Who Gets to Define "Investable"? Building Capital Pathways for Community-Rooted Projects

A land rematriation trust in the Southwest. A BIPOC-led food cooperative in the Midwest. An Indigenous-governed water system in the Pacific Northwest. Each is financially viable, ecologically grounded, and community-backed. AFunders have told each that it is not investable.

This session draws on Contextual Capital Labs, an initiative of Open Future Coalition, which develops the pre-development and capital alignment layer needed to translate community-rooted projects into investable opportunities without requiring them to compromise governance, ownership, or purpose. We will surface the structural breakdowns that keep viable projects unfunded, and test concrete alternatives already in use with practical capital-layer templates.