We have an announcement! Common Future went far and wide in 2019. Now we have a new home to tell stories from the network. Check out commonfuture.co
** 6 highlights from 2019.
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** (because we couldn't choose 5)
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1. BALLE became Common Future ([link removed]) and launched a new website! www.common future.co ([link removed]) is now LIVE with new profiles of network leaders and their impact in communities nationwide.
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2. Common Future was featured in national publications like Inside Philanthropy ([link removed]) , Impact Alpha ([link removed]) , and Forbes ([link removed]) . Inside Philanthropy's recent piece: "Equity Rebrand: How One Nonprofit is Embracing Change and Attracting New Funders" says about Common Future: "Behind its recent rebrand is a tale of shifting identity and new priorities, situated within a funding environment that’s growing more attuned to how power and place intersect to reproduce economic inequality."
3. We co-hosted 260+ community leaders ([link removed]) at the sixth annual CoCap conference in Oakland and San Francisco to examine alternative investment and ownership models, and strategies that prioritize equity in communities. Konda Mason from The Runway Project (and co-founder of CoCap) summed it up in the opening plenary on decolonizing access to capital: “What would you do if your mind had no limits? If we want to change the system, we need to change the mindsets that created the system.”
CoCap 2019 (Photo Credit: Morgan Shidler ([link removed]) )
4. Our CEO Rodney Foxworth joined a mainstage SOCAP panel on Closing the Wealth Gap: Essential Conversations for Impact Investors with Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and principal of Black Futures Lab, Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, and Felicia Wong, president and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute.
5. We wrapped up cohorts of the Foundation Circle and Local Economy Fellowship at week-long immersions in Hudson Valley, NY and Duluth, Minnesota. Foundation Circle leaders learned about local investments in the region and due diligence for direct investing. Fellows joined a local economy tour to understand local food supply chains and connected around conversations on black land loss, the realities for native communities in Minnesota, and worker-owned business models.
6. We convened network leaders and regional resource providers focused on food and farm enterprises in the Mississippi Delta to strengthen local relationships and identify opportunities for collaboration. Sparked by a side conversation at a Fellowship immersion, this working session lifted up regional community-based projects, including a shared commercial kitchen and food hub for specialty crop growers and food businesses, farm enterprise business training, youth engagement, and resources for technical assistance and funding.
Equitable Food & Farm Convening, Clarksdale, MS
And lastly, the Common Future team wants to thank the individuals who have supported us through 2019. We exceeded our end-of-year fundraising goals with over $20,000 in individual donations that will sustain exciting projects in the works this year. Gifts to Common Future directly support our ability to advance the work of building equitable, local economies. For this, we are deeply appreciative.
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Common Future
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Oakland, CA 94612
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