WREN Proposal (developed by Green Rocket)

WATERLOO REGION ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK (WREN)

COMMUNITY PROPOSAL AUG 2014 v2.0

WREN Proposal (developed by Green Rocket)

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Table of Contents 1.0 WREN’s Vision, Opportunity & Role ………… 1.1 Vision 1.2 WREN’s Opportunity & Role 2.0 Research Summary + Key Findings…………. 3.0 Meeting WREN’s Needs………………………… 3.1 Programming 3.2 Digital Hub 3.3 Physical Hub 4.0 Governance ………………………………………….. 5.0 Financials……………………………………………….. 5.1 Proposed Revenue Models 5.2 Proposed Membership Model 5.3 Funding Approach 6.0 Timeline + Next Steps…………………………….. 7.0 Concluding Thoughts ……………………………..

4 4 5 6 8 8 10 12 13 14 14 15 16 16 17


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Executive Summary

Vision: Create a resilient ecosystem for Waterloo Region’s environmental community that defines, enables, and measures collaborative impact.

Mission: Using a three-tiered approach, WREN enables successful collaboration through ongoing programming, resource and knowledge sharing* 1 Resilience refers to the community’s ability to use resources to respond to, withstand, and recover from challenges and change. 2 Our ecosystem is the network of sustainability focused organizations in Waterloo Region, and the surrounding community we serve.

WREN’S THREE-TIERED APPROACH: 1. Programming & Events: Facilitating connections, and driving collaborative action within the local environmental community 2. Digital Hub: Providing a virtual platform for an agile, customizable shared space that hosts resources and coordinates action, priorities, and communications across the network. 3. Physical Hub: Securing opportunities for affordable shared office and related physical space and resource needs from community partners, in order to help individual organizational and network objectives grow in capacity.

TIMING CONSIDERATIONS: Finalize WREN Community Proposal – Aug Develop funding presentations - Aug Develop funding proposals - Aug Charity incorporation - Early Sept Submit + present funding proposals - Sept – Nov #WRENE2014 - Late Sept


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1.0 WREN’s Vision, Opportunity & Role 1.1 Vision Hello, community. Imagine the value of our actions, ideas, and interactions when we can capture the power of and output from working together. Every conversation you’ve shared where the spark of an idea was formed. Each moment where that idea evolved through collaboration to action; achieving more, together. Consider the hours you have spent investing into a cause where your time has real community impact. WREN’s vision and mission encompass a platform to make working together count towards community and individual organizational objectives by facilitating and capturing the value of collaboration, while connecting people to ideas, resources, and each other. This report is a summary of the working proposal developed by Green Rocket with community inputs. In a change driven landscape amidst a world of scarce resources, collaboration is critical to propelling ourselves forwards within a sustainable community ecosystem.1 There is a profound recognition for the sense of community innovation that is nurtured here in Waterloo Region. In this opportunity, we have the chance to bring our capacity to the next level and create the resources to make our community connections shine! Green Rocket proposes to help the community realize WREN’s vision through a three tiered approach. As the executive summary indicates, this ranges from facilitating connections and active collaborations through: 1. Programming events 2. Shared digital resources 3. Shared physical resources The latter of which would help form community hubs of knowledge, resources, reporting, impact, and related co-working advantages. The visual to the right recalls Green Rocket’s proposed 3-tiered approach for WREN.

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REF


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1.2 WREN’s Opportunity & Role What community problem is WREN addressing? WREN helps organizations overcome barriers to collaboration, such as the ability track collaborative outcomes effectively. Recall, WREN’s focus is on making it easy for organizations to achieve more together. In line with its foci, WREN is in fact collaboratively envisioned by its members as well. Since 2012, over 120 organizations and individuals in Waterloo Region have given input through multiple community discussions to define a vision and role for WREN. WREN defined by WREN (at #WRENE2012, December 5th, 2012): "A supportive, cohesive network that works together to achieve common goals using our complimentary approaches/strengths." In particular, to help their own organizational capacity, the network has identified a need for engagement, knowledge sharing, and coordination of collaborative efforts.

