What if funder-grantee relationships were based on trust, while evaluation was an opportunity to co-actively learn and evolve as stewards?
Investing in people that reflect the values of the world we want to live in. Freeing up valuable time and energy that changemakers need to devote towards their mission through streamlined reporting and flexible funding.
What if community foundations served as a gathering place for like minded individuals and changemakers to build financial, and social, capital?
Centering trust and relationship building as an act of collective care. Foundations being held accountable to communities that are often underserved, overlooked and underfunded.
What if philanthropy could further maximize the transformation of the economic system by using invested assets to have an even more profound impact on the community and our world?
Committing to investing assets aligned with environmental, social, and governance values (ESG) while tactically deploying a share of assets within local economies to grow social enterprises working to the same ends as non-profits.
OUR VALUES
🜄 Equity
What if philanthropy became one of the means of transforming the power relations embedded within contemporary capitalism rather than a reflection of it? We intend to build a fund rooted in and powered by a deep commitment to equity and social/economic justice.
🜄 Trust
Too often, grant recipients are bogged down by onerous application processes and reporting requirements, taking them away from executing their mission. Trust based philanthropy reimagines traditional funder-grantee relationships, putting this value proposition into action through streamlined reporting, multi-year unrestricted funding, practicing open and transparent communication, supporting their grantees through networking and capacity building; and emphasizing co-learning and co-discovery as an essential process to shift the current funder-grantee dynamic.
🜄 Community Connection
Foundations can serve as a gathering place for like minded individuals and changemakers. We see this as a core and critical function of community foundations as they gather not just those with financial capital, but also social capital. By gathering, we harmonize and optimize how we use our resources and act as an incubator of new ideas and insights that enable both funder and grantee to adapt and respond to a fast-changing socio-political and bio-cultural environment.
🜄 Alignment
While the impact that a foundation can have through its grant-making is laudable, its invested assets can have an even more profound impact on the community and our world. We believe Foundations must ensure that their invested assets align with their environmental, social, and governance values (ESG) and that they are tactically deployed within local economies to help grow social enterprises working to the same ends as non-profits. These investments will further maximize the transformation of the economic system by advocating for ethical policies and practices of corporations, supporting leading-edge, regenerative business and infrastructure solutions to civilization's challenges, and facilitating a more just society that invests more equitably in women, people of color, and other marginalized populations, including the indigenous people of Hawaiʻi.