Investments – Prosper Canada Learning Hub

Annual report 2022

The Asset Funders Network engages philanthropy to advance equitable wealth building and economic mobility. For 18 years, AFN has provided a forum for grantmakers to connect, collaborate, and collectively invest in helping more people achieve economic security.

This report reflects their work over the past year working across 7 issues areas:

Business ownership
Education
Employment & income
Financial health
Health
Housing
The wealth gap

Do you know how to prevent fraud?

Test your knowledge on fraud prevention by answering these 11 questions.

Investing with Interest-

Start Your Investment Journey

Before you start investing, it is important to consider your budget and financial goals, and how much risk you are comfortable taking on. Like many things in life, investing comes with its own share of risks and rewards. You can do this on your own or with the help of an advisor.

Fraud alert videos

Learn more about fraud in this latest set of videos by the Ontario Securities Commission.

Investment fraud
Pump and dump scams
Fake government messages
Warnings about your finances
Work from home scams
Quick high-return schemes

Social influencers and your finances

Just because someone has a lot of followers doesn’t mean their advice is right for you. Social media influencers are increasingly sharing information about investing. This can be done by ordinary people or by celebrities who have taken an interest in a specific product or investment. They are often called “finfluencers” — financial influencers whose media accounts are focused on money and investing. This article will outline some questions to ask yourself before you choose to invest.

Investing and saving during a recession

If a recession seems likely, consider how your investing and savings plans may be affected. Increases in the cost of living and borrowing, combined with the overall financial uncertainty over the impact of a potential recession, can be enough to cause personal and financial stress. There is no single best way to respond to such times.

Investment recovery calculator

This calculator will help you find out how long it will take for your investment to recover its value after a market downturn and identify how long it will take to get back on track to reach your original goal.

Research study: Crypto assets 2022

This study by the Ontario Securities Commission examines Canadians’ crypto ownership and knowledge. It found 13% of Canadians currently own crypto assets or crypto funds. The study also found most Canadians did not have a working knowledge of the practical, legal and regulatory dimensions of crypto assets. Crypto assets were believed to play a key role in the financial system by 38% of those surveyed. The study provides a profile of crypto owners, their reasons for purchasing crypto assets or crypto funds, the role of financial advice, impact of advertising, and the experience of crypto owners with crypto trading platforms.

Investing with confidence for financially vulnerable Canadians

Presentation slides, handouts, and video time stamps

Read the presentation slides for this webinar.

Download resources provided by webinar speakers:

Time-stamps for the video recording:
3:24 – Agenda and Introductions
6:36 – Audience poll questions
9:33 – FAIR Canada presentation (speaker: Tasmin Waley)
24:07 – Ontario Securities Commission presentation (speaker: Christine Allum)
39:10 – Investor Protection Clinic at Osgoode Hall Law School (speaker: Brigitte Catellier)
51:34 – Q&A

Types of fraud

Fraud comes in many forms. Learn about the different types of fraud and ways to protect yourself using the links below.

8 common investment scams

Fraudster trick (email spam attack)

Crypto fraud

Introduction to investing: A primer for new investors

Whether you’re new to investing, or new to Canada, InvestingIntroduction.ca can help. Visit the Ontario Securities Commission's refreshed website and find resources to help you make more informed investment decisions and better protect your money.

The information is available in 22 languages.

A guide to protect yourself against investment fraud

Today’s investment landscape offers such a range of products, investing tools, and information that the average investor may feel overwhelmed. As advancements in technology continue to accelerate, new online investing platforms and opportunities are showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.

And as the world of investing continues to innovate, so do the tactics of fraudsters when designing and carrying out scams against unsuspecting victims.

In this guide, we discuss investment fraud and some key things you should know before investing, including helpful tips to protect yourself from investment scams.

Annual report 2021

AFN's 2021 Annual Report gives a high level review of our work last year, including some snapshots into the place-based initiatives in our regions. Across our regions, AFN is working with grantmakers on collaborative efforts to advance equitable wealth building and economic mobility.

One example the Annual Report highlights is the Bay Area Small Business Vulnerability Mapping Project. Last year, Bay Area AFN worked with the Urban Displacement Project to develop an online mapping tool highlighting vulnerable businesses owned by people of color. The multistage process also explores the feasibility of a permanent infrastructure for collecting data, monitoring business health, and recommending policies.

