Giving Compass' Take:

• Dana Kawaoka-Chen discusses the way philanthropy needs to rethink its values, shifting more control toward local communities rather than continuing to concentrate wealth at the top.

• How is your organization following the practices of a "regenerative" economy? Can we find ways to think beyond tax breaks?

• Read about ways to engage skeptics to enable more equity.

Drawing inspiration from the vibrant movements taking place across the country, we are guided by the framework developed by the Climate Justice Alliance and Movement Generation calling for a Just Transition  —  a vision-led, unifying and place-based set of principles, processes and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Key features of an extractive economy are: “an economy based on the removal of wealth from communities through the depletion and degradation of natural resources, the exploitation of human labor (a particularly precious natural resource) and the accumulation of wealth by interests outside the community (i.e. big banks, big oil and big box stores).”Whereas, key features of a regenerative economy are: “an economy based on reflective, responsive, reciprocal relationships of interdependence between human communities and the living world upon which we depend.”

If we apply this thinking to our work in philanthropy, we can quickly see tangible, practical shifts we can make in our practices to better align with a regenerative economy. Rather than viewing tax law as the standard that limits our foundations’ annual pay-out to 5% of our endowment, what if we asked ourselves what payout is necessary to beget the change we need? What if we thought of “legacy” as the full expression of our values in the participation of creating a regenerative economy, versus accumulating wealth that continues to exacerbate an extractive economy? What if we looked at “investment” as building our local community’s infrastructure versus participating in Wall Street speculation?

Read the full article about how to give better for a regenerative economy by Dana Kawaoka-Chen at Justice Funders, via Medium.