Specifically, WREN's role has been defined by meeting needs such as to: • Empower citizens/outlet to bring people together • Tell the good news stores – give people hope • Connect people together as the first step to connecting projects • Create a supportive environment through mentoring and learning together • Make connections while promoting diversity • Act as a facilitator In addition to defining WREN’s role, input from the network has also highlighted several values as being integral to the success of WREN’s activities:  Resilience – The need to be able to survive change and evolve with the network.  Cohesiveness - Connecting people, needs, research, and outcomes– Create processes and methods which foster collaboration, not competition.  Shared Learning/’Next’ Practice –Not just “best” practices, but next practices share collective experience to move the vision forward, by helping to reduce silos and together ask “what next?” as a community.  Functionality - Present a functional model which represents a consistent stakeholder “shared" network.  Measureable Results - Can be seen through deliverables, accountability, what WREN stands for, and our capacity to track collaborations and outcomes  Integrity – A clear definition a vision with governance and leadership which creates confidence that investing time, ideas, and resources in WREN will bring success to the community. In other words, the above summaries of community input demonstrate a strong need for a platform to enable efficient connections and collaboration within Waterloo Region’s environmental community, as the following section expands upon.


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2.0 Research Summary & Key Findings Green Rocket has undertaken a several types of research activities to develop a proposal on behalf of WREN. Supported by primary and secondary research and aligned with local, provincial and national pillars, this data establishes a strong foundation to justify the opportunity and strategy supporting the formal establishment of WREN as a community entity. Supports for the creation of a hub for WREN include the timing and readiness of the external trends and Waterloo Region for this project, enhanced by the willingness and need for collaboration within the environmental network itself. Key findings, conclusions from the network and additional research are introduced in Section 1.2 (WREN’s Role + Opportunity), outlined in the following visual, and further summarized below.

Readiness of Waterloo Region & Surrounding Environment Existing infrastructure and momentum combined with the local growth strategy makes Waterloo Region a perfect foundation with opportune timing for the initiative. Multiple reports and examples of success are indicated below.

WREN's Collective Needs Not only are collaborative hubs popping up in the region, but we have the opportunity to pilot a network that is ready:

Critical needs for efficient collaboration, shared resources and knowledge, amidst others, have been consistently defined by the network and reaffirmed by community partnership opportunities

Business Case for WREN WREN’s approach also aligns with trends in the business world, with a realm of success stories which act as role models for virtual, physical and programming-based resources to create effective collaboration. WREN additionally targets key provincial and national strategies of enabling social enterprises, knowledge mobilization and digital society. It uses community development and technology trends within collaboration to build strategy

Readiness of Waterloo Region: Locally, there is a strong focus in Waterloo Region on the collaborative infrastructure which already exists in addition to the technology community and other industry level partnerships. In a report by the


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Civics Research Cooperative (CRC), regional strategy identified the importance of several major factors to support collective community success. Amongst others, these included the need for:   

Providing access to shared resources and knowledge Creating capacity for the sustainability community to flourish Fostering a community network of mentoring and sharing

WREN’s Collective Needs: As indicated in Section 1.2 (WREN’s Role + Opportunity), WREN’s greatest opportunity is inherent within the network: as a community grown vision, all that is needed to bring it to life is the capacity to make these interactions efficient, and measure the outcomes of collaboration. A summary of the needs identified in WRENE2012, and WRENE 2013, is represented in the visual below:

Shared Physical space (partnerships with existing infrastructure in the region)

Communication Needs (ongoing avenues for communication and updates)

Knowledge sharing needs (collection, use and hosting of knowledge)

WREN Needs met via

Interactions / social capital /networking opportunities

1. Programming 2. Digital Hub

(scheduling, communication s, outreach, efficiency)

3. Physical Hub

(programming)

Shared learning/mentor network

Organizational Capacity

Shared Resource Needs (Funding/$$, volunteers)

