Common Infrastructure for Collective Action: Building and Resourcing Tools for Resilience

This panel will explore the essential role of shared tools, platforms, and cooperative infrastructure in supporting the collective action needed to drive resilience at the local, regional, and global levels. We will examine how philanthropy, public and private investors, and networks can support the development of the often “invisible” social, technical, and financial infrastructure that underpins and amplifies community-led resilience efforts.

Together, we will share case studies and lessons learned in cooperatively building, resourcing, and widening the accessibility of common infrastructure, knowledge, and networks. We will share a variety of governance approaches used to support these models, such as platform cooperatives and DAOs, and hear funder perspectives on the importance of investing in these foundational structures, the barriers to funding and maintaining them, and how we can unlock new models of collaboration for resilience.

Learn from examples like Open Future Coalition’s resourcing of the Open Impact platform to support grassroots community leaders in over 70 countries; Milken Institute’s launch of the Community Infrastructure Center to accelerate community-led infrastructure projects in historically underserved communities; and IndigiDAO’s experience supporting democratically governed financial cooperatives for Indigenous communities—alongside funders resourcing cooperative technology and infrastructure, like Omidiayar Network’s Tech We Want initiative. The dialogue will also highlight place-based examples of the impact of these platforms, such as the Agricultural Platform Collective, which leverages cooperative infrastructure to support small and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in California’s Central Valley.