Unlocking Community Ownership: How Catalytic Capital and Collaboration Drive Regenerative Growth

Shifting economic power and control over critical natural resources to communities requires collaborative initiatives and full spectrum capital, with catalytic capital playing arguably the most crucial role in the capital stack to create the conditions for success. Catalytic capital plays a critical role in enabling, de-risking, and scaling community ownership models, ensuring that power, not just ownership, rests with the people and communities who depend upon and steward these resources daily.

Orchestrating collaborative strategies to shift power and transform systems is intensive and requires deep commitment across four levels:

1. Innovative funders willing to deploy flexible, risk-tolerant capital.
2. High-capacity systems actors with deep expertise in organizing and impact finance.
3. Place-based organizations ready to build the internal capacity needed to lead these transitions successfully.
4. Community members driving the vision and implementation of ownership models.

This session explores next-generation catalytic capital strategies including blended finance and outcomes-based catalytic financing mechanisms to advance community-driven ownership of natural resources. In our real-world case studies, we will examine how coalitions are developing and testing strategies to shift ownership, control, and management of a natural resource to local communities. As an early-stage mover in this space, we will share insights from our work alongside examples of established models, demonstrating how the four key actors can align to scale impact and empower local ownership.

Through an interactive, solutions-driven discussion grounded in two or three active collaborative efforts, attendees will gain insights into:

– How catalytic capital fuels early-stage development and implementation of community ownership initiatives.
– How blended capital structures (grants, recoverable grants, friendly loans, and other impact investments) can enable, de-risk and scale these models.
– How outcomes-based financing and other innovative mechanisms can enable long-term ownership and control of essential natural resources by local communities.

This workshop led by Catch Together, LegacyWorks Group, Builders Initiative and Alumbra Innovations Foundation, will challenge and inspire philanthropic funders, impact investors, and community organizers to rethink traditional impact investing models and elevate their capacity to implement collaborative strategies that truly transfer power and economic control to communities.