External Trends and the Business Case for WREN: There are several additional external trends that make the WREN opportunity particularly timely and valuable. At a policy level, the provincial (Ontario) and federal governments are turning their focus to both digital society and social entrepreneurship, two major components of WREN. Although WREN


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intends to be incorporated as a charity, it will support Waterloo Region’s social sector and will also help build opportunities in the growing social enterprise sector. From the lens of digital society, building technology that enables community participation through a virtual hub will help build technical literacy and competency within the community. More importantly, because WREN will be able to measure the impact of collective success, people will be empowered to view and report on tangible benefits of collaboration. From a business perspective, the focus on collaborative work space, technology, and shared resources has been growing recently. Looking at role models, The Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) in Toronto, Canada has some excellent successes to consider for WREN. In fact, research from the CSI story directly supports a similar 3-pronged approach as WREN to forming collaborative success. The business case for each approach is additionally explored below. Additional reference, research methods, details, and additional conclusions can be accessed by contacting [email protected], and will also soon be hosted on the WREN community hub.

3.0 Meeting WREN’s Needs: Programming, Digital Hub, and Physical Hub 3.1 Programming + Events Overview:

Programming refers to a series of events and/or facilitated interactions planned for WREN members, facilitating ongoing community connections. For example, previous networking events, called #WRENE, are a part of the WREN programming stream at 3 per year. In line with CSI’s discussion of the need for active programming to foster ongoing communication, collaboration and connections between community, Green Rocket has seen great success in running events for the Waterloo Region Environmental Network (WREN). In fact, over 90% of WRENE participants have said they would return in post-event surveys.


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Functions/Services: Event streams, details, and objectives: 1. #WRENE events will be ones focused on networking and community updates and will be free to all WREN members. 2. Technical workshops will offered for free to WREN Impact members (see membership model) at cost (see revenue model) and be based on what learning the community feels needs to be highlighted, as surveyed within #WRENE events. 3. Community hackathons will be offered as action-oriented, customized events, and will involve the forward-moving progression of an identified community project or initiative, or development of a community resource as identified and prioritized by the network. Objectives of programming: Networking and Facilitating ongoing connections – A peer network is critical to organizational survival. Indeed, the value of a network with common values and diverse interests is high, and is fostered by programming. As CSI and other success models have demonstrated, the community culture and the ‘social capital’ or community bonds that support a network are integral to the sustainability of its interactions. Action-oriented opportunities and outcomes – WREN’s programming is designed to increase the capacity of WREN members and the surrounding community to convert sustainable interest into collective action, and improve the wellbeing of people and our planet together. For example: the community calendar improves the capacity of environmental organizations to plan events. Community Updates/Outreach – getting exposure to an audience of like minded people can help build momentum in any initiative. Through WREN, this audience is not only accessible, but managing communications involves minimal work for the organizational WREN member. Professional Development / Ongoing Learning – Shared learning can help develop best and ‘next’ practices for the community. In addition, learning needs can be prioritized by WREN members to access technical workshops and shared resources/knowledge through community connections.

Considerations: Revenue Potential: From a business perspective, programming is a value-added component to the membership model, and a potential revenue stream on its own. Cross-industry collaboration potential: Events are also an easy method to connect WREN members to other target areas of the community, such as technology, health, or education.

Fulfilling WREN’s Needs: Within this programming, WREN members will not only be sharing resources, but creating and evolving them. The networking aspect helps build connections to one another – strengthening the value of community interactions and “social capital”, allowing sharing of skills, learning, mentoring one another,


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and cohesive, regular communication. Going beyond just shared space or co-working resources, hosting and engaging events will help build brand and support the WREN vision.2

3.2 Digital Hub Overview: WREN will be supported by a digital platform for collaboration; in other words, an online hub that members can log into and access community resources and knowledge created and shared by WREN. In addition to resources, the hub becomes a virtual platform for working together to evolve community projects and priorities. Currently we are pursuing partnerships with local software providers that offer services in scheduling, event planning/ management, funding access and crowdfunding, outreach support, communications, volunteer recruitment, and more. These services will be available to WREN members with the opportunity of specialized/customized services, reporting, advertising, and more available via free and paid membership tiers.

