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One Year Reflections from the JEI Alumni Grant Pool

by Kelley Buhles, Stephone Coward and Sabrina Wu

One summer day at Paicines Ranch, a handful of Just Economy Institute Fellows began making a plan to create a fund that would help us practice what we were learning: doing the inner work that is needed to create the conditions for a just economy, while simultaneously creating new ways of flowing capital that create community wealth and support healthy systems. This fund could be a place of praxis for everything we were learning, while simultaneously funding projects of JEI alumni who are traditionally excluded from access to capital. Two years later, the JEI Alumni Grant Pool was launched and completed its first round of grant funding. 

The JEI Alumni Grant Pool is a grant program for JEI alumni created and funded by JEI alumni. Grounded in abundance, joy and collaboration, the JEI Alumni Review Committee utilizes non-extractive, trust based and participatory processes to flow funding to as many applicants as possible. The hope of the JEI Alumni Grant Pool is that making financial support available to JEI alumni will catalyze visionary work across the alumni network, provide energy and fortitude to alumni in their journeys as financial activists and create a platform for re-engaging with the alumni network to forge collaborations and relationships.

In participatory grantmaking, we often say, “the process is the point,” meaning it is important to look beyond individual grants to see the impact of and lessons learned through the process of shifting power. Our work of shifting power requires that we do things in new ways, innovate on process and reflect on what we’ve learned. The greatest value of the Alumni Grant Pool is in the learnings that are generated for the field. We are excited to share some lessons learned in the first phase of the journey.

Sabrina (second from right) at a JEI Cohort 3 Immersion at Chaminade, 2019. (JEI)
Stephone (center) with JEI alumni at a regional meet-up in Dallas, 2023.

Non-competitive Grantmaking

When exploring how to create a fund to support JEI alumni, we wanted to be sure that it didn’t create a sense of competition within the JEI community. The JEI alumni committee decided to explore using non-competitive processes to make grant decisions.  

Philanthropy is based in scarcity and competition. The scarcity mindset, valued and upheld by white supremacy culture, tells us that resources are limited, and we must compete with one another in order to survive. Philanthropy creates competition by forcing grantees to apply for limited pools of funding against their peers. Accordingly, there is a growing interest in non-competitive grantmaking within the philanthropic field to create new systems that do not perpetuate theextractive dominant paradigm. Funds like the Equality Fund, which distributed $14m to 23 groups, Fenomenal Fund, which distributed $3m to 40 groups, and the Potlatch Fund, which is deeply rooted in the Indigenous worldview that wealth is measured by our shared abundance, have demonstrated that non-competitive grantmaking not only works, but creates cultures of abundance and collaboration among grantees.

Inspired by mutual aid funds, which have been an effective tool for sharing resources within marginalized communities in the US since 1793, the JEI Alumni Grant pool was designed to flow funds to those who typically experience the most barriers to funding using non-competitive and trust based processes. We set up the fund such that we believe people who say they have a need, and we trust them to take what they need and leave the rest for others. Of the 10 people that applied, 70% did not ask for the maximum amount available.

Pacing Funding vs. Urgent Deployment

Based on initial feedback we got from alumni, we planned to have the grant pool open twice a year so that those in need of funding would not have to wait for an annual process to get funds to support their work. During our first round of funding, however, we had more requests than funding allotted for. Our options were to either a) develop a non-competitive process for selecting who would receive funding, b) provide applicants with less than the minimum amount they had requested, or c) distribute more funds than we had originally planned for in the first round. 

While discussing Option A, the JEI alumni committee explored non-competitive processes for selecting funding recipients, such as random drawings; ultimately, we felt that funding only some of the groups was disingenuous since we had enough funding for all applicants to receive some. Furthermore, if those who didn’t receive funding were moved into the pool for the next round, we would essentially be delaying their funding for no reason other than self-created red-tape. In the field of philanthropy, we often see “fake rules,” or self-imposed rules, that disproportionately serve the needs of the funder. In contrast, we were determined to unpack the reality of our funding options and center the needs of our community. Accordingly, we decided Option A was not the right route for us.  

Option B, providing applicants with less than the minimum amount they had requested, also felt misaligned with our values. If our trust based giving meant that we believed people when they asked for their needs, we felt that giving less than the minimum amount requested would undermine that trust. We were compelled by a practice of fully funding proposals – a practice offered by JEI alum Allistair Mallillin at Common Counsel Foundation. Marginalized communities frequently under-ask for what is needed to do their work; in order to disrupt the cycle of under-investment in these communities, we felt it important to honor the practice of fully funding proposals. 

Therefore, Option C, distributing more funds than we had originally planned for in the first round, felt the most aligned with our values of quickly and easily getting funding to those who need it.  

Spending more, now versus saving for future needs is a tension philanthropy has long wrestled with. We resonate with the growing movement of foundations working to put themselves out of business while seeding a just economy where philanthropy does not exist. Given the urgency of the times, there is a growing call in the philanthropic sector to deploy funds more quickly now, rather than amassingfunding for future crises when it may already be too late to make the necessary changes. 

