Preparing to SOAR: Expanding Abuse-Caused Brain Injury Charity into Social Enterprise

Teagan Milligan, Kyleen Myrah

Product #:W46742

Supplier:Ivey

Discipline:Entrepreneurship, General Management

Setting:Canada, 2025

Details:Case (PDF) • 18 pages • 2026-04-14

Your Price:

$9.71

Purchase this material with a free Educator Account and enjoy more benefits:

Free Educator Copy
Free Teaching Notes
Build your coursepack
Discounted academic price

In 2016, Karen Mason and Dr. Paul van Donkelaar co-founded Supporting Survivors of Abuse and Brain Injury Through Research (SOAR). They did so after learning that research showed 75 per cent of women who experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) sustained a brain injury (BI); yet fewer than 1 per cent of those who sought medical care for IPV were screened for BI. SOAR was the first Canadian organization focused solely on IPV-BI. It had recently achieved charitable status, with a full board, six team members, and a three-year plan. The board had requested an update at their next quarterly meeting, and Mason and her team needed to determine which opportunities should be prioritized and what their next steps were. How could they evaluate potential new enterprise streams and present a viable plan to the board without diverting critical resources needed for their existing commitments?

Learning Objectives

The SOAR case is appropriate in advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in non-profit management and social entrepreneurship. Students could learn how to differentiate between social enterprises and other forms of non-profit entities, why an organization would pursue independent revenue streams, how to determine an organization’s ability to develop and operate social enterprise opportunities, and methods to evaluate the viability of these options. In a strategic management course, students would be exposed to a non-traditional social enterprise organization. They could learn how to assess other determinants of strategy in addition to typical for-profit indicators, including social purpose, ability to effect change, and capabilities of the team to both oversee its mission and business model. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:

Assess how a nonprofit’s organizational context shapes its funding environment.
Analyze an organization’s strategy using a double-bottom-line framework.
Evaluate the mission alignment and financial fit of social enterprise options.
Develop a course of action to guide decision-making that balances both mission and financial goals.