Community of Practice for Investment Funds creating new models for participatory governance and community power and wealth building.

The vast majority of investment funds are structured to retain wealth and power in the hands of the wealthy and powerful. The funds that we work with are finding themselves having to navigate and transform everything they come across: accounting systems, lawyers, investment managers, etc. What our funds are learning, building, hacking and designing for is a wealth of information that can be documented and shared more widely, both so existing funds can learn from each other, and for new funds who are just getting started. 

Our Hack: We will create a community of practice for our Transformative 25 funds to create spaces for them to interact, build relationships, and collectively learn from each other. We will host regular community meetings focused on discussing the shared challenges these funds face. Below are some of the topics we have already crowdsourced from our funds: - Navigating legal & compliance restrictions for impact driven funds - Structuring the Fund / Creating Relevant Finance Structures & Term Sheets  - Identifying Value-Aligned Foundations & Investors - Sharing due diligence  - How to overcome early blockages in setting up a fund & scale - Training Fund managers - Community-centered and social movement approaches - Outcomes-based financing - Underwriting with an equity lens - How to make capital more accessible We will write up reports, collaborate on creative solutions, increase awareness in the field, amplify cutting edge work, provide public learning opportunities and collectively advocate for needed changes.  Funding from the Hacking Wealth Challenge will give us the resources needed to get the community of practice up and running.  During the 4-8 week sprint we would accomplish the following: - Create a more detailed program plan and budget that can be used for ongoing project management, fundraising, etc.  - Scope out specific platforms or tools to create a robust community of practice.  - Plan and organize the inaugural meeting of the community of practice.   - Host the inaugural meeting in January of 2025. - Identify key priorities for the community of practice. - Provide honorariums to those who are engaging in the community. - Engage with designers to ensure materials we create meet accessibility requirements. UK Application: Lessons learned and published by CAJF will be available to anyone working to build new financial models. Additionally, the Transformative 25 highlights funds from all over the world. Funds that exist or are being created in the UK are eligible to apply to the T25 list and could join the community of practice. 

Inspired by the Berkana Institute’s Two Loops theory of change, we understand that in order to transition from the dominant paradigm into the new we need to name, connect, nourish and amplify those that are building the emerging system. Networks and Communities of Practice are a critical tool to support those who are walking out of the dominant paradigm and creating new and innovative models, to connect with and learn from each other in order to speed the transition into a new paradigm.  Our community of practice will provide thought leadership, resources, best practices, and a sense of solidarity among these many funds creating new models to build and retain community wealth and power.  From our hack we imagine an exponential number of new funds being created that can learn from the best practices and challenges of the pioneers who came before them.