Steeped in the beliefs that time is a justice issue and flowing resources to some can create collective wellbeing for many, the committee decided to ensure that people had access to as much capital as possible in the immediate moment by resourcing requests quickly and fully. Furthermore, in the hopes of providing energy and fortitude to our JEI alumni community, we felt that fully funding requests would allow those on the frontlines to feel the impacts of an influx of resources, and, perhaps, provide some mental relief to those who consistently struggle to access funding.

In the end, the committee funded everyone who applied at their minimum request amount; the remaining funds allocated for the year were split equally among applicants whose funding hadn’t reached the grant pool maximum of $15,000. 

Stephone (second from right) gathers with JEI alumni in Dallas, 2023.
Kelley (right) at a JEI Cohort 4 immersion at Paicines Ranch, 2020. (JEI)

Still learning

Like any pilot program, we learned a lot. The funding took longer to deploy than we had hoped which pushed back the second round of funding, and we are still exploring how to non-extractively collect information about the lessons learned from this pilot.

We are grateful for folks who have gone before us in the work, like the Trans Justice Funding Project who wrote a brilliant piece in 2015 about Doing Philanthropy Differently, and everyone working to transform philanthropy, such as Trust Based Philanthropy and the Participatory Grantmaking Community. Given the recent backlash against trust based and participatory processes, it is more important than ever that we continue this work. We are also grateful to the fund’s many donors who have engaged, questioned and supported us on this journey. We look forward to continuing to share our lessons with the field. 

Kelley Buhles is an independent consultant, collaborative leader and co-creator of new economic models that build and retain power and wealth in communities. She is a participatory grantmaking thought leader, having practiced since 2010, she has designed and supported over 20 processes. 

Stephone Coward is the Economic Justice, Justice Paid in Full Campaigns Director at the Hip Hop Caucus. He has worked in the banking industry in Dallas-Fort Worth for the last two decades and received his Bachelors of Arts in History and Master of Science in Sustainability from University of Texas at Arlington. In 2016, he cofounded BankBlackUSA and the nonprofit COWRIE Initiative to continue this advocacy work of supporting Minority Depository Institutions. In 2021, Stephone became a Just Economy Institute Fellow, joining a growing movement of financial activists who are shifting the flow of capital and power to support the well-being of all people and the planet. Because of his work and passion, Stephone has been named one of Forbes Next 1000 as a Social Entrepreneur.

Sabrina Wu (she/her) is a Senior Program Officer at East Bay Community Foundation, leading the Foundation’s work on building a just and inclusive economy. In this capacity, she supports increasing access to fair capital for BIPOC entrepreneurs, grassroots equitable economic development, and moving grant and impact investing resources in more participatory and collaborative ways. She is also a co-founder of LUNAR, a cross-racial solidarity funding initiative for Asian Americans to support movements for Black and Indigenous lives.

Radical Hope for a Just Economy: Spiritual Teachings to Guide Us Forward

by Ana Ramos

For thousands of years, spiritual teachings have reminded us to cooperate, honor, rest and respect the seasonality and abundance of this Earth and all living beings and distribute its resources equitably and responsibly. For some, these lessons have become ancestral knowledge—a way of being and living in the world based on the teachings and lived experiences of our elders. 

A river offering left by Ana in the land of the Munsee Lenape people.

For most of my adult life, I have considered myself a deeply spiritual person. After years of living with depression and losing my faith in a higher power, I met a spiritual healer and teacher who reminded me of this untapped well of love and possibility. She also reminded me of my power to heal myself by tapping into certain spiritual tools and rituals. Since then, I have participated in healing ceremonies, visited many places of worship, entered and created sacred spaces, and, most importantly, found myself through my healing journey. With new tools and awareness, I began to look around and notice the deep injustices in my community. That’s when I solidified my journey as an activist, bringing spirit with me to fight for a better world.

Specifically, I began to pay attention to and question our unjust economic system. I got a job with a public health organization and started questioning why we weren’t addressing the economic disparities that create many of the social determinants of health that plague our society today. I repeatedly saw what felt like band-aid solutions to deeply entrenched and systemic inequalities. In response, I switched careers and began working as an impact investor shifting capital and power to BIPOC communities. 

Ana (right) with JEI fellows. (JEI)

Last year, I had an incredible experience as a Fellow with the Just Economy Institute where I was emboldened to combine my radical hope for a just economy with my healing and spiritual practices. I realized that many of the concepts and frameworks I was learning about were very similar to my spiritual teachings and practices: being a good steward of the earth and all living things, being honest, noticing ego and greed, cooperating with others and seeing the possibility in everyone around me by honoring and respecting their individuality within the collective. Frameworks for a just and regenerative economy are based on cooperation, relationships, collective ownership and caring for the land and environment. Noticing these similarities, and reading the works of others pondering the same, drove me to consider how spiritual teachings could serve as a guide for how we manage, invest and share our economic and natural resources in collective alignment with a just economy.  

