Impact Finance.
We believe that we must urgently increase the speed and volume with which capital flows towards communities that are both at the proverbial frontlines of social change, and systematically overlooked by the world’s financial markets. Further, we must do so in a way that ensures fair and equitable representation in ownership and governance within these communities, centering them in the design process. Finally, we believe that all stakeholders in the aggregation, curation and dissemination of capital must behave collectively in order to overcome the power imbalances that exist by permitting capital allocators across the funding spectrum to define the terms of funding events.
Creating Community Capital Collectives
The Challenge & Opportunity
Around the world, entrepreneurs and business owners in under-estimated communities face significant challenges in accessing capital. Mainstream banking institutions, informed by models rooted in racial and cultural bias, are unable or unwilling to approve loans; and venture capital is an uneasy fit with entrepreneurs building for social purpose, who are unwilling to relinquish control in favour of blitz-scaling, rapid exits, and the pursuit of unicorn status.
There exists now an opportunity to constellate key stakeholders in global startup and investing ecosystems around the challenges of next-generation, purpose-driven companies that seek to create both good in the world _and_ scalable business models that produce lasting wealth for their communities and stakeholders.
The Work
Over the last five years, through our work with with Zebras Unite and in partnership with the likes of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, Common Future, One Project, and the National Coop Bank, we have developed a structured, participatory approach that applies our principles of humanity-centered design and the tenets of Design Justice to the creation of new financial products and platforms.
Over the course of six to twelve months, this process reliably results in the creation of one or more new financial mechanisms and the supportive infrastructure for their capitalisation, launch, and deployment.
Using this participatory design process, developed in the context of closing the racial wealth gap in the United States with the Inclusive Capital Collective, and currently in use to develop new financing on-ramps in the North American co-op sector, we convene key stakeholders and partners to create the missing catalytic capital instruments that close the gaps that exist in the financial ecosystem today.
Working hand in hand with actors on both the supply, and demand side of this ecosystem, we are creating and launching a number of Capital Collectives in 2023.
Are you a capital allocator or a community or network organisations that is interested in finding more effective and efficient ways to mobilise capital in the geography, sector and communities in which you work? Email us to learn more.
Thank you to Christine Roy for the image above.