Functions/Services: Green Library - The Green Library will feature blogs and articles. There have been multiple organizations expressing interest in collaborating, and featuring shared content on a regular basis. There will also be an interview series to help members get to know each other better and extend their exposure. Finally, a process to start aggregating and sharing content for the library will be initiated, and will form the foundation of the Green Library once officially launched. Community Resources / Deliverables - The Community Resources section (currently hosted on Green Rocket) will feature community resources developed by WREN, and also shared resources developed by individual network members. Examples of Current/In-Development Resources developed with and hosted on Green Rocket:

2 (CSI rigour pp 62)

  

TransitionKW’s Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit Community Calendar Available Space Inventory

  

Funding Database Green Book Community Gallery

Community Calendar - The Community Calendar features an aggregated community events calendar which is maintained on an ongoing basis and features tools for event coordination, scheduling, planning, attending, etc. The calendar also allows for WREN members to submit their organization’s events at any time and will be evolved to support additional capacity. Project Support/Awareness - The digital hub will feature support for getting a project off the ground. Members will have the ability to share a project to access:   

Outreach / Communication support – such as advertising space on the WREN hub, newsletter communications and exposure, a featured projects/members page, speaking at WREN events, secondary publicity through WREN, and contributions to the content in the Green Library. Funding support – via a grant database, partnerships with crowdfunding infrastructure (pending) and additional revenue streams for WREN members, such as Funraisers. People Power – through ease of access to network (exposure), and partnerships such as with MyCleanCity’s volunteer platform, WREN members will enjoy support in recruiting collaborators and volunteers.

Considerations: •

Green Library content will also explore shared knowledge, including any information summaries or templates that are relevant to WREN.

•

The Digital Hub will also host and maintain all resources developed by WREN to ensure they are accessible and functional on an ongoing basis. This will include setting up procedures and processes for this to be easily maintained and updated.

•

The digital hub enables shared services as well, which are essential to a shared space. In fact, CSI differentiates between shared space and services – which contribute to the economic wellbeing of organizations, but can also extend beyond this: “Sometimes a shared service doesn’t make economic sense, but it makes community sense – it makes your members happy.”3

Fulfilling WREN’s Needs: The need for space has been identified by WREN members through multiple discussions, and thus a digital (virtual) space is a major pillar of WREN’s strategy for collaboration. A virtual shared space can host resources and create efficient, sustainable collaborations in a customizable, agile, and ubiquitous manner. In other words, members can access shared resources anytime, anywhere, from any device, and adapt it to their needs. This strongly aligns with trends in today’s information age4, and national strategy for building Canada’s digital society5.

3 4 5

(CSI RIGOUR, ch6 Ref – Info Age Ref – digital society


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Being able to easily access these resources created through WREN’s efforts will increase organizational capacity in several ways. It is proven that more can be done together, and this concept has additionally seen success in the community, as section 2.0 detailed. A major barrier to working together identified by WREN members was the time and effort it takes to work together without a structured framework or someone to facilitate/manage the ongoing followthrough required for effective collaboration. In the end, WREN members will not only have the capacity to easily organize and mobilize your own knowledge, but the network will benefit as a collective with being able to actually match knowledge, learning, and identified needs. Beyond WREN, case studies and literature around social innovation and community demonstrate public knowledge and libraries as catalysts for innovative community development.6 In addition, to expand on a point from Section 2.0 specifically relevant to the digital hub, the national government has made it a priority to help close the gap between people benefitting from information technology, and those who are excluded from participating in these benefits (known as the ‘digital divide’). In a report on Creating Canada’s digital Society, national pillars identified the need to:7    

Develop infrastructure (i.e., connect people) Access Knowledge (i.e., a national network) Foster Growth (and invest in human capital) Engage the digital society (including researching it and making it mobile) Develop digital skills (in terms of technological capacity)

Thus, the proposal to creating virtual infrastructure as a major catalyst to support the evolution of WREN is aligned with the national strategy outlined above for optimizing the potential of our digital society in today’s technological age. A WREN digital community hub will be piloting the necessary infrastructure for the network to access knowledge, foster growth, engage the digital society and develop information literacy and technological competency while using the services.