Ana (front row, center) with her JEI fellowship cohort. (Techboogie)

Spiritual teachings and practices have always served as a reminder for humanity to use natural and economic resources for the collective good rather than individual gain. In the spirit of sharing, I wanted to disseminate some of the wisdom that inspires me on my path as a financial activist:

  • Seventh Generation Principle
    • The Seventh Generation Principle is based on an ancient philosophy of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) people of North America, which states that the decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future. 
    • A similar concept can be found within many indigenous communities or tribes across the Americas, Hawaii and with the Māori people of New Zealand who connect people in the past, present, future and non-human world in their whakapapa, or genealogy, of all things.
  • Liberation Theology in the Catholic Church:
    • Kira Dault states: “Broadly speaking, liberation theology is a social and political movement within the church that attempts to interpret the gospel of Jesus Christ through the lived experiences of oppressed people.” This movement was started in Latin America in the late 50s and continued through the 80s and 90s. 
    • Liberation theology has three levels of liberation, the first being the liberation of the poor from economic exploitation.  
    • The teachings engaged in socioeconomic analysis and addressed other forms of inequality, such as race, political affiliation and caste.
  • Islamic finance:
    • Islamic finance is banking or financing activity that complies with Shari’a (Islamic law). For example, Shari’a prohibits charging or paying interest because it is seen as financial exploitation. Alternative financing structures that follow Shari’a were created to allow observant Muslims to participate in the economy in a way where lenders can make a profit without charging interest. 
    • The sophisticated Islamic financing structures include models of co-ownership between the buyer and financier in Musharakah, lease-to-own models known as Ijara and deferred-payment resale arrangements called murabaja. Other concepts in Islamic finance also include social bonds, shared responsibility and shared risk.
  • Debt Forgiveness and Year of Jubilee (Jubilee Economics):
    • History teaches us that debt forgiveness can be a tool for reprieve and reparations. For example, the Jubilee year in Jewish scripture and tradition was a time when fields were left fallow, debts canceled and enslaved people set free (Deuteronomy 15, Leviticus 25). Jubilees were supposed to happen in cycles every 7 or 49 years to ensure that inequalities did not persist over time.
    • Until recently, most people could not imagine debt forgiveness embedded into society’s socioeconomic practices. The norm today is that debt can become someone else’s asset and investors can buy and sell debt to one another to make a profit. In 2012, the Debt Collective launched the Rolling Jubilee Debt Fund, an entity dedicated to debt cancellation and public education. Through this fund, they have abolished $31,982,455.76 in existing debt so far. 
  • Buddhist Economics:
    • In the essay “Small is Beautiful,” E.F. Schumacher argues that while the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly interested in liberation. He states: “It is not wealth that stands in the way of liberation, but the attachment to wealth; not the enjoyment of pleasurable things, but the craving for them. The keynote of Buddhist economics, therefore, is simplicity and non-violence. From an economist’s point of view, the marvel of the Buddhist way of life is the utter rationality of its pattern—amazingly small means leading to extraordinarily satisfactory results.”
    • In an interview with the Garrison Institute, Clair Brown, author of Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science, shared that when she teaches her students about Buddhist economics, she uses pies as a metaphor: “In the free-market economy, the most important thing is the size of the national income pie. After that, most economists care about the division of the pie. How can we divide the pie in a way that makes it more equitable? How can we share prosperity? In Buddhist economics, there’s one more step, which is to ask: What’s inside the pie? What makes life meaningful? How do we measure it? What’s in the pie, of course, includes the natural world and our relationships with each other.”

For many of us, specifically folks from the global south, Black and Indigenous communities, these spiritual teachings have become a way of being that is passed down from one generation to another, consciously or unconsciously. When I think about the way that I want to move within the contemporary economic reality of extractive capitalism, I dig into my roots and look to my parents and ancestors for guidance. 

Ana’s maternal great-grandmother, Juaquina, and great-aunt, Altagracia, in their yard in the Dominican Republic.
Ana’a father, José, holding her daughter, Amalia, in his new co-owned supermarket in Lebanon, PA in 2020.

I am awed by their ability to migrate to New York City from a small town in the Dominican Republic and open their own business. I am proud of the way they used the tools of those before them, like family and friends lending circles, (also known as susus, tandas, sociedad), which provided interest-free loans to help them start their businesses, save for a down payment and remodel their properties when needed. They hired neighbors and family members from back home who recently migrated, some of whom were/are undocumented, not as a way of looking for cheap labor, but as a way of paying it forward to their community. They provided free transportation, meals and sometimes housing to these new arrivals. They did these things because these were the teachings of their culture. 

For those of us on a spiritual path who are working in the field of economic justice, I challenge us to consider how we might integrate these teachings into all aspects of our lives, including how we move within our economic system. I challenge us to notice how we are all interconnected, to remember that we have been hearing this message for thousands of years. Above all, I challenge us to uplift the ideas and ancestral knowledge of marginalized people in our work. 

