Achievements

Joint advocacy by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), Canadian Association of Retired Persons and Prosper Canada results in Alberta and Ontario provincial governments introducing legislation to protect consumers by strengthening IIROC powers to investigate, prosecute and enforce penalties against wrongdoers.

The Financial Empowerment and Problem Solving (FEPS) program secures renewed funding from the Government of Ontario. The FEPS program, created by West Neighbourhood House, provides free, confidential, one-on-one support to more than 10,000 Ontarians, and even more will be served through the extension of this program.

Prosper Canada secures a $8 million investment from the Government of Ontario to support the Ontario Financial Empowerment Champions project to help 50,000 Ontarians with low incomes improve their financial knowledge and well-being over five years.

Prosper Canada secures a $5.3 million federal government investment to support Canada’s first five non-profit Financial Empowerment Champions to help 175,000 Canadians with low incomes improve their financial knowledge and well-being over five years.

Prosper Canada hosts the fourth national ABLE Financial Empowerment conference in Toronto, a unique gathering of over 300 stakeholders from all sectors working to foster financial empowerment for people who live on low incomes.

TD commits $3 million over 3 years to support the Prosper Canada Centre for Financial Literacy. The gift will help the Centre to reach its goal of building the financial capability of 1 million vulnerable Canadians by 2020.

Prosper Canada CEO, Elizabeth Mulholland, is appointed to the federal government’s National Financial Literacy Steering Committee, tasked with helping to develop and champion a national financial literacy strategy for Canada.

Retrospective research on Prosper Canada’s ILA program shows that it has reduced successful graduates’ risk of falling back into homelessness by 50% and enabled 182 homeless and transitional shelter residents to obtain permanent housing.

Prosper Canada launches a national initiative to build a shared Financial Literacy Evaluation Framework for community financial education in Canada.

Prosper Canada joins with other leading financial literacy organizations to create the Financial Literacy Action Group to coordinate community financial literacy efforts across Canada and inform the development of national financial literacy policy and programs.

TD Bank Group announces $14.5 million in funding for the Prosper Canada Centre for Financial Literacy and a new TD Financial Literacy Grant Fund, administered by Prosper Canada. The first of its kind in Canada, the Fund has since awarded $10.4 million to 140 community organizations across Canada for community financial literacy education.

The federal government establishes the Task Force on Financial Literacy recommended by Prosper Canada in 2008. Prosper Canada becomes a strategic advisor to the task force, supporting its work to create a national strategy on financial literacy for Canada.

Prosper Canada's Independent Living Account (ILA) program receives the Toronto Community Foundation’s Vital Ideas Award for its lasting impact on the community.

The Financial Consumer Agency, the Joint Forum of Financial Market Regulators and Prosper Canada co-host Reaching Higher: Canadian Conference on Financial Literacy in Montreal. At the conference, Prosper Canada calls upon the federal government to establish an independent, multi-sector task force to develop a national strategy on financial literacy for Canada.

Peter Nares, Founder and Executive Director of Prosper Canada, is inducted as a Global Ashoka Fellow for his pioneering leadership in developing the fields of financial capability and asset building in Canada and internationally.

Prosper Canada creates a financial capability education curriculum for youth and people in shelters.

Prosper Canada is commissioned by CMHC to design a national demonstration project with eight-to-10 sites and 2,000 accounts to help low-income Canadians save to buy a home.

Prosper Canada launches the independent living account demonstration project in Edmonton, Toronto and Fredericton with community-based administrators and private and public sector funders.

Prosper Canada develops a national model to foster economic self-sufficiency among youth at-risk to be tested by the Government of Canada.

CMHC publishes Prosper Canada's findings about the successful use of individual development accounts to increase access to affordable housing.

Prosper Canada, the Corporation for Enterprise Development and the Center for Social Development co-sponsor the first international IDA Learning Conference.

CMHC and the National Secretariat on Homelessness commission Prosper Canada to undertake a national consultation on Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) for people living in transitional housing and seeking access to affordable housing.

Prosper Canada participates in a Russian-Canadian Women and Labour Market Reform initiative which produces breakthrough results.

Prosper Canada’s youth initiatives are short-listed for the Peter F. Drucker Foundation’s Innovation Award.

Prosper Canada launches Learn$ave, a $34-million, 10-year, IDA demonstration project in partnership with Human Resources Development Canada, ten communities from across the country, RBC, and the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation. Successful results from this experiment ultimately led to the creation of the federal government’s Canada Learning Bond and Canada Education Savings Grant for families.

Prosper Canada contributes recommendations to the Prime Minister's Task Force on Youth Entrepreneurship.

Prosper Canada introduces the concept of asset-building for the poor to Canada.

Prosper Canada’s Developing Enterprising Women's Initiatives project is the first self-employment capacity building initiative for women in Canada.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development acknowledges Prosper Canada's expertise in self-employment.

Prosper Canada convinces the Government of Ontario to reform welfare regulations pertaining to self-employment.

Prosper Canada develops and launches the first and largest urban Self-Employment Benefit program in partnership with the City of Toronto, Government of Canada, and the Ontario Ministry of Labour.

The Self-Employment Benefit for unemployed people is incorporated into Canada’s Employment Insurance Act. Today, roughly 9,000 Employment Insurance recipients use this benefit program to launch new businesses across Canada each year.

As a result of Prosper Canada’s advocacy, Employment and Immigration Canada establishes the Minister's Advisory Group on Self-Employment. This becomes the catalyst for a national Self-Employment Benefit program.

Prosper Canada (then known as Self-employment Development Initiatives or SEDI) is born. Together with the YMCA Canada, we introduce the concept of self-employment training for low-income people to Canada.