3.3 Physical Hub Overview: Finally, many organizations require physical office space and resources as well. The need for shared space – including meeting space and event space – was another major priority identified by WREN members and aligned with community opportunity. In fact, WREN has multiple partnerships to work with if the network need demands space, such as with Treehaus in Downtown Kitchener. Don’t forget to give input on your space needs in the WREN survey!

Functions/Services: A physical hub represents the final pillar for driving efficient collaboration and the benefits of shared resources to WREN members. It is supportive of the community infrastructure and opportunities within Waterloo Region. WREN members in a membership tier that includes the Physical hub would enjoy a 6 7

Ref (https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/028.nsf/eng/00418.html)


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community of co-working space including shared resources, office (desk) space, meeting space, wifi, printing/fax facilities, and discounts on renting (small) event space. The immediate opportunity for WREN comes via a partnership with TreeHaus in downtown Kitchener for eleven desks, with the option of full-time, part-time and ad-hoc use, including access to other office resources and meeting space.

Considerations:  

A shared physical hub is strategic in that it is easy to integrate when it is needed, and there are many partnership opportunities available. In the short term, Green Rocket is seeking opportunities through the city and region to consider other office spaces, and has a long term option for 2017 should the network demand be sufficient.

Fulfilling WREN’s Needs As the research has shown, not only is a shared physical space necessary for improving WREN member capacity, but also a well-timed opportunity in the context of the readiness of Waterloo Region. As CSI rigour outlines, Groups that consist of five or fewer staff are in the greatest need of shared facilities and administration, but are also in the best position to collaborate and connect with others.8 This defines the majority of the WREN network, so we are hitting an extra targeted group in terms of benefits at the margin. The business case for collaborative hubs also points to benefits in access to shared event space, talent, innovation, lower risk, and general economies of scale from sharing items such as printing or meeting space. The amount of shared work spaces in Waterloo Region has additionally confirmed this success. In fact, the benefits can extend beyond co-habitants to the external community members and government. Shared hubs help maintain innovation within community and quantify shared value, with up to five times more dollars of economic activity generated for every one dollar invested in collaborative hub spaces. With WREN, there is have strong leverage for partnerships locally and economically with potential developers and/or other hub spots, and the WREN membership is projected to grow far beyond 110 as we explore these shared value partnerships

4.0 Proposed Governance WREN will be incorporated as a Charity, governed by a board of directors, bylaws, a mission and mandate, management roles, and an Annual General Meeting where the membership can give input into the projects’ operations. As active managing founders, Green Rocket will serve in an oversight capacity to manage the network, open to collaborators and others wanting to participate in the management of WREN as it is formally established. Green Rocket will ensure efficient development of the WREN hub infrastructure and ongoing functioning of its services for WREN members.

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Pp 12


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The process is currently underway for incorporation as a charity with the timeline for paperwork submission being September. WREN members interested in a board of director role or in collaborating on the bylaws and mandate can indicate their contact information in the WREN Survey or by emailing [email protected].

