Hives for Humanity (H4H) sells bee-related products, provides services such as honey programs, educational workshops, and swarm rescues, all while employing residents from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Hives for Humanity has been very successful and is overwhelmed with demand for their products and services. To assist with organizational development, Vancity Community Foundation has provided operational support to Hives for Humanity to allow staff to examine the capacity of their social enterprise and to assess and prioritize their wide range of products, programs, and services.

In 2017, Hives for Humanity:

• Engaged marginalized communities in 3,788 hours of work in their apiaries and gardens which are run for education and community engagement
• Provided more than $19, 000 in honouraria/stipends to marginalized communities
• Managed 18 apiaries and 41 hives 
• Hosted 205 workshops and events

Enterprise capacity reviews helps focus funding on areas that need it most

Often organizations that approach Vancity Community Foundation for support are managing multiple competing priorities. Through enterprise capacity reviews, Vancity Community Foundation assists organizations with assessing their key strengths and challenges in the areas of product/service, marketing, management, and governance, infrastructure and systems, operations and human resources, and financial systems. These reviews are complemented by grant funding that enables organizations to effectively address the priority issues identified through the capacity review. This strategy has been effective at supporting organizations, like Hives for Humanity, to achieve greater success in their business development initiatives by identifying and addressing barriers to success.