Investor readiness quiz

Investing is an important part of planning for a financially secure future. It can battle the effects of inflation on your savings, grow your wealth, and provide sources of income in retirement. The sooner you invest, the longer compound interest can work to grow your savings exponentially. However, there are some important milestones to achieve and questions to consider before you start investing.

Are you ready to invest? Take this quiz to find out!

Pay down debt or invest tool

If you have extra money, this calculator helps you decide whether to invest or pay off debt.

From Relief to Resilience: Reimagining Investments

The events of 2020 revealed unvarnished truths that demand that philanthropic organizations take action to build economic well-being for all. This long-overdue moment emphasizes the critical need for strategies that provide a range of support to women and Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian people, who are struggling due to deep financial disparities. Today’s disparities are built on, and exacerbated by, long-standing inequities created by structural racism, sexism, and classism, which have limited financial security and overall well-being for those affected. This brief responds to the urgency of this moment, reimagining and building on past recommendations to map more just paths to economic resilience moving forward.

Investing and The COVID-19 Pandemic: Survey of Canadian Investors

The Investor Office conducted this study to further our understanding of the experiences and behaviours of retail investors during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The study explored several topics including the financial preparedness, savings behaviour, financial situations, changing preference, and trading activity of retail investors. Key findings include that 32 per cent of investors have experienced a decline in their financial situation during the pandemic while 16 per cent have experienced an improvement. Half of investors have not done any trading during the pandemic, but of those who have been trading, 63 per cent have increased their holdings.

COVID-19 Fraud Alerts

GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca is an Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) website that provides unbiased and independent financial tools to help you make better financial decisions. This series of videos increases awareness of fraudulent activity during COVID-19. Topic include:

Pump-and-dump scams
Fake government messages
Warnings about your finances
Work from home scams
Signs of investment fraud
Quick high-return schemes

Asset Building Toolkit

Why are lower-income parents less likely to open an RESP account? The roles of literacy, education and wealth

Parents can save for their children's postsecondary education by opening and contributing to a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) account, which provides tax and other financial incentives designed to encourage participation (particularly among lower-income families). While the share of parents opening RESP accounts has increased steadily over time, as of 2016, participation rates remained more than twice as high among parents in the top income quartile (top 25%) compared with those in the bottom quartile.

This study provides insight into the factors behind the gap in (RESP) participation between higher and lower-income families.

Are charities ready for social finance? Investment readiness in Canada’s charitable sector

While social finance could have a transformative impact on the funding and financial landscape, relatively little is understood about its implications for charities. This webinar presents the results of a national survey of over 1,000 registered charities undertaken by Imagine Canada to better understand charities’ current readiness to participate in Canada’s growing social finance market

Investor Protection Clinic and Living Lab: 2019 Annual Report

The Investor Protection Clinic, the first clinic of its kind in Canada, provides free legal advice to people who believe their investments were mishandled and who cannot afford a lawyer. The Clinic was founded together with the Canadian Foundation for Advancement of Investor Rights (FAIR Canada), an organization that aims to enhance the rights of Canadian shareholders and individual investors.

The 2019 Annual Report summarizes the work of The Clinic, including description of the work and types of cases, example case scenarios of the clients who benefited from The Clinic's services, client data and demographics, and recommendations.

National Investor Research Study

This presentation shows the results of a quantitative study undertaken by the Ontario Securities Commission to assess attitudes, behaviour and knowledge among Canadians pertaining to a variety of investment topics. These topics include retirement planning and conversations about finances.

The Complaints Process for Retail Investments in Canada: A Handbook for Investors

Canadian investors need more and better information to protect themselves both when they act on their own and when they retain lawyers. This handbook is intended to help Canadian investors better understand the choices they face when making a complaint and the impact of those choices. It can also serve as a guide to assist them when they work with lawyers, particularly those whose law practice does not focus on assisting Canadian investors in obtaining financial compensation.

Your Money Students

Canada Islamic Finance Outlook 2016

Islamic finance is growing rapidly, outpacing the growth of the conventional finance industry and even grabbing market share from it. This success has been driven in part by the internationalisation of Islamic finance as it reaches beyond its core markets of the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia, and into new ones such as Europe and the Americas, including Canada, which is the focus of this report.
This report provides an introduction to Islamic banking in Canada.