Developed in collaboration with Lift Economy, the Impact Accelerator program was a way to support social entrepreneurs/social enterprises aspiring to create maximum positive impact for the benefit of all life. The program is now closed, but you can read below for details of our funding.
Our initial funding paid for a site assessment, soils mapping and producer education on the first ranch site and for a carbon farming training in Modoc county.
World Centric® funded Agrarian Trust at this early stage to develop their legal structure and legal documentation frameworks for accepting land grants and putting them into a trust to be protected for agricultural use in the future.
We hold a vision of locally self-reliant, resilient, regional economies where the abundant resources of any given region are used locally to meet as many needs as possible and then surplus is traded as finished goods to obtain resources scarce in any one locality. We want to see this created as a documented open-source pattern that can be easily adapted and replicated to any bio-region on earth. We launched our Impact Accelerator in Fall 2014 with an open RFP (request for proposals) as a step toward achieving this vision.
We received 40+ applications from companies and organizations across the country and abroad. We had the good problem of many interesting, innovative and important projects to vet for the viability of impact potential. The top half of the organizations were interviewed and given detailed feedback on their proposal and coaching on next steps forward to manifest their projects.
This Accelerator program was an attempt to have maximum beneficial impact on all life in pursuit of our vision of a just and sustainable world, where humans live simply and tread lightly.
The life sustaining systems on planet earth are on the verge of simultaneous collapse and immediate systemic action is required on a global scale. Climate change, economic collapse, species extinction, gross social inequities and environmental degradation point to current and looming disaster for life as we know it on planet earth. At the same time, we have unprecedented global access to information, resources, technology, manufactured goods, diverse cultures and wisdom traditions. We have abundant, emergent solutions to the crisis’ we face but they are, today, only applied on small scales and in disintegrated, incomplete fashion in disparate locations.
Our observation is that the economy is the dominant force for activity on the planet and we have an opportunity to harness it as a vehicle for change to benefit all life, but only if we alter the core underlying structures and systems (the DNA) of how the economy works. We hold a vision of locally self-reliant, resilient, regional economies where the abundant resources of any given region are used locally to meet as many needs as possible and then surplus is traded as finished goods to obtain resources scarce in any one locality. We want to see this created as a documented open-source pattern that can be easily adapted and replicated to any bio-region on earth. This may be difficult to imagine since we have not seen, heard or experienced this type of whole, intact system where needs are met in harmony. Some examples that currently exist in partial form are the Mondragon Cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain. Or on a smaller scale closer to home, the way a nuclear family shares resources and care for each other with no one left out.
If we desire to change the economy, it seems we will find that there are changes necessary in human culture/human lifestyle, the way in which we live and meet our needs. Examples of these cultural shifts include:
This program was an attempt to have maximum beneficial impact on all life in pursuit of our vision of locally self-reliant, resilient, regional economies.
People who had an idea for a social enterprise, a mission driven business or a social venture (can be not for profit) that you sense matches well with the criteria (described below) for consideration outlined in this document and you need resources or financing to move from a feasibility stage to a proof of concept stage with your endeavor then please consider applying. We will be selecting up to 3 organizations for this initial model. Most importantly, you are probably a good candidate to apply for the World Centric Impact Accelerator if you and your organization resonate with the following values and vision:
These are more specific models that World Centric Impact Accelerator is interested in seeing potentially emerge/develop. Successful submissions need not adhere to these possibilities, please consider these for inspiration or as examples of the general intention of the accelerator. The level of detail presented here is low to suggest that there are many approaches and models that might be similar that would be considered as responding to the same need. In some instances, specific existent examples are listed as reference points for inspiration, but are not highlighted as fully complete models to be replicated (i.e., more for inspiration)