As I reflect on my career and the knowledge that I want to leave behind when I depart this realm, I think about cooperation. I think about the economy as a manifestation of our relationships with one another and our resources. I think about respect. I think about caring for the Earth, our collective home. I think about living my life in harmony with my ancestral spiritual knowledge. And this dream of mine, my vision for a just economy, sustains my radical hope. This dream can be realized. I know this because I am of my people, and their tools, teachings, legacies and spirits make certain the possibility of a better way forward.  

Ana Ramos is a visionary dedicated to reshaping our world into a more equitable and sustainable place for all through a fervent commitment to economic justice. As the co-founder of Colectiva Clara (Clarity Collective), Ana leads a cultural asset company that specializes in Latin American healing products, traditions, and rituals. Through Colectiva Clara, Ana orchestrates transformative visioning and manifestation rituals and workshops, guiding participants through meditation, healing practices, and creative expressions to help them align their lives with their goals. Additionally, Ana serves as a consultant on local economic justice initiatives.

Previously, Ana served as the Manager of Impact Investments at Common Future, where she developed and structured innovative pilot products and initiatives focused on impact investment capital. Prior to this, she held the role of Manager of Programs and Grantmaking at Common Future, overseeing grants management and coordination processes. During her tenure at The Food Trust, Ana collaborated closely with entrepreneurs in New Jersey, leading a small retailer initiative that culminated in securing partnerships with a local CDFI and cooperative development agency. Her efforts resulted in providing retailers access to affordable capital and the infrastructure to form their own cooperative. Ana also managed the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, a statewide program investing in new or expanding healthy food retail outlets. She also led a bi-national healthy food initiative in the Paso del Norte Region.

Ana holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Temple University and is deeply rooted in the Philadelphia community. Still, she is a true Caribbean at heart. Originally from the Dominican Republic, she is blessed to visit the islands often. When not at work, you can find her working on her social enterprise, Colectiva Clara, crafting, going on long walks in her neighborhood, dancing at home with her partner, cooking/eating, and playing and learning with her daughter/bestie.

JEI Journeys: Nikishka Iyengar modeling community-owned and -directed development

JEI Journeys are a series of Q&As with JEI Fellows about the paths they’ve taken to financial activism and what they’ve learned along the way. For this post, we interviewed Nikishka Iyengar, founder & CEO of The Guild, about prioritizing collective wellbeing, a model for community ownership and the importance of self-care when engaging with collective trauma.

The Guild is an Atlanta-based organization building community wealth and power through cooperative real estate, entrepreneurship programs and access to capital for marginalized communities. Their alternative model for real estate development aims to improve the ability of communities to increase asset ownership, anchor jobs locally and ensure local economic resilience.

The Guild team (Nikishka Iyengar, left) poses with members of the SW Atlanta community and Ujamma Construction during groundbreaking festivities for their pilot development at 918 Dill Ave in the Capitol View neighborhood. (Mark Marx, Kresge Foundation)

JEI: How would you describe your community wealth building work? 

NI: Community wealth building is about prioritizing collective wellbeing over individual profit. At The Guild, we do that by building an alternative model for real estate development that enables local communities—especially Black and other communities of color and working-class communities—to collectively own and control assets in their own neighborhoods. In this model, instead of developers and outside investors making decisions for and profiting off of marginalized communities, the communities determine what happens in their neighborhoods and benefit from any development taking place. 

JEI: What are you doing that brings something new to the table in terms of community wealth building? What value are you seeing from that?

NI: The Guild is working on a Community Stewardship Trust that is set up to acquire vacant, underutilized assets, or assets otherwise sitting in extractive models, and develop them into community-owned assets that meet the material needs of marginalized communities. The model allows residents within a ZIP code to invest whatever amount of money is meaningful to them into the CST, and through that investment gain decision-making power about what gets developed in their neighborhood. Community investors also receive a financial return via dividends and share price appreciation. Instead of surplus value being extracted from neighborhoods by developers or outside equity investors, it remains within the community.

The CST can acquire and develop assets like affordable housing, neighborhood grocery stores, daycare centers, commercial space for Black-owned small businesses and meeting spaces for nonprofits. It is tasked with managing the long-term affordability of these assets as well as democratizing any financial returns from development.

As we stand up the first CST in Atlanta, we’re already seeing value in giving people an opportunity to experience land, housing and real estate in an alternative, tangible, non-extractive way. We’ve created a container to collectively question status quo assumptions and design different models and institutions that reflect our values and desires for self-determination and liberation. 

Community members add their suggestions for the open lot across the street from 918 Dill Ave. (Cliff Robinson Photography)
Dill Ave. and Sylvan Rd. is a critical intersection with lots of excitement and hope for what it can become. (Cliff Robinson Photography)

JEI: What lessons can you share about what it takes to be an effective partner to people seeking to build community wealth? What do you wish someone had told you when you started doing this work? 

