Mapping the Gap: Strengthening Impact Measurement Systems for Immigration-Focused Social Finance in Canada

This project will place an intern with Propel Impact, a national non-profit, to support its growing work in social innovation and social finance in Ottawa and Ontario. The Mitacs intern will help Propel Impact and its partners, including social enterprises, community foundations, and impact investing funds, strengthen how they measure and communicate the outcomes of their work with immigrants, refugees, and international students in Canada. The intern will focus on researching the immigration policy ecosystem, engaging key stakeholders, and gathering impact data from organizations working on newcomer inclusion. They will also build a relationship management system to track these partnerships, and develop impact reports, data visualizations, and case studies that translate complex data into compelling stories for funders and partners. This work will allow Propel Impact to serve a greater number of organizations than it could otherwise support, while generating knowledge, frameworks, and tools that will be shared broadly across Canada’s Social Innovation/Social Finance sector. The expected benefit to Propel Impact is significant: the intern will directly expand the organization’s capacity in a critical and underserved area, helping bridge a gap in standardized impact data and evidence-based frameworks for organizations advancing newcomer inclusion across the country.

Faculty Supervisor:

Christine Gibb

Student:

Partner:

Propel Impact

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education; Management of companies and enterprises; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Ottawa

Program: