From Paradox to Coherence: Aligning Investment and Philanthropy Towards Systemic Change

The Moving Money in Service of Life webinar series, explores how funders and wealth holders are aligning their investments and philanthropy in service of systemic change. Hosted by Regenerosity as part of the Nurture Funder Community of Practice, supported by Be The Earth.

The session spotlighted something that has been unfolding for decades: seedlings growing across the ecosystem of regenerative finance, impact investing, and philanthropy are now maturing into a recognisable ecology. The post-pandemic moment, combined with the polycrisis, has created a readiness for collective action that wasn't quite evident before. People are craving community and coherence, and that is moving them to act in new ways. 

The panel explored both practical and philosophical inquiries from specific financial mechanisms for philanthropy’s investments to be more coherent with its grantmaking, to deeper reflections on how we act and respond to the metacrisis.

Some of the themes covered included the fact that market-rate returns and perpetuity is one of the biggest blockages to transformative capital flows, that moving toward more coherent capital isn’t just about adding new tools, but about giving things up and releasing control, along with making aligned decisions about how to deploy resources. Again and again, the conversation returned to the importance of cultivating relationships, trust, and courage, and to a growing financial ecology rooted in reciprocity, 'enoughness', and service to life. 

We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our incredible 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.