NI: This work requires you to wear multiple hats, often all at once—from community organizer to capital and resource mobilizer, and everything in between. It requires you to navigate complexity and nuance well. One day you might have to become an expert in investment or tax law, and the next you might have to learn to be a skilled trauma steward and hold space for someone dealing with a traumatic event like an eviction. It can take a lot to balance all of that. 

This isn’t to say you have to be perfect at everything—in fact, recognizing that perfectionism is an expression of white supremacy culture and unlearning that trait is also an important lesson. But being an effective partner in this kind of systems change work does require us to be skilled at navigating complexity and practicing emergent strategy. 

Effective community wealth building necessitates learning to navigate conflict, which is an inherent part of any relationship. If managed well, conflict can even generate progress. 

I wish someone had told me when I first started this work that I needed to learn to take better care of myself. As the world continues to be on literal fire, and structural violence continues to impact our communities, it’s easy to give so much (all) of yourself to this work that you burn out. And burnt-out people can’t build life-affirming institutions.

The Guild team (Nikishka Iyengar, center) poses with members of the SW Atlanta community during groundbreaking festivities for their pilot development at 918 Dill Ave in the Capitol View neighborhood. (Mark Marx, Kresge Foundation)

JEI: What other advice do you have for leaders who want to support community wealth building?

NI: Get clear on your values and double down on them when times get hard and things get uncomfortable (as they often will). Community wealth building is about going against the grain of capitalism in every way. Doing this over a sustained period is incredibly difficult without a clear sense of your own personal values—and your team’s and organization’s shared values. You’ll also need to clearly articulate what principled compromise looks like to you and your collaborators because operating within capitalism will always require that on some level.

JEI: Can you tell me about a project or aspect of a project that you’re proud of? We’d love to hear a community success story. 

NI: I’m proud of our recent launch of the People’s Community Land Trust here in Atlanta. Through the PCLT, we’re acquiring and renovating homes, taking them off the speculative market entirely, and turning them into permanently affordable housing for low- to moderate-income residents across the city, with a specific focus on residents currently battling displacement.

Ms. Juliet Brown poses with members of The Guild, Housing Justice League and American Friends Service Committee as the People’s Community Land Trust closes on its first purchase — Ms. Juliet’s new home. (The Guild)

Nikishka Iyengar is a systems entrepreneur working at the intersection of finance, climate action and racial justice. She is the founder and CEO of The Guild, a real estate company creating spaces for social change through new economic models focused on community wealth building. She is also the owner of Whole Systems Collective, an impact consulting collective working towards a just and regenerative economy through two key initiatives – the transformation of our financial systems, and climate action through carbon drawdown and responsible stewardship of our natural resources. Previously, as a sustainability consultant at a top management consulting firm, she helped her clients unlock ~$1B worth of value from renewable energy, water stewardship and emissions reduction opportunities. Then, as a product manager at a waste tech startup, Nikishka built software (including artificial intelligence products) to allow companies to uncover waste diversion opportunities within their supply chain and operations. Nikishka was recognized by GreenBiz as a “30 under 30” emerging leader in sustainability. She has a BBA in Finance, a BA in Economics and an Interdisciplinary Certificate in International Development from The University of Texas at Austin.

JEI Journeys: Kim Pate on her work supporting Indigenous prosperity and culture

JEI Journeys are a series of Q&As with JEI Fellows about the paths they’ve taken to financial activism and what they’ve learned along the way. For this post, we interviewed Kim Pate, managing director of NDN Fund, the lending and investing arm of NDN Collective, about overcoming entrenched barriers to Indigenous prosperity and honoring community-driven solutions.

NDN Collective is is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building and narrative change, NDN Collective is creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms.

Kim Pate (center) touring Paicines Ranch with her JEI cohort. (Alicia Arcidiacono, Chasing Chickadees Photography)

JEI: How would you describe your community wealth building work? 

KP: I help Indigenous peoples defend, develop, and decolonize their communities by increasing access to funds that can be used to fight resource extraction; build strong businesses, homes, and infrastructure; and restore culture. This work is focused in places that have been subject to colonization and therefore have experienced poverty for hundreds of years.  

JEI: What are you doing that brings something new to the table in terms of community wealth building? What value are you seeing from that?

KP: In 2016, I joined the board of directors at Nimiipuu Community Development Fund, a Native community development financial institution serving the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho. Since then we’ve provided consumer and business loans to many Nez Perce tribal citizens. Through our lending, tribal citizens have built better credit, paid off predatory payday loans, and survived the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. 

Businesses financed include a daycare center, a café, a smoke shop, and a tourism company. These businesses are creating jobs and prosperity for the reservation and bringing back the Main Street business sector that has been gone since most can remember. Even more than that, they’re inspiring our youth and giving them hope for brighter futures. 

JEI: What advice do you have for leaders who want to support community wealth building? 

