On April 7, wealth holders, practitioners, and intermediaries came together – across time zones and contexts – to explore the fundamental paradox facing most foundations and family offices today: that the very portfolios funding philanthropic work are often quietly undermining it.
We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our speakers, Tim Freundlich (Impact Assets), Matthew Monahan (Ma Earth | Biome Trust), Jennifer Astone (Collective Action for Just Finance), and Renata Minerbo (Be the Earth Foundation), and to our moderator, Lynn Murphy (Post-Capitalist Philanthropy | Transition Resource Circle), for such a thoughtful, inspirational, and crucially needed conversation. We would also like to warmly thank each participant who joined us, and for the wide range of resources shared, questions asked and connections made in the chat. It is a thrill to see this cross-pollination happening in real time.
The session wove together both practical and profound questions: we explored the specific financial mechanisms of philanthropy alongside deeper reflections on how to act in times of metacrisis. Recurring themes included the recirculation of money – capital that flows, does its work, and returns, as an alternative to extraction – as well as funders releasing control and making aligned decisions about how to deploy resources. Again and again, the conversation returned to relationship, trust, and courage, and to the growing sense that a different financial ecology is already emerging, one rooted in reciprocity, ‘enoughness,’ and service to life.
Read on for our 10 key takeaways from the discussion or to watch the recording.
About the Series
Moving Money in Service of Life, is our new multi-part webinar series, which explores how capital can be shifted out of extractive financial systems and into forms that genuinely serve ecological and cultural regeneration. Our next session will be held in June 2026 – to stay informed, sign up to our newsletter.
10 Key Takeaways from the Webinar
1. We Are at a Ripening Moment
There has been decades of quiet work — seedlings growing across the ecosystem of regenerative finance, impact investing, and philanthropy. What’s different now is that these seedlings are maturing into a recognizable ecology. The post-pandemic moment, combined with the polycrisis, has created a readiness for collective action that wasn’t quite there before. People are craving community and coherence, and that is moving them to act in new ways.
2. The Core Paradox: Philanthropy Cleaning Up What Investment Creates
The fundamental contradiction at the heart of most foundations and family offices is that the investment portfolio — following conventional market logic — is often actively undoing the work of the grant-making side. Philanthropy is a tiny fraction of total assets, yet it’s expected to fix the problems the larger portfolio is feeding. Full alignment means bringing the entire institution — investments, governance, values — under the same vision.
3. Alignment Requires Letting Go
Moving towards coherence isn’t just about adding new tools — it requires giving things up. Panelists named several: giving up profit maximization, giving up exclusive decision-making power (Renata shared that 50% of Be the Earth’s budget is decided by others), giving up tax optimization strategies that benefit the few, and giving up the narrative that more is always better. This is as much an inner journey as a structural one.
4. Redefining What “Return” Means
The language of market-rate returns and perpetuity is one of the biggest blockages to transformative capital flows. The T25 Collective’s framework evaluates funds on social, relational, and ecological returns — financial return is not one of the five criteria. Capital preservation alone can be a meaningful and sufficient return profile. Recirculation — money that flows, does its work, and comes back to flow again — is a powerful alternative model to extraction.
5. Relationship Over Transaction
Indigenous-led, women-led, and people of color-led movements are centering relationships over transactions as a fundamental organizing principle. Many of the most innovative funds on the Transformative 25 list have dozens or hundreds of investments — but each one is a relationship, not a transaction. This shift in how capital moves is one of the most important design principles emerging in the field.
6. Fear and Scarcity Are the Hidden Barriers
Beneath many of the structural blockages — regulatory complexity, lack of due diligence capacity, market-rate expectations — is fear. Fear of not knowing enough, not having enough, not being enough. Fear of going first. Fear rooted in scarcity thinking, even among those with significant wealth. Naming this clearly is the first step toward moving through it.
7. The “Enough” Question Is Foundational
Until individuals and institutions honestly reckon with how much is enough, it is very difficult to make bold, aligned decisions about how to deploy capital. The Enough Project was highlighted as a resource for this inner work. Clarifying one’s “enough number” often reveals significant surplus — and a pathway to much more generous, aligned action.
8. Alternative Financial Infrastructure Already Exists
There is a rich and growing ecosystem of vehicles, tools, and funds — many of them small, place-based, and community-led — that are already moving money in service of life. The challenge is visibility and access, not absence. Examples discussed included the PhenaPop fund in Brazil, the Reciprocity Fund in Central and South America, CoCapital in the Gulf of California, the NACCHA Fund, and the Builders Initiative’s sustainable ocean portfolio. A fund-of-funds model to support these smaller transformative funds is actively being explored.
9. Narrative Is Infrastructure
Investing in the story of coherence — the narrative of belonging, collective action, and what it means to move money in right relationship — is as important as investing in the financial instruments themselves. Organizations like Beloved Economies and the Buen Vivir Capital Institute are doing this work. People respond to stories, and the field needs to get better at telling them.
10. Don’t Wait Until You’re Ready — Walk Into Trust
A recurring theme was the importance of acting despite uncertainty, imperfect knowledge, and incomplete readiness. Start with a small grant. Be a first investor. Build the relationship before you go for the big commitment. Tolerance for uncertainty — held collectively, in community with others — is what allows bold action to emerge.
Watch the Recording
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This webinar was convened by Regenerosity and Transition Resource Circle, as part of the Nurture Funder Community of Practice.
