Folks Pants Redistribution Fund

Intent

It is no secret that the sum of our collective resources is distributed unequally, not even close – our country has billionaire families and entire communities living in poverty.  I am deeply concerned by this ballooning chasm of wealth, as well as haunted by our society’s collective resignation to the Fact that this is just the way things are.

Yet, the recent financial meltdown, more nuclear in its impact than any terrorist activity in history, has rent its own chasm elsewhere, possibly more transformative than its sibling because its dramatic singularity has been more emotionally arousing and immediately impactful. In fact, if the effects weren’t so immediately depressing, and the fear mongering so widespread, it would really be cause for a celebration.  That once and for all, the legendary failing of the financial industry has released a parallel titanic flow of fresh waters and airs of possibility, imagination, creativity, and reterritorializing of the economics plane for some much needed new experiments.

The purpose of the Folks Pants Redistribution Fund is to stoke the combustion of new economic possibilities by funding the organizations that fertilize and cultivate different economic ecologies, as well as directly finance businesses already rooting in the newly refreshed soil. I hope the Fund’s efforts will enrichen a difference of capitalisms, taking a spirited line of flight forward on a wind, gathering around sprouting neologisms – “slow money” “patient capital” “local economies” “local stock markets” “local currencies” “community banks” “community supported enterprise” “conscious consumerism” – and sometimes gusting into the space beyond our imagination.

Folks Pants is not Capitalist, not Communist. Folks Pants is proudly lowercase and wishes to open to possibility and evolution on a wind.  Assata Shakur puts it well:

Freedom! You askin me about freedom. Askin me about freedom?

Than about what it is, cause I’ve never been free.

However, make no mistake that this fund is not political.  This fund is an actionized “difference” to business as usual, positioned at a new reference point to offset (upset) the hegemonies that be.  (See J.K Gibson-Graham.)

This fund is a coming to life of Slow Money beyond “green” and “good” with a holla of “aww shit” – because this movement is raw and lives at the seams and is the fun kind of challenging postmodern boogie inspired by hiphop fashion and the protests against sweatshop labor.

Giving away money is a tough move in tough times – or anytime, and I admit apprehension of moving resources through this Fund. But I am still more strongly willing to part with a (fantasy?) of comfort and security, determined in this profound political moment when radicalisms are freed in the rupture, that our investments to enable and empower small, local, and sustainable must flow.

Structure

The Fund will distribute profits via three types of allocations at three different percentages:

1) Spontaneous – 10%

2) Sustained – 40%

3) Innovative – 50%

Spontaneous

I decided it was important, and naturally attuned to the atmospheric course, to insert a space for the non-deterministic in the Fund in order to accommodate unpredictable solicitations or inspirations throughout the year. These may come in the form of adhoc contributions to the causes of friends and allies, which I see as a strategic way to build community. Also, obviously speaking, I simply ain’t rich enough to support all the wonderful, mission-aligned efforts out there, but by diverting some monies to my allies, I hope to endeavor toward a richer collective impact. Another portion of Spontaneous funds will be dedicated to sustaining open source software projects, and the people behind them. Our business runs almost entirely on open source, as do most of our client projects, so I think it’s only appropriate and fair to establish some kind of monetary exchange when solicited as Folks Pants benefits greatly (and financially) off this generous work.

Sustained

Thanks to the fabulous wisdom collected in The Revolution Will Not Be Funded by INCITE! (a must read for any investor), I better understand the closed-loop nature of parasitic funding cycles that entrap non-profits when grant-seeking: an affect of what the book calls (and a term I’ve also adopted) the Non Profit Industrial Complex. Rather than spread contributions thin to many amazing orgs across a colorful issue spectrum (which I’m easily tempted to do), I’ve decided to narrow the recipient universe to organizations I have had direct experience with through their programming and resource material. The purpose is to build long-term, authentic relationships while supplying sustained, monthly payments, in addition to regular participation in these organizations’ activities and campaigns. Below are four organizations who I believe are key players in the political and personal struggle to rebalance wealth and equity.

I am particularly excited to invest in South End Press as a participant in their Community Supported Publishing (CSP) program, where our monthly investment is met in return with a book of the SEP’s choosing. More generically called Community Supported Enterprise (CSE), this type of hybrid business entity is exactly the sort of innovation that demonstrates a living difference to capitalism that is community-based by creating value beyond the exchange of goods.

Innovative

Here’s where the real fun of this Fund is going to be. Comprising the majority share of the Fund, our Innovative distributions are reserved for incubating, designing, and executing our own alternative community investment project(s).  Applying the framework of a flipmode giving pyramid developed by the joint effort of Syd-Consulting, HindSight Consulting, and Changemakers, I am fattening higher-risk, less-easy-to-measure-impact experiments with the intent that encouraging local transformation in our economic plumbing is a dirty remediation, but I want that gush of fresh water and air to find as many untainted expressions and emulsions as possible.

As of yet, I have not deployed any Innovative funds into projects as I’m still saving. But once the monies amass, I plan to hold them in an account with RSF Social Finance to await deployment. RSF is perhaps the most progressive and pioneering (not to mention, curious) investment organization on the planet – at the very least in my region and therefore a proper choice with the local focus. Once I figure out what to do with the cash I’ll move it out of RSF.

Quality Control

The Fund is in its nascent stages, largely guided by the ramble above. However, I am conscious of the delicate power play when doing philanthropy, investing, or some combination of the two. As this Fund experience matures, I want to make sure that I set up quality control mechanisms that will assure that the line of flight remains true and does not assume the very oppressions and powers it seeks to transform.

Here are at least two initial commitments to transparency and accountability I will implement after the first annual cycle:

1) Detailed Quarterly reporting on the Fund’s activity

2) An accountability board of community members from a diverse class, race, age, and sector background