KP: In many cases, there are ample opportunities available to both investors and lenders to be a good relative by listening, learning, growing, and challenging assumptions and processes that create barriers to Indigenous communities thriving on their own terms. It’s never too late to tackle what seem like deeply entrenched barriers to economic prosperity in Indigenous communities. But it takes a commitment to finding out what’s needed and what’s already working, and to really leaning into community-driven solutions that will make a difference.

Kim Pate being interviewed at Paicines Ranch during her final JEI immersion. (Techboogie)

JEI: Do you have any lessons to share about being an effective partner?

KP: From my experience as an Indigenous lender, we succeed when our loan relatives succeed and when we meet them where they are. Based on our knowledge of what’s needed—capital in the form of debt and equity, plus assistance with various elements of the project or business—we bring a cohesive set of strategies that we call braided capital. We may provide a loan accompanied by a grant and other resources that synergistically support the growth of the project or business throughout the life of the loan. I encourage other leaders to tap into what the need is for the people they serve and create a similarly tailored approach.

JEI: Can you tell me about a project or aspect of a project that you’re proud of? We’d love to hear a community success story. 

KP: Miss Anne’s Maypop Herb Shop in New Orleans, owned and operated by a Lakota woman, has become a community resource for remedies, plant knowledge, healing, and social change by utilizing an ecological and economic sustainability model. During the pandemic, the team had to scale back operations due to the lack of travel and tourism, but NDN Fund’s loan allowed the shop to resume its pre-pandemic service levels, expand its online presence to serve a national market, and hire more medicine makers and herbalists.

We also provided power-building resources to Miss Anne’s Maypop Herb Shop, including hiring Nativ3 (an Indigenous team of creative experts) to develop a new website that brings to life a unique, one-of-a-kind, mobile-friendly experience encompassing access to products, education, and knowledge-sharing. On the back end, Miss Anne’s Maypop Herb Shop will be able to track how well the website is meeting the needs of the target audience so that there can be continuous improvement. We recently expanded this contract with Nativ3 to include social media marketing, another way to support the business’s growth and expansion.

In addition to all that, Miss Anne is positioning the shop to offer electricity through a solar generator in the case of climate events like Hurricane Katrina. Local residents will be able to go there for power and to receive alternative medicine as needed for themselves and their loved ones.

(Miss Anne’s Maypop)
(Miss Anne’s Maypop)
(Miss Anne’s Maypop)

Kim Pate, NDN Fund Managing Director, is a descendant of the Eastern Band Cherokee and Mississippi Choctaw tribes. Pate leads the daily operation of the organization, supports communications and evaluation, and plays important strategic and communications roles within NDN Collective.  She has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Stanford University and a Juris Doctorate from University of California at Los Angeles School of Law. Pate is admitted to practice in Nez Perce Tribal Court and California.

JEI Journeys: Ain Bailey on Feeding Your Vision

This is the fifth in a series of Q&As with JEI Fellows about the path they’ve taken to financial activism and what they’ve learned along the way. For this post, we interviewed Ain Bailey, founder and lead designer of  New Seneca Village and a  philanthropic strategist, about feeding her long-term vision.

New Seneca Village is a retreat space and social ecosystem seeking to secure gorgeous land and a founding endowment in order to provide justice-focused leaders and healers with access to time, space and nature within an intentional community centered on restoration, connection and visioning – in perpetuity.

2023 Villagers at residency. (New Seneca Village)

JEI: What is New Seneca Village today? How much of your vision has been fulfilled, and what’s next?  

AB: Today New Seneca Village is entering the third year of our pilot phase, hosting women and non-binary leaders and healers of color in an experience centered on restoration, connection and visioning for the sake of their sustained leadership. We continue to partner with existing retreat centers to host up to four residencies a year while organizing to collectively own our own retreat center space so that we can significantly expand the number of Villagers we can host, while deepening our own ability to be adaptively responsive with our offerings and space.  

New Seneca Village is a love offering born out of our knowing what our leaders, across sector, issue area and region/country, are dealing with, which is often similar patterns of negligent and targeted abuse at the hands of institutions and organizational actors who are not ready to make real space for the presence or contributions of leaders of color. These repetitive patterns exist inside of a broader culture that celebrates productivity at all costs, while sidelining reflection, intuition, the creativity that lies in dormancy and the power that is accessed through our connection to ourselves, to nature and to our communities.  

Our current systems ask our leaders to solve many of our society’s most egregious issues and yet provides them with often conditional funding that is nominal for the current work, much less for the work that lies ahead which requires that they are funded also for nimbleness and creativity. We want our leaders to feel abundantly resourced so that they can connect easily to their wise inner selves as they expansively vision and guide our progress.  

New Seneca Village is an invitation into a self-guided liberatory embodiment practice, and it is designed to be a paradigm shift opportunity. At the same time, the productivity programming of capitalism, philanthropy and nonprofit culture is strong and insistent. We want to make sure that the Village experience, the relationships we build and the intentional and impromptu conversations that center our well-being, dreams and visions continue well past the sacred time we share together and this work is still emerging.  

