At Beloved Economies, when we talk about transforming how we work, this includes transforming how we fund.
Financing determines what's possible before the work even begins. The terms and timelines of funding—and the norms and culture of the entities allocating it—create the container for how we work. And if the container is extractive, even the most values-aligned company is swimming upstream.
In their powerful piece last year on the quiet violence of market rate returns, investors Katie and Brian Boland argue that market rate returns are a benchmark “built upon decades of exploitation, extraction, and externalized costs.” Their piece calls out with refreshing clarity what so-called “market rate returns” often depend on: Injustice that is structural and normalized.
Financing does not have to work this way, and there is now growing evidence to prove it. More and more alternative new funds are showing that financial solidity doesn’t have to come at the cost of people and planet.
For example, the financial cooperative network Seed Commons has long been demonstrating the power of non-extractive finance. Since their inception in 2015, Seed Commons has never had a negative year; profits from successful businesses have always been greater than any write-offs—even while prioritizing community wealth creation over return to investors.
In this spirit, the group Collective Action for Just Finance is retiring the term “concessionary returns” altogether because that terminology assumes that prioritizing people is something to apologize for. Rather than concessionary, they point out that we should call lower-rate investment returns what they are: non-extractive, restorative, or simply, fair.
Financial innovation firm RUNWAY has created a boldly different approach to early-stage investment for entrepreneurs who have historically been excluded from traditional financing. Their approach “asks us to reimagine how we support Black entrepreneurs by offering them more than just capital. It’s about believing in their potential and investing in their dreams in a way that acknowledges and rectifies systemic injustices.”
Numerous Indigenous-led funds are also totally reimagining (as well as remembering and recovering) approaches to investment that align with their people’s values and lifeways. The team at Roanhorse Consulting is modeling investment that “center[s] kinship, relationships and how we build and connect the world around us,” as founder Vanessa Roanhorse describes it. “Because at the end of the day, that’s all we have.”
These alternative funds are working in ways that are not only joy-filled and life-affirming; they are also successful. In fact, their approaches are proving exceptionally effective in backing successful, resilient, community-serving entrepreneurs and businesses.
What their success shows is that for more investors to make shifts in this spirit, “What's missing isn't frameworks or models,” as the Bolands sum it up in their piece, “it's courage.”
If we are serious about transforming how organizations operate, then we have to be equally serious about transforming the financial conditions and mechanics under which all of that work unfolds.
At Beloved Economies we believe being brave to build a democratic economy looks like relationships built on the courage to operate differently, even when most everyone else is still playing by the old rules.
In solidarity,
Jess Rimington & Joanna Levitt Cea
A Beloved Tip: They may try to stop you
Research from Beloved Economies found that as groups move toward breakout innovation by working in ways aligned with the seven practices (what we call “breakout actors”), they frequently encounter resistance—often right at the moment of breakthrough. Sound familiar? In fact, some breakout actors have come to view such resistance as a signpost signaling their innovations are successfully breaking out of the status quo.
In one case, a family foundation spent years building a more collaborative, community-led funding model, only for the board to abruptly shut it down as it was taking off. For others, it looked like a staff member suddenly let go without explanation or an initiative broken apart just as it began to gain traction.
Even in these moments, something real can carry forward. When that family foundation's Board unexpectedly pulled the plug, the relationships built during those years outlasted everything else. Partner organizations quickly hired former staff, and important work continued.
It turns out that, even in the face of resistance—including loss of funding resources—work that has been co-created with authentic partnership and distributed power is actually quite hard to entirely stop. Initiatives rooted in these ways of working are resilient.
In our research, every single breakout actor repeatedly told us the effort was worth it, even when they met extreme resistance and intentional destruction of what many people had co-built together. The relationships continue, and the work emerges anew, sometimes in surprising new ways and places.
A tip: When resistance arises, map what can survive beyond the initiative itself. Ask yourself, what is worth carrying forward, and how can it continue, even in the face of resistance?
What We're Reading
Community Wealth Building Legislation—A World First. A Community Wealth Building Bill has now been published by the Scottish Government. The Community Wealth Building Act will be the first piece of national legislation anywhere in the world, representing a significant feat for the CWB movement. Democracy Collaborative. (4 minutes).
This Is a Hard Time to Start a Career. These Two Words Can Help. We loved this article in The New York Times on how to build a rewarding work life, even amid employment gloom. The New York Times. (10 minutes).
Three Myths Fueling Companies’ Icy Silence on Politics. When ICE agents began arresting citizens on neighborhood streets in Minneapolis, most companies said nothing. This piece cuts through the familiar excuses and names what corporate silence actually represents. MIT Sloan Management Review. (8 minutes).
Leaders Underestimate the Value of Employee Joy. A study of a North American retailer found that employees who reported the highest levels of joy outperformed their peers by 25%. The driving force behind that percentage was simply feeling valued and connected to the work. Harvard Business Review. (7 minutes).
Does Everything In the Social Sector Need to Scale? As crises and communities grow more complex, the assumption that all social innovation must scale overshadows more human-forward infrastructure, like relationships and trust, that make change at the community level truly felt. Stanford Social Innovation Review. (8 minutes).
Quick Bite
A simple drawing for a hard-to-name feeling.
An Offering
Interested in learning more about groups on the cutting edge of transforming how we fund?
Join an exciting (and free!) virtual event on May 7th: The launch of the 2026 Transformative 25 list, hosted by our colleagues at Collective Action for Just Finance. The Transformative 25 is an annual list of funds, banks, and initiatives that are working to reimagine our economic system.
Learn more and register for the event here.
