Consulting - CSED

At CSED, our in-house experts and trusted associates bring deep insights, experience and a passion for social impact to every assignment. Our collaborative approach empowers organizations to solve strategic challenges, build capacity, and achieve sustainability. We are committed to making your social impact vision thrive.

Customized support

We offer diverse, tailored support to meet your needs at any stage—whether you're in ideation, implementation or growth mode.

Proven results

Over 50 organizations in Ontario have benefited from our consulting services to gain business results.

Driving Social Impact

Our clients include cooperatives, charities, non-profits, and for-profits interested in social impact.

Comprehensive services

From exploration to growth, CSED provides customized consulting services that help you structure, run, and expand your social enterprise or social purpose business.

Explore

In a facilitated orientation session we’ll help you explore how to create additional impact and generate financial sustainability.

Develop

Our services will help you develop your business strategically and optimize sustainability and impact.

Grow

Services to help you grow and scale strategically to create a lasting impact.

Impact planning

We’ll help you research and evaluate the benefits of implementing community programs and initiatives.

Funding strategy

Identify and secure sources of funding to meet your goals and objectives.

Other services

Strategic planning support
Launching new products/services
Expansion options like retail stores, real estate, human resources
Refines the business offering, market demand, operational
Customer experience management (mystery shopping and more)

Customized to your needs

We offer flexible engagement formats to fit your needs.

In-depth consulting

Using a co-creation approach, CSED will do the homework and provide you with the report in the form of a business plan, feasibility study or anything you requested.

Step-by-step coaching

As a trusted advisor, CSED guides you step by step, providing you with knowledge and tools on building your social enterprise from an idea to launch and implementation. You do the homework.

Customized training

Participate in facilitated sessions designed to address your organization’s specific challenges.

CASE STUDY

Nutrition Blocs

Established as a non-profit in 2018, Nutrition Blocs creates food programs that address food insecurity by increasing access to fresh, nutritious, and culturally appropriate meals in underserved communities.

How we helped

In its early years, CSED supported Nutrition Blocs with strategic planning, as well as developing a theory of change and impact framework for its programs. Recently, CSED conducted a social impact evaluation for Nutrition Blocs’ Summer Nutrition Program (SNP), which provides healthy, affordable meals to children attending summer camps in low-income communities.

What our client have to say

“CSED helped us lay the foundation for Nutrition Blocs in its early planning stages by creating business plans, value propositions and stakeholder engagement strategies. Over the years, CSED has stepped in to create Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks, Theory of Change, Program Evaluation and Impact Reports. These reports have helped Nutrition Blocs to build credibility with our funders and stakeholders, as well as helped boost our fundraising efforts.”

— Abhi Potdar, Founder

CASE STUDY

Food Works – Operation Come Home

Operation Come Home (OCH) is a leading Ottawa charity that provides employment, education, and support services to homeless and at-risk youth. Employment and training opportunities are created through OCH’s social enterprises: FoodWorks, BottleWorks, and a new initiative, HousingWorks.

How we helped

CSED collaborated with the OCH team to update the start-up business plan and develop a growth strategy for FoodWorks, focusing on strategic alignment, market potential, operational and financial modeling. In another project, CSED assisted OCH in creating a feasibility plan for their new social enterprise, HousingWorks, and facilitated initial contract connections. Both FoodWorks and HousingWorks are thriving, generating sustainable revenue and providing employment opportunities for OCH clients.

What our client have to say

“We came to CSED to develop thoughtful, comprehensive business plans and they delivered beyond any expectations we had. CSED and the team were able to flag issues we hadn’t considered and cited opportunities that didn’t occur to us. And once the plan was done, they connected us with partners to help us get where we needed to go. We’ve seen a lot of success as a result.”

— John Heckbert, executive director

CASE STUDY

Able2

Able2 is an Ottawa charity that supports people across the disability spectrum and their families in living life as valued members of our city.

How we helped

To diversify revenue and reduce reliance on donations and grants, Able2 partnered with CSED to explore new social enterprise opportunities. CSED facilitated a workshop for the Able2 team to brainstorm potential social enterprise ideas, followed by a strategic session with Able2’s executives to select the most promising idea: FASD Training and Consulting Services. Following this, CSED developed a comprehensive business plan for Able2’s new FASD Training and Consulting Centre. This initiative aims to provide specialized training and consulting services for professionals and organizations, enhancing support for individuals with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) while generating sustainable revenue for Able2.

What our client have to say

Client testimonial coming soon.

CASE STUDY

Soul Space Ottawa

Soul Space has been providing holistic care for street health and harm reduction workers in Ottawa since 2020.

How we helped

CSED developed a business plan to strengthen Soul Space’s earned income model toward financial sustainability, including analyzing competitive environment, customer value proposition, business model design, marketing, operational and financial requirements.

What our client have to say

“Our time working with CSED to develop our business and marketing plan was so valuable! These are critically important tasks that we don't have the time or infrastructure to complete on our own. Tapping into CSED's expertise vastly improved our conceptualization and understanding of our organization's enterprise development.”

— Danielle Rolfe, Soul Space Ottawa

CASE STUDY

Kemptville Campus

Kemptville Campus Education and Community Centre (KCECC) is a not-for-profit corporation created to maintain and renew the lands and buildings of the former Kemptville Agricultural College. The Campus has a rich agricultural and culinary heritage which it seeks to build on by developing an incubator commercial kitchen to support small food business start-ups and local farmers in Kemptville.

How we helped

CSED developed a feasibility plan for the incubation commercial kitchen including market research, community engagement, business model design, operation requirements, marketing strategies and financial projection. The market research covers in-depth interviews with stakeholders, market survey and a public consultation meeting.

What our client have to say

"Working with CSED has helped us better understand the conditions needed for our project to be successful, and has given us valuable data and resources to communicate this with others."

— Leela Ramachandran, Kemptville Campus

Customized support

Proven results

Driving Social Impact

Comprehensive services

Explore

Develop

Grow

Impact planning

Funding strategy

Other services

Customized to your needs

In-depth consulting

Step-by-step coaching

Customized training

CASE STUDY

Nutrition Blocs

How we helped

What our client have to say

CASE STUDY

Food Works – Operation Come Home

How we helped

What our client have to say

CASE STUDY

Able2

How we helped

What our client have to say

CASE STUDY

Soul Space Ottawa

How we helped

What our client have to say

CASE STUDY

Kemptville Campus

How we helped

What our client have to say

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