Thank you for growing with us in 2021

A year-end reflection on the alpha launch of Open Impact, the growth of our community, and the necessary and possible work ahead.

Dear friends and collaborators old and new,

If you have arrived here looking for existential hope, don’t worry, we’ll get there…but first, we felt called to share a snippet from Soren Kierkegaard’s 1846 essay, “The Present Age.”

“A revolutionary age is an age of action; ours is the age of advertisement and publicity. Nothing ever happens but there is immediate publicity everywhere. In the present age a rebellion is, of all things, the most unthinkable. Such an expression of strength would seem ridiculous to the calculating intelligence of our times. On the other hand a political virtuoso might bring off a feat almost as remarkable. He might write a manifesto suggesting a general assembly at which people should decide upon a rebellion, and it would be so carefully worded that even the censor would let it pass. At the meeting itself he would be able to create the impression that his audience had rebelled, after which they would all go quietly home — having spent a very pleasant evening.”

We would be remiss not to acknowledge the level of greenwashing and political theater that we see accompanying our own present age. We are bombarded with articles about corporate ESG efforts, while they continue to contribute to a majority of global emissions. We see pension funds in crisis, and an ever growing wealth gap, while holders of immense wealth skirmish about how they will find or create worthy causes to right our collective destiny. Some have set their sights on the moon, or Mars, as our own biosphere continues to collapse and food and housing insecurity rises.

And yet, as we promised, this is a message of hope. Beneath this diversion, we see a tremendous swell of collective action. We have been humbled to see over the past year, and held by so many of you, practical solutions to existential crises — from the repair of our soil, to the restoration of small water cycles, to more equitable and healthy buildings for the next generation of children to thrive in.

We truly believe that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

We mean this in both the sense of great empowerment, and utmost responsibility: there is no “them” coming to save us. And yet that “us,” when harnessed well and wisely, holds a potential beyond our collective imagination. We are continually grateful for the opportunity to work alongside you as we effort to adjust the systemic levers required to support a transition towards a more equitable, just, and thriving world.

So as we head into the New Year, we wish you all a moment of rest, ease, and reflection as we all prepare to continue engaging the hard and necessary work that we have each been called to.

2021 Retrospective

As 2021 comes to a close, we are taking time to reflect and integrate from the incredible experiences of the year. Although Open Future Coalition is the culmination of our team and partners’ life’s work, we came together officially in January of 2021 to help the global impact ecosystem strengthen its collaborative capacity by empowering the transparent exchange of capital, skills, and knowledge in service of measurable impact.

Our first endeavor has been the launch of Open Impact, a network where impact organizations, donors, & community members can come together to match the right organizations with the right resources to maximize impact.

We have made tremendous progress moving into our initial launch, and have to date onboarded 30 impact organizations in 13 countries who are learning and testing with us as we continue to incorporate feedback and harden the initial features for a public launch in 2022.

We are honored to be growing alongside a rich impact ecosystem who are stewarding innovative and essential projects in areas like Regenerative Agriculture, Food Systems, Water, Community Wellness, Community Resilience, Climate Action, and Economic Equity. From community-led watershed remediation in Rajasthan to food systems collaboration and education in Hawai’i, healthy childcare in Chicago to food forests in Zimbabwe, we truly believe that this rich soil of collective learning will allow a vibrant and complex understory to take root in the coming year.

By continuing to gather, apply, and advance collective community intelligence through decentralized technology, currency design, social architecture, educational and community programming, and behavioral economics, we believe that together, we can write a new story for humanity that values our community and planetary thriving above speculation and extraction.

Milestones

• Received initial funding for development of the Open Impact platform from Lionsberg in February
• Launched MVP in June with WaterNow, Nature Tech Nexus, Buckminster Fuller Institute, Yellow Barn Farm, Refugee Resilience Coalition, & the Transformative Capital Institute
• Formed Metrics, Currencies & Governance working groups in June
• Launched our Private Alpha of our Open Impact platform in November, with 30 impact efforts in 13 countries
• Launched “Funding the Transition” series in partnership with Dark Matter Labs in December

We would like to extend our profound thanks to our MVP & Alpha partners, for believing, testing, and growing with us:

We have been deeply sensing what is possible and required for 2022, and are excited to share some Futurecasting for the year ahead. Stay tuned for updates and previews on what we have in store in the New Year!