“Activating Stagnant Capital to Catalyze Local Transformation” Allied Organizations

Justice Funders is a partner and guide for philanthropy in reimagining practices that advance a thriving and just world by way of redistributing wealth, democratizing power, and shifting economic control to communities. They believe that a world that honors the sacredness of our natural resources and recognizes the inalienable rights of all cannot be achieved if institutional philanthropy is constrained by its ingrained practices that uphold the accumulation of wealth and power, while perpetuating systemic social and economic inequality. 

Justice Funders’ work is guided by Just Transition principles for building political and economic power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. For example, by way of their Just Transition Investment Community program, Justice Funders facilitates measurable shifts in endowment dollars out of Wall Street and into community-controlled, movement-aligned Just Transition projects and loan funds that build economic power in BIPOC communities and nourish local, regenerative solidarity economies.  

In an effort to help the philanthropic community to become a more active, coordinated, and accountable partner in actions to grow and advance movements for justice, Justice Founders engages in a range of thought leadership activities. Research, publications, and blogs can also be accessed via Justice Funders’ website, which provides an in-depth look into philanthropy for a Just Transition. 

The Kataly Foundation is working toward a world in which Black and brown people have the resources, power, and agency to execute their own visions for justice, well-being, and shared prosperity within their communities. They do this by moving resources to support the economic, political, and cultural power of BIPOC communities. 

The Kataly Foundation is currently operating four different programs, one of which is the Restorative Economies Fund (REF). REF seeks to close the racial wealth gap and transform the financial system by strategically reinvesting resources into community-owned and governed projects led by Black and Indigenous people, and all people of color. It funds technical assistance work, which can include community organizing, and is an integrated capital fund, meaning that it combines grants with non-extractive investments and non-financial assistance. 

To support those who want to deepen their analysis and approach to their philanthropic work, the Kataly Foundation has developed a set of foundational resources. These include background materials on Just Transition, Solidarity Economy, Restorative Economics, Integrated Capital, as well as Kataly’s practitioner-based funding approach. 

#No Regrets Initiative’s mission is to improve soil health and grow soil carbon in the agricultural soils of North America. They do this by demonstrating and advocating for a Regenerative Assets Strategy that deploys human, ecological and financial capital toward soil health and its effects on climate change. 

#No Regrets Initiative serves as a gathering place for wealth managers, investors, and philanthropists who will devote resources toward soil health, carbon sequestration, and working with the ecosystem. The group hosts a number of conferences, gatherings, and events in which attendees can build community and continue learning about regenerative asset management strategies. 

To see the breadth of #No Regrets Initiative’s impact, visit the “Portfolio” tab on their website. There, you can explore the group’s extensive list of grantees and their investments, such as the Braiding Seeds Fellowship, the California Climate and Agriculture Network, and Dirt Capital Partners. Their website is also host to a number of resources like the Soil Health Primer, which acts as a living document with information of the philosophy, relationships, and ecosystem of soil. 

Regenerative Finance is shifting the economy by transferring control of capital to communities most affected by racial, economic, and environmental injustices. Since 2013, Regenerative Finance has been organizing together as a collective of young people with access to wealth and class privilege who believe in a more just world. Much of the group’s thinking was born out of conversations with Movement Generation and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, who created a just transition framework that they use to guide their work. 

In an effort to realize their vision for shifting the control of capital, Regenerative Finance has organized three working groups: Move the Money, in which they direct capital to on-the-ground, movement-based, community-controlled, localized economies; Investor Organizing, in which they offer political education and resources to individuals and institutions with access to capital in order to empower them to transform the current economy through radical investing; and SRI Organizing, in which they shape the investment discourse through zines, blog posts, conferences, and webinars.

You can access Regenerative Finance’s resources, such as their blog or tool kits, via their website. 

 

 

 

Resource Generation(RG) organizes young people with wealth and class privilege in the U.S. to become transformative leaders working towards the equitable distribution of wealth, land, and power. Made up of a membership community of 1,200+ young people, RG believes that people ages 18-35 with access to wealth and class privilege are at a particularly key stage in life to effect social justice. 

