FINANCE TRANSFORMATION LAB

An action and learning SITE for radical money movers. This is where EDGEWALKERS create financial innovations to heal divides and catalyze just worlds.

Our Lab spaces ignite financial innovations and redirect capital flows for the next finance. Transitioning to a regenerative and equitable economy will require the culture of finance to become very different than it is today. We look to the edges for wisdom and creativity. Edgewalkers possess deep curiosity and commitment to exploring what is possible through praxis—within themselves and in relationship with others and the more-than-human world. We call in Edgewalkers, Sponsors, and Partners to transform finance within Accelerator workstreams, and to incubate new instruments and structures to thrive beyond.   

What creativity, abundance, and intelligence awaits?

UPCOMING LABS

Contributing PROJECTs with support of partners & Sponsors

This November a new Accelerator cohort will immerse themselves and crack open five areas at the transformative edges of finance: Reparations, Rematriation, BioTopia, Conscious Closure, and Capital for the Commons. These workstreams were selected specifically for Edgewalkers and their capacity to align with the field and redirect the flow of capital as medicine. Guided by finance practitioners with deep expertise in the Lab’s thematic areas, groups will weave Accelerator learnings into ground level interventions, instruments, and designs.

  • REPARATIONS

    The reparation movement advocates repairing intergenerational wrongdoings to marginalized communities as a necessary step toward achieving an equitable and just society. This workstream will consider the intersectional power of relational repair and closing wealth gaps by redirecting capital flows. Injustices include but are not limited to slavery, carbon overproduction, land enclosure/colonization, and institutional discrimination. Reparations can take many forms and instruments, which can be applied in this workstream.

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  • REMATRIATION

    As our finance and economic systems continue to be dominated not just by men but also masculine values, Rematriation recenters Indigenous and women of color as intergenerational knowledge holders and caretakers. Contributors to this workstream consider how matriarchal power can heal sacred relationships and shift power to a matrilineal society. Rematriation includes but is not limited to frameworks and methods for a care economy, the redesign of capital tools, and measurement based on relationship and trust.

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  • BIOTOPIA

    BIOTOPIA

    What if we dared to consider the biosphere as sovereign and investment worthy? The BioTopia workstream considers capital flows that serve all life at the speeds and cycles of ecosystems, so that it may align rather than negate nature’s principles and metabolism. BioTopia investments include but are not limited to nature-based investing, ecosystem services, biodiversity, and bioregional financing. BioTopia is a space for collective, shared stewardship that is earth-based and biophysical.

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  • CONSCIOUS CLOSURE

    Within the cracks of the House of Finance, it is becoming apparent which parts are unreformable. Only by closing some of the structures and ending certain processes will finance transform. Conscious Closure recognizes that how things end is just as important as identifying what needs to end. This workstream includes but is not limited to philanthropic sunsetting, divestment, and time-delimited instruments and structures. Contributors to this workstream may consider what happens to the displaced and the new gaps so as not to reproduce the same systems.

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  • CAPITAL FOR THE COMMONS

    As an alternative to capitalism and the market/state duopoly, the commons paradigm centers civil society and seeks to undo enclosures of nature, public spaces and infrastructure, and knowledges and culture. At its core, commoning is about communities that self-organize and steward resources according to shared values and protocols for collective benefit. Contributors to this workstream will consider the many edge financial vehicles and practices that are emerging at this time to revitalize human communities and the natural world.

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SELECT YOUR WORKSTREAM

ACCELERATOR APPROACH

The following process guides the workstreams from vision to prototype during the Accelerator. Once the Accelerator concludes, groups self-organize with support from Edge Finance to continue seeding the work.

ENVISION

Small affinity groups aligned by interest and expertise in a Lab theme begin with relationships, trust, and shared knowledge. With the assistance of Un/Learning resource bundles and masterclasses with field practitioners, groups work to build depth and Understand their Lab area. Lab groups Define the problem(s) they are trying to solve from the myriad of possible interventions and approaches. They then create a Sketch envisioning how they contribute to the field, which becomes a space for sharing with other Lab groups and the broader community working in this field.

PROTOTYPE

With revised Sketches, groups begin the Design process to build their Prototypes. Prototypes can take many forms such as financial instruments, models, funds, campaigns, and interventions. Assisted by Lab design resources and Guides, groups develop their Prototypes and Publish on Notion. Once they’ve been internally reviewed, groups Share their work with the broader field for feedback, iteration, partnership, and expansion. Groups also consider their commitment to the Prototype beyond the Accelerator.

ACCELERATOR ONE PROJECTS

We have restructured the Lab process from the pilot Accelerator program. Groups in Accelerator One were responsible for identifying their own projects without predetermined workstreams. This resulted in three projects, which you can learn about by clicking below to open their Notion prototypes.

RESOURCE THE LAB

Do you have deep expertise in one or more of the Lab areas? Is your organization advancing the ways in which any of these might redirect the flow of capital? Are you a committed donor to one of these fields and funding interventions and experimentations? We have designed the Lab as an inclusive space that both brings in the field and openly shares our work with it. However, this model relies heavily on Partners and Sponsors.

SPONSORS

  • Fund learning and innovation in one of the Lab areas

  • Champion a transformative movement for the next finance

  • Endow Lab Guides with expertise at the creative edges of finance

  • Endow scholarships for Lab participants with limited access to wealth

  • Be catalytic capital for  projects within and outside the Accelerator

PARTNERS

  • Offer your knowledge in one or more Lab areas

  • Provide resources that catalyze Lab groups

  • Co-create new prototypes and projects within the Lab

  • Connect Lab groups with others working in the field