There are many fascinating patterns and questions that continue to emerge in this offering, and they continue to signal the importance of our founding vision of a permanent retreat center that is designed and governed by us and for us. We are actively looking for donors who understand our work, resonate with our legacy vision and can commit to funding us comprehensively, extending beyond the acquisition of land to the (re)development of structures for the intended use of the property, and for appropriately compensated staffing and ongoing self-determined sustainability. This means funding New Seneca Village in a way that allows us to be good stewards with and for the land (and the structures on it), while remaining centered on our offering and all that it takes to be engaged with and responsive to our Village community.  

Ain Bailey (front row, left) with members of her JEI Cohort at the JEI Alumni Gathering in 2022. (Alicia Arcidiacono, Chasing Chickadees)

JEI: When did the vision for New Seneca Village come to you? Did it seem feasible? How did you respond to it? 

AB: The vision for New Seneca Village came to me roughly eight years ago, and I rejected it immediately as someone else’s work to do. For years I simply ignored the vision because it felt too big and too hard to do right. Creating this vision with intention and the appropriate level of resources was especially important because our work is focused on pouring into communities that too often get shortchanged. In time, I realized that the vision had been working in and on me despite my initial rejection and that I was being led to relationships that significantly shaped the eventual Village offering and to experiences that gave me access to resources and connections to potentially make the vision possible. 

My JEI experience—especially the intentionally held container of both introspection and deep listening—supported my ability to communicate my vision, knowing that it would be held with respect. Being with others over the nine months of the experience allowed for the development of trust, which is only expanded whenever I am able to gather with Fellows from my own and other cohorts. JEI attracts such interesting people and creates an environment where we can share not just our professional strategies and innovations, but also our personal passions and heart-held questions.  

All of this resonates personally and within the New Seneca Village vision, which is more interested in questions—and how they inform, expand and guide us—than it is interested in answers, which can often shut down crucial elements of living, creation and experimentation. 

2023 Villagers at residency. (New Seneca Village)

JEI: How do you continue to feed your vision?

AB: New Seneca Village is an invitation to practice the future now. It is a liberated space for leaders and healers to strengthen their connection to their own sovereignty and to their innate and sacred purpose. And to all of the resources that are beyond the limitations of funding and organizational structures.  

To be a useful steward of this transformational work that is alive at both the individual and the collective level, I steep myself in solitude and prayer. Prayer is shorthand for my practice of devoting time, energy and commitment to my intentions for this work while asking for and remaining open to direction.  

In this practice of holding vision, I spend a lot of my time daydreaming generative questions and hosting intentional conversations. How do we get free? Or does this get us free? are the questions that I hold most frequently as I continue to be present to all that is unfolding now for and with Villagers and the Village team.  

I find my answers most often in nature, where it is easy to wait, listen and look for wisdom as shared by the trees, my ancestors, sunsets and the stars, to name a few sources of ever-present clarity and power. Nature tells the true story of our belonging and of all the ways that it is possible to be nourished, sustained and powerful within this human experience.  

I am also deeply connected with and grateful to my growing community of leaders, healers, dreamers and doers who share their hearts and their visions with me, thereby continuing to connect me to the Village vision and beyond it to all that is possible. 

Ain Bailey (back row, sixth from left) with JEI Cohort at Paicines Ranch in 2021. (Alicia Arcidiacono, Chasing Chickadees)

Ain Bailey is a justice focused philanthropic strategist and collaborative leader whose work is grounded in infinite possibility, proven by the miracle of this planet and our shared humanity. After years of funding racial justice, organizational development, housing and narrative shift as levers for advancing an equitable and just society, it became clear to Ain that the systems will not change unless we change the way that we care for the leaders who are doing the complex and perpetual work of shifting them. This belief, along with her deep knowing of the transformative and healing power of nature and the longstanding benefit of healing practices, compelled her to develop New Seneca Village to sustain cis, transfeminine and non-binary women of color social justice leaders who have been at the forefront of all major societal movement in this country (whether they were acknowledged or not.) Ain is most energized by her role as the Founder & Co-Designer of New Seneca Village, a retreat and visioning project designed to connect these critical leaders to nature, restorative practices and each other such that their leadership and work is grounded in restoration, community connection and expansive vision. New Seneca Village is a response to her long-standing question, grounded in 400 years of history and made more relevant by the events of 2020: What is possible for our society, our people and our planet if we abundantly and consistently resourced the leaders advancing our society’s most evolved values ?

The Invaluable Currency of Relationships

This is the fourth in a series of collaboration stories featuring JEI community members who have worked together to shift the flow of capital and power. This post features JEI alumni and facilitator Keoni Lee and JEI faculty member Esther Park. Keoni Lee is the CEO of Hawai‘i Investment Ready, a 501(c)(3) supporting the people and organizations addressing Hawaiʻi’s social and environmental opportunities by accelerating social enterprise impact and access to investment. Esther Park is the CEO of Cienega Capital, a family office investing to improve local agriculture and food systems, and a member of the #NoRegrets Initiative, a relationship-centered approach to land and asset management that deploys human, ecological and financial capital toward soil health and its effect on climate change.

