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| John,
Neoliberalism has influenced mainstream ideas and beliefs about entrepreneurship — the “American Dream,” rugged individualism, and meritocracy — in ways that support its core principles of hiding structural power dynamics and promoting unchecked wealth accumulation and business consolidation. This often frames small businesses as valuable only if they can scale, which underestimates the role of local entrepreneurship in community wealth building. Moreover, entrepreneurs and small business owners, especially those of color, often face systemic barriers to capital and technical support. How can we address these gaps and amplify their efforts?
We need to reassess the framing and narratives surrounding entrepreneurship to create an environment that supports enterprises prioritizing worker power, community wealth building, and investment. This matters not just for economic growth, but for demonstrating that democracy can work in our communities.
In this newsletter, you will see the ways that Common Future is investing in and lifting up the solutions that will bring us to a more equitable economy — one that centers collective participation and well-being.
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| | | Legacy Lab
Legacy Lab, our inaugural action lab focused on community wealth building and community ownership within Black-owned businesses, has officially launched its six month engagement. Since kick-off we have brought together leaders in Baltimore, Detroit, Durham, and Memphis that are not only successful businesses, but legacy entities rooted in community, culture, and care. As we’ve built the Legacy Lab, we’ve prioritized focusing on what it truly means to build an economy grounded in equity, not extraction.
At the heart of this work is Common Future's focus on cooperative economics. In a world that often celebrates the entrepreneur or individual assets, Legacy Lab has centered shared ownership and collaboration as core pillars of entrepreneurial success. Because true wealth isn't built in isolation: it's built in community. Legacy Lab will serve as the kickoff of our policy team's focus on investing capacity in advocating and supporting cooperative economics and its positive impact on entrepreneurship.
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| | | | Community Credit Lab (CCL)
We made critical strides in our second quarter. We completed lending program design and approved investments each to the Moonsoon Fund (in partnership with Roanhorse Consulting LLC) and the Ke’nekt Cooperative in Atlanta, both rooted in supporting community-owned, reparative businesses. We also advanced our partnership with CLLCTIVLY in Baltimore, helping seed a blended capital Futures Fund that will offer 0–3% interest loans with an intentional mix of financing tools like revenue-based and character-based lending. |
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| Additionally, we’re also excited about an upcoming partnership with One Fair Wage, a national organization fighting for worker power and pay equity while advancing support of restaurants, business owners, and critical decision makers to transform policy around service wages. These investments are not just financial; they continue to redefine notions of wealth, risk, and what return can mean for communities long excluded from traditional systems.
We were also honored to be selected for Collective Action for Just Finance’s Transformative 25 Funds list for 2025, and featured on the Soul of Capital Podcast and at ImpactPHL’s Total Impact Summit. These moments of recognition reflect our ongoing effort to not only shift capital, but to change the conversations surrounding it. |
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| | | | Systems Change Coalition
This summer marks the halfway point of our first Systems Change Coalition. In addition to completing our narrative case studies and campaigns focusing on DACA & Clean Slate NY, we’ve also learned from FrameWorks Institute about the critical role of shifting mindsets to achieve lasting systems change.
Members have shared that “the content, speakers, and presentations have been fantastic,” while also expressing a desire for deeper collaboration across the coalition. It’s clear that there is a powerful, collective hunger to center community not just in conversation, but in how we build and lead change together. Next up for Common Future is to create an action lab focused on furthering our work in Systems Change as we look ahead to Q4.
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| | | | Futurists in Residence
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman will soon be embarking on a tour to launch her forthcoming book, The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid. Common Future is honored to co-sponsor one of her book launch events, in coordination with ProGeorgia, on Friday, September 26 in Atlanta, GA. You can find RSVP links to additional book tour stops in New York, Washington D.C., Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles on her Instagram.
On our policy team, Cheyenne Kippenberger is focusing on expanding knowledge and advocacy as it relates to tribal sovereignty and climate justice. Cheyenne recently represented the Miccosukee Tribe and Common Future at Aspen Ideas Festival as an Aspen Scholar where the work being done to push for sovereignty was prioritized across conversations. Moving forward, Cheyenne will be focusing on Alligator Alcatraz’s impact on Indigenous land as a case study for highlighting the necessity of including Indigenous perspectives in climate change. |
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| | | | Redefining Risk
On July 10, 2025, Common Future gathered leaders across five organizations that have been exploring questions about what it looks like to operate and effectively assess and manage risk in a continually shifting political, economic, and legal environment. Moderated by Common Future Co-CEO Sandhya Nakhasi, our panelists included Kelly Burton, CEO of BIA, Erika Seth Davies, CEO of Rhia Ventures, Vishal Reddy, Executive Director of Work Four, Deepa Iyer, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives of the Building Movement Project, and fellow Co-CEO Jennifer Njuguna. Read our top takeaways from their time together or watch the full panel. |
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| | | | Connect with Us on the Conference Circuit: |
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