Transformative Investment Principles (TIPS)
Resource Generation is working to build a world where land, wealth and power are shared equitably. To get there, we need to use all the tools in our tool box. In addition to wealth redistribution, young people with wealth also have a vital role to play in making values-aligned decisions around investments that share power instead of hoarding it. There are large amounts of invested capital held by our members and their families, in the 2018 Resource Survey (the most recent), RG constituents reported assets of $1.9B individually and $22B in family assets. We invite RG members to shift their investing to be in alignment with these principles and solidarity economy movements.
These principles are designed as a complementary strategy to redistribution for young people with access to wealth. They can also be applied to the philanthropic institutions and networks we might be a part of (i.e. family philanthropy, donor networks). RG’s Redistribution Guidelines ask that at a minimum, RGers do not make money off of our wealth, and pushes us to boldly redistribute instead. We must also question the exploitative and extractive institutions that make it possible to “use the money to make money” and instead practice regenerative, values-aligned strategies for investing our resources to build a more just world.
Deep gratitude to the many RG members, movement partners and solidarity economy leaders who contributed to these principles, and especially to Emily Duma (former RG Board Member) and Taij Kumarie Moteelall (Media Sutra) who listened, responded to a clear ask, and originally scribed these principles for RG. Here is a blog post from Emily and Taij with more history and context.
1. TRANSFORMATIVE INVESTING RESOURCES A SOLIDARITY ECONOMY THAT WORKS FOR ALL by pulling money off of Wall Street to invest in community wealth building.
Economic justice comes to life in solutions that foster community wealth building, cooperative ownership, community care, and mutual aid. Our investments can build long-term relationships and economic partnerships that support self-determination and co-creating a solidarity economy.
2. REDEFINE “IMPACT INVESTING” to mean investing in those most impacted by injustice, and trusting their leadership.
To be “invested” in something is to care about its outcome and to understand our interconnectedness. By working to build a solidarity economy in deep partnership with those most directly impacted (people at the intersection of multiple oppressions: people of color, women, poor people, LGBTQ+ people, etc.), those of us with power in capital markets can reframe “impact investing” to create powerful societal transformation.
3. REDEFINE “RETURN” to mean “returning to right relationship” to people and the planet.
“Right relationship” means living in harmony with the land, each other, spirit and ourselves. Using this frame, our investments become opportunities to center broader social returns over individual financial returns. Our investments are grounded in, and prosper through harmonious relationships rather than exploitation. Traditionally the term “return on investment” describes a transactional relationship in which the investor who already possesses money deserves more money, while the party in need who is being “invested in” is responsible for the return.
4. REDEFINE RISK to visibilize who has been placed at “RISK” in order to accumulate wealth for investors, and who is assuming risk to make a new future possible.
Within the field of investments, “risk” is often narrowly defined as the investor’s risk of losing money. When we see investment as a tool to build a new liberatory future, we then understand that as investors we can assume more risk, and gain much more in the end. Even if we risk the majority of our financial investments, we will still have power and privilege. Does true security come from wealth or does it come from a sustainable planet and interdependent communities where people care for each other and share resources equitably? By investing our resources to ensure everyone has enough to thrive, we also get to be part of this collective thriving.
5. A RETURN TO RIGHT RELATIONSHIP REQUIRES REPAIR at the personal, interpersonal and structural levels.
Shifting from a transactional approach to investing to a transformational approach calls upon us to heal and build solidarity. In doing so, we repair extractive relationships with people and the planet that has yielded massive wealth accumulation alongside extreme harm and devastation. Our goal is not just to be socially “responsible” in our approach to investing, but to be socially restorative and regenerative. Repairing harm inflicted upon people and the planet through a history of violence and extraction is integral to harmonious relationships across class, race, sexual orientation, ability, and gender.
6. RECLAIM OUR INVESTMENT STORY to move towards repairing relationships and sharing land, wealth and power.
Understanding the harm done to accumulate wealth, and our (or our family’s) role or complicity in it, is an essential step in owning our truth. Our financial system is intentionally complicated and abstract in order to: (1) systematically deny access to women, people of color, poor and working class communities, LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized groups; and (2) hide the dehumanizing, harmful, and inequitable nature of investments. Transformative investing is rooted in remembering and reclaiming the truth of our (and our family’s) investments in order to meaningfully co-create new stories by shifting our investments to share power and resources.
7. RECLAIMING LEADS TO REIMAGINING new possibilities for the equitable distribution of wealth, land and power.
When we name and reclaim the truth of how we got here, it gives us an opening to shift into right relationship through repair. From that grounded base, we begin to reimagine the future. Investment can fundamentally be about providing the resources necessary to actualize visions, and catalyzing collective radical imagination. Often, those who have experienced the most exploitation within capitalism are best positioned to imagine a new way forward. Therefore, the process of imagining the future must center those most impacted while simultaneously building solidarity across divides.
8. LEVERAGE OUR POWER TO SHIFT POWER by using our unique vantage point and positionality in coordination with movements.
Our investments are not just another form of money and wealth, they are a form of power. We have positional power to impact company decisions and to influence publicly elected decision-makers. Our storytelling increases the visibility of justice centered campaigns, and pressures business towards stronger labor and ecological practices. We will use our positional power and organize collectively through investment campaigns for structural change. It is our responsibility to rewrite the rules that have unfairly benefitted wealthy people through extractive investments, and blaze a new path forward in deep solidarity with impacted communities. Together, we will fight for policies that are not extractive and predatory.
9. EMBODYING SOLIDARITY BUILDS THIS NEW ECONOMY where we all get to thrive.
We build a new economy through the deep practice of being in solidarity with and resourcing each other. Through practice, new ways of being become embodied. We shift from analysis to practice. We do not need to wait until we have it all figured out to be in solidarity. We can simultaneously transform personally to undo the ways we have internalized supremacy as young people with wealth and transform relationally by showing up and staying in it– especially when our conditioning tells us to run. Let’s lovingly hold ourselves and each other accountable so we don’t unintentionally recreate the same divides we seek to transform.
10. JOYFULLY DANCE OUR WAY TO PLENTY FOR ALL
We may not experience the fullness of what we are calling in or actualize our most radical visions in our lifetime, but there will be many wins throughout the process. Let’s be sure to celebrate those wins and center joy. Let’s give ourselves the chance to live like the future we want is possible today. Sing, dance, create, love, play and rejoice. Everyone deserves it.
Learn about the practices + examples here:
NAMING INSPIRATIONS IN THIS WORK: Movement Generation; New Economy Coalition; Boston Ujima Project; Grassroots Global Justice; Climate Justice Alliance; Seed Commons; Chordata Capital; Adasina Social Capital; Justice Funders; Thousand Currents / Buen Vivir Fund; Regenerative Finance; Edgar Villanueva; Nwamaka Agbo; Standing in Our Power; Old Money, New Systems; Media Sutra; Wealth Reclamation Academy of Practitioners; RUNWAY; Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective; adrienne maree brown; Lane Fury; Jessica Norwood; Sonya Renee Taylor; Divestment campaigns that have shifted power (i.e. BDS, Anti-apartheid organizing, etc)