At the heart of RG’s organizing are its 19 local chapters. Located across the U.S., these local chapters anchor local RG host activities ranging from monthly praxis meetings and workshops to donor circles and collective action. For members who want to connect nationally, RG hosts an annual conference called Making Money Make Change. The conference, like most of RG’s programming, is dynamic and specific to young people with wealth who are interested in social justice. Using workshops, storytelling, and skillbuilding, the conference creates a space for its participants to explore questions of identity and responsibility in a supportive environment. 

For those who cannot access a local chapter and want to get more involved with social justice philanthropy, RG’s website is host to a free and extensive Resource Library. The Library includes training materials, research and articles, webinars, toolkits, and more. On their website you can also find RG’s 2023 Annual Redistribution Pledge, where signers make an accountable commitment to redistributing a specific amount of money to social justice movements over a set period of time. 

RSF Social Finance enables the investors, donors, and entrepreneurs in their community to explore the role of money in their lives and engage with it in more meaningful ways. Their work is rooted in a mission to catalyze transformation by circulating capital to social enterprises for a more just, regenerative, and compassionate world. 

RSF takes a holistic approach to financing social entrepreneurs with integrated capital—the coordinated use of different forms of financial capital and non-financial resources to support an enterprise that’s working to solve complex social and environmental problems. These resources include: loans, loan guarantees, investments, grants, and non-financial support such as network connections. RSF also has a Social Investment Fund, in which investors’ money gets reallocated to social enterprises working in food & agriculture, education & the arts, climate & the environment, women’s economic empowerment, and racial justice.

Through RSF’s website you can find a full list of their borrowers, such as Eureka Recycling, one of the largest nonprofit recyclers in the U.S. with “zero-waste” principles. In addition, you can read stories and engage with media that illuminate RSF’s community impact. 

 

Rising Tide Capitalprovides business development services designed to transform lives by helping individuals start and grow successful businesses; build communities through collaborations with other nonprofits, higher education institutions, corporations, and public agencies; and create a scalable program model with measurable impact which can be replicated in communities of need across the U.S. The organization now serves more than 1,000 entrepreneurs per year.

Rising Tide Capital is currently operating three programs: The Community Business Academy; Business Acceleration Services; and the Credit to Capital. In the Credit to Capital program business owners work one-on-one with a business coach to acquire the source of capital that best suits their needs. Rising Tide Capital serves as the entrepreneur’s advocate, working with a network of financing partners that specifically focus on providing small business loans. 

By visiting Rising Tide Capital’s website you can experience the impact of their work through the stories of their entrepreneurs. You can also stay up to date on their work and learn more about it by visiting the Rising Tide Capital blog.

 

In 1985, Thousand Currents’ founders recognized a gaping chasm in international development and philanthropy. While billions were allocated for global development, none of the resources were going directly to communities. Since then, Thousand Currents has been working to resource frontline communities organized as grassroots groups and social movements in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Thousand Currents moves resources in two ways: by making grants directly, and by organizing, educating, and influencing funders to move money to grassroots and movement formations that are working towards and enacting climate justice, food sovereignty, and economic justice. Thousand Currents’ grants are customized to fit the specific needs of their movement partners. In this way, their grantmaking model is nonlinear, flexible, and multi prong. 

By visiting Thousand Currents’ website you can access a comprehensive list of their partners from across the globe. There you can also read about each partner’s work, like the Nepal-based, youth-led research and advocacy organization Digo Bikas Institute, which is committed to promoting ecological sustainability and social equity at policy and community levels.

 

Transform Finance is a research, education, and implementation partner for the movement to transform finance. They envision a world where all investors serve as net positive contributors to a just and equitable society and where non-investors, particularly those from communities who have historically been harmed by capital flows, have a meaningful opportunity to control assets and influence financial decisions. 

Within Transform Finance’s financial framework, all investments follow the three Transformative Finance principles: 1) Those affected have the chance to design outcomes, govern processes, and share in ownership; 2) Investors add more value than what they extract as returns; and 3) Risks and returns are fairly allocated among stakeholders. One way in which Transform Finance is applying these principles is through their Place-Based Investing program. This program works to establish the practice of Participatory Investment (the process of investing with meaningful input, decision-making power, and/or ownership from grassroots stakeholders) as an integral part of place-based investing.

Each of Transform Finance’s programs is accompanied by a number of resources that cover a wide range of topics, from participatory investment in banking to capital’s effects on racial justice, and come in a variety of formats, from videos to blog posts to briefings.