Our Social Purpose: Individual & Social Level Impacts

    Our Backstory

 

This short video explains the origins and intent of our social enterprise   

 

Our Canadian founder and CEO, David Y. Smith, has over 25 years experience driving change from executive positions in large companies, start-ups, non-profits, and social enterprises. He has started 4 companies and has consulted for many types of organizations in the private, NGO, and public sector. David has helped drive 5 emerging trends from niche to mainstream: WiFi, organic, wellness, "green", and now agetech.

Putting his undergraduate degree in environmental science to use, he has helped to make companies, sectors, and value chains in North America and in their global supply chains more socially and environmentally sustainable and transparent, as an employee, advisor, and a consultant.

He conceived of Elderberry.work through his own experiences and those of his peer group, knowing that they have a lot of value still to create as they age, and his enjoyment of collaborating with start-ups and businesses of all sizes.

 

 

Elderberry.work is a Social Enterprise

We help people age 45+ and businesses as our path to making profits. We aim to create many new opportunities for both those groups, and to put/keep as much money in their pockets as we can. There are 3 elements to our social purpose:

1. We aim to be an influencer in helping businesses to overcome ageism. We engage in thoughtleadership and feature jobs from age-friendly companies. By doing this, we expect to significantly improve opportunities for age 45+ businesspeople, satisfying their respective motivations - be they purpose, activity, engagement, legacy, or financial.

2. We want to help foster a stronger entreprenuerial culture by enabling start-ups, small, and medium-sized businesses to overcome their biggest challenges. The functional expertise of our age 45+ freelancers will help breed new generations of successful entrepreneurs.

3. We also provide an excellent opportunity for age 45+ businesspeople from underserved communities and recent arrivals in Canada to market themselves to efficiently find potential business customers.

 

Following is our view on how we can help with the evolution of businesses from ageism to age-agnositc. And below that is a table about how we think about our social purpose, with positive impacts at both the individual level and the community/social level. Please join us!