workshops are held throughout the year for organizations interested in securing business development funding from the Trico Charitable Foundation.
The foundation also established Social EnterPrize, an awards program that honours Canadian leaders and nonprofit organizations that are effectively using social enterprise to deepen their community impact.
The Trico Charitable Foundation is also the founding partner of the Canadian Youth Business Foundation’s social preneur program, an initiative that provides funding and support for young social business entrepreneurs throughout Alberta.
“When we marry our business with social entrepreneurship, we encourage others to do the same,” says Chiu. “This is also why we like to partner with organizations like Calgary Economic Development to maximize our impact.”
Over the past 22 years, Trico Homes has established a well- known reputation for integrity and quality and has earned many awards as a great place towork and for being an exceptionally well- managed company.
“Right nowwe are focused on building on our financial strength and using our profits to sustain our current operations,” says Chiu. “And we want to continue to influence others to engage in and support social entrepreneurship. This is what we want our legacy to be.”