Keoni Lee (top row, left) and Esther Park (second row from bottom, third from left) at Paicines Ranch. (Alicia Arcidiacono, Chasing Chickadees)

Relationships. While an underappreciated part of the conventional finance system, they’re foundational to the work of building a just economy. 

And for Keoni Lee and Esther Park, they’re indispensable. 

Keoni is a Just Economy Institute Fellow (2020 – 2021 cohort) and has recently joined the core team as a facilitator, in addition to being CEO of Hawai‘i Investment Ready (HIR). Esther is a longtime JEI facilitator and faculty member, and CEO of Cienega Capital, a member of the #NoRegrets Initiative. Together, they’re collaborating to put relationships — among entrepreneurs and funders, and within regional economies — at the center of activity for building a just economy. 

 “[Our collaboration started] when I applied to the #NoRegrets Initiative for funding,” Keoni shared in a recent conversation. “And while money is great, what I really wanted was some of Esther’s time.” 

“At Hawai‘i Investment Ready, we reimagine how to move money differently in service of our collective goals for a more resilient, regenerative, equitable, and just economy for Hawai‘i.” Integral to this work is a business accelerator program that supports entrepreneurs with training, access to resources and capital, and opportunities to scale social enterprises. 

Keoni was frustrated. He saw firsthand the challenge of entrepreneurs making themselves fit with what funders wanted, even if it was out of step with their goals. He found a willing co-conspirator in Esther, herself seeking better ways to leverage her relationships with funders in service of deeper alignment of capital with social enterprise. 

“Usually you have entrepreneurs who say, here’s what we need,” says Esther. “And you have funders who say, here’s what we provide. There’s no meeting in the middle. Why can’t the funders revise their approach, so they can actually meet the needs that the entrepreneurs have on the ground?”

“Esther and I are aligned in how we see the problems and also the opportunities of moving money differently,” said Keoni. “And she’s been involved with various projects and initiatives on the funder side and getting them to shift. I needed that expertise.”

JEI Fellows and staff, including Park and Lee, embrace at Paicines Ranch.

Keoni and Esther began an informal partnership to discuss how to shift funders to be more responsive to the needs of entrepreneurs. Esther encouraged Keoni to become a JEI Fellow. And Keoni made an important leap on behalf of the entrepreneurs in his program by beginning to organize the funder community to help them get into right relationship with entrepreneurs.

He was eager to engage with others seeking new pathways and to reduce the isolation he felt being on an island far removed from other bioregional efforts. Hawai‘i faces unique challenges in building a just economy, and also unique opportunities. “We’re so far away from the continent. And we’re also still in the United States. We’re governed with the same principles and economics, but we’re also our own little sandbox. And so we think and do things a little bit differently and that can provide learnings and insights because we’re forced to experiment within the sandbox. The pressure for us to make real change happen is like a pressure cooker in Hawai‘i. We feel the pressure more acutely because we have nowhere else to go.” 

Indeed, Hawai‘i has the highest cost of living in the U.S., one of the highest homelessness rates, and growing disparities for elderly and native populations. For the past three years, and for the first time ever, the state had more out-migration than in-migration because the cost of living is so high. Hawai‘i’s economy is driven by three extractive industries: tourism, real estate development, and the military. The stakes for building a just economy are high. 

“If you want to have a resilient economy in Hawai‘i, we have to be able to feed ourselves, we have to be able to house ourselves,” says Keoni. “And the market dynamics that have been created by the extractive economy are clearly working against that, the status quo has an unrelenting momentum. And if we want to change the status quo, we need to have an equally powerful opposing force.”

The force that Keoni is harnessing? Relationships. “We’re taking a culture-based, relationship-based approach as a strategy to build momentum and to push back.”

Keoni and Esther’s collaboration has worked in part because Esther could speak to funders as a Fellow investor, as well as inspire and motivate the entrepreneurs in HIR’s accelerator cohort.  

“Esther was able to enlighten them that there are funders out there who are trying to be different and there’s a movement outside of Hawai‘i working for a just economy and moving capital differently. There’s a wider set of possibilities than they knew before Esther talked to them.” 

Esther admires Keoni’s boldness. “When we first met, he had this accelerator program, and now he’s made this leap into organizing the funder community. It’s super exciting.” 

Keoni credits Esther and the JEI fellowship with giving him the support he needed. “When you’re out on the edge, there’s not a lot to stand on, we’re in uncharted territory,” he said. “To have allies and partners and collaborators to lean on is really important, or you feel alone. Had I not gone through the fellowship, I don’t think I would’ve had the confidence or even the idea to really push on some of these funder strategies. But I had the support through my relationship with Esther.”

Park and Lee in Hana, Hawai’i.