When 10 startups present their businesses on Saturday evening in Fredericton, it will be the first true opportunity for social entrepreneurs in the region to explain publicly how they blend a business case with the social mission.

The Community Demo Day will take place at the Planet Hatch incubator on Saturday and will showcase entrepreneurs from two Fredericton-based programs. Four will be social ventures drawn from the program run by the Pond-Deshpande Centre at the University of New Brunswick. The other six are the graduates of Planet Hatch’s Accelr8 program.

One of the Pond-Deshpande Centre’s mandates is to nurture social entrepreneurship — the creation of businesses that meet social goals as well as make money.

The four PDC companies presenting this weekend will give some idea of the challenges and benefits of supporting this type of business.

 “On the social side, this is our first opportunity to announce to the world, ‘Here are our early stage ventures,’” Karina LeBlanc, the centre’s executive director, said in an interview.

 “We have some very compelling stories and some amazing founders.”

The four companies, drawn from the pool of eight social ventures the centre is now working with, are:

•Business Board: a low-cost online notice board targeted at non-profits and community groups.

•The Agrarian Revolution: a project to teach traditional farming techniques and export the knowledge to developing countries.

•Maritime Rideshare: an online service that links people in the Maritimes who need rides with people who have room in their cars.

•Uganda Ventures: a company that aims to build micro-ventures in the African country.

LeBlanc said most of the companies are at extremely early stages and will use the Demo Day to broadcast their aspirations and show how they can generate profits and social benefits.

As Atlantic Canada develops an ecosystem for startup companies, it must remember that social ventures have to make up part of the mosaic of companies, she said.

These startups need capital, just as other companies do, and the Pond-Deshpande Centre is encouraging governments to include social ventures in their funding programs. The centre funds these companies with $10,000 to $25,000 contributions.

 “We also need to have a core group of mentors who can do traditional entrepreneurship but also have a passion for social change,” she said. “There are a good handful that we have now, but we need more.”

The centre is also encouraging social change by working with international organizations, such as the MIT Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation in Boston and Ashoka Canada, the Canadian arm of an organization supporting social ventures. (University of New Brunswick graduate Gururaj Deshpande founded the centre in Boston and teamed up with Saint John investor Gerry Pond to found the Fredericton facility.)

The six companies from the Accelr8 program come from a number of sectors. They are: guitar case maker Timbre Cases, waste water treatment company Hyton Innovations, industrial Internet specialist Eigan Innovations, mobile parking payment provider HotSpot Parking, chitosan polymer producer Mycodev and developing aerial craft technology maker Resson Technologies.

 “They’re not just your typical group of tech pitches,” said LeBlanc. “This is a diverse group of companies from several sectors, including social.”