5.0 Financials 5.1 Proposed Revenue Models Green Rocket has identified a diverse range of revenue generating alternatives for WREN in order to mitigate risk and optimize long term growth potential.9,10,11

Potential Revenue Stream Memberships Services

Rent (Physical Hub)

Equity stake Ad space

Grants/funding

Donations and Patronage

Sponsorships

9

REF 1 – SWR REF 2 – CSI Rigour 11 REF 3 – 2011 Article on Collab Innovation 10

Overview See below for proposed membership model Range from educational workshops to providing professional business services, consultation, training programs, and reporting Graduated rent structure from anchor/core tenants down to part time and casual options. Often the primary revenue source for physical spaces, accounting for > 33% of revenue Typical for profit and accelerator business models –potentially relevant to WREN community projects Advertising space will be available to sponsors connected to WREN identified causes, as well as WREN members Grants are often relied on to substitute revenue streams. They are typical of early business cluster plans, but should not be relied on in the long term. However for WREN, funding through partnerships and equity % for services is also a viable approach. Typical of charities and NFPs WREN’s advantage is in having a strong existing network Going beyond network patronage /donations, sponsorships are typical for events, forums, seminars, etc.

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5.2 Proposed Membership Model A membership model will ensure the long term sustainability of WREN and maintain its services to members, without being dependent on grants or related patronage funding. The proposed tiers of membership below are relative to industry prices, benchmarks, and extensive research. Their exact pricing will be finalized with WREN member inputs/feedback through discussions and the WREN survey. Membership type /// Features of membership WREN member badge for the website Access WREN developed community resources Free attendance to #WRENE events Monthly e-mail newsletter Free attendance to WREN technical workshops + specialized hackathons Promotional support for events via newsletter, blog and social media Discounted services + event space with WREN partners Discounts on renting office space with WREN partners Customized member services and connections Advertising space in digital hub, physical hub and event materials Add another member of your organization to your membership tier Recognition in annual report to stakeholders Blog feature in Green Library Opportunities for speaking Access to aggregate data on collaborative outcomes Access to detailed data and metrics customized reporting

WREN general member (free)

x

WREN Impact member

WREN Impact member

WREN Partner

(paid-Tier 2, w/ office space)

(paid – Tier 3)

x

x

WREN Pioneer* (paid; special tier available only through crowdfunding or sponsorship)

x

(paid-Tier 1) x

x

x

x

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*Founding WREN Member or “WREN PIONEER” seal. x

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All founding members have rotating ad-space for 3 months Receive a discount when you refer a friend!

x

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5.3 Funding Approach: Beyond the revenue models identified and described in sections 5.1 and 5.2, Green Rocket will seek funding through the additional streams below. More details will be released as the proposals are developed. Collaborators are welcome – please contact [email protected]. 

 

nd

November 2 , 2014 - Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant – as one of Ontario’s largest granting organizations, OTF is aligned with the values that WREN proposed.Crowdfunding launch – WREN will reach out to potential members and the Waterloo Region community to help get off the ground through a crowdfunding campaign in Aug/September. Pitches for investment - will include local rotary clubs, regional and city councils, and private investors. Social Entrepreneurship competitions

WREN members will have access to information about how funding is allocated and the final budget once it is developed. Beyond adding input for the current budget via the WREN surveys (www.surveymonkey.com/s/WRENsurvey), WREN members will have the opportunity to be Pioneers in the movement as a founding member once the crowdfunding is launched.

6.0 Timeline & Next Steps – Phase I

SEPTEMBER - Launch campaigns (crowdfunding, media) - incorporate WREN as Charity - Plan/Host WRENE 2014 (Fall)

OCTOBER - NOVEMBER - Investment presentations - Deliver proposals - Manage network support for WREN

AUGUST - Finalize WREN proposal - Develop funding proposals and presentations for WREN

- Deliver WREN Technical Workshop (in collaboration with SSCG)


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7.0 CONCLUDING THOUGHTS: WREN has momentum within itself and the networks’ surrounding environment. It is our honour at Green Rocket to be working with the community to drive this project and curate the final development and implementation of the programming, digital hub and physical hub resources proposed above. Please share your input to keep the movement building, and get involved with WREN by indicating on the survey how you’d like to be contacted by WREN, or emailing [email protected]

Thanks for all you do, Waterloo Region Environmental Network… Together, we can change the world, one community movement at a time.

-Jared Foxworthy & Nicole McCallum, Green Rocket #communitylove #WREN