Aligning action to reimagine capitalism.
The current application of capitalist principles, which permeates our economy, is out of step with our evolving world.
We have an underachieving and toxic economic system that works for a privileged few, and fails to work for most people and for the planet.
A better economic system is necessary, and possible.This is the underlying premise of the New Capitalism Project.
We need to redesign how we fund systems change. We need Pando Funds.
The New Capitalism Project is currently bringing together funders and field leaders from inside the New Capitalism Project and beyond to develop a prototype “Pando Fund” - an experimental “system-level funding architecture,” which we believe is more likely to lead us to the system transformations we seek, and can empower other networks of change makers working in and on complex systems.
Why do we call this approach a “Pando” Fund? You can read more about our emerging POV in Part 1 and Part 2 of our recent series with Rob Ricigliano. Subscribe to our Lab Updates to stay informed as this work unfolds!
The NCP Lab
We launched the Lab as a field-level "utility" to support leaders in bold and collaborative economic system change experimentation.
The Lab was an experiment itself — a space to help manifest our community's evolving shared vision for an economy that works for people and the planet.
Dive into our ongoing Lab Notes to learn more about the Lab and what we've learned.
Lab Notes
Sparking thoughts and connections?
Let us know at hello@newcapitalismproject.org
NCP’s shared vision for a better economy - for people and planet.
The work of NCP is grounded in a shared vision for our economy and a sober view of the profound barriers blocking the way.
It is an evolving vision. Think of it as written in pencil rather than carved in stone.
It reflects the weaving of divergent perspectives — how a range of hopes and visions for a better future might intersect and complement each other. This vision guided the work of the NCP Lab and will grow richer as the NCP community grows, transformative ideas are launched, and we learn our way into changing a broken economic system.
We humbly invite you into this vision.
Our story (how we got here).
New Capitalism Project (NCP) launched in 2020 to understand the broad landscape of activity already underway (in the US) to shift the economic system by shifting the norms, behaviors, rules, and practices of business and financial sector leaders.
Over two years, NCP supported a set of diverse leaders on the frontlines of economic system change, the Design Team, to develop a shared articulation of how the current system is failing; what a “better” economic system would look like; identify the key barriers to that aspired vision; and then surface a set of the most important and integrated actions to drive systemic change.
Like most things, NCP started with a question: What is the current state of the “inclusive capitalism” field?
That quickly led to other questions: Who is doing what? Where? Aligned behind which visions for a better economic system? Pulling which levers for change? As a field, where are we over-indexing change efforts and resources? Where are we at risk of under-indexing?
Questions to understand this field of activity turned into questions about how to shape it, guiding NCP’s evolution over the past three years. How to mobilize and support a diverse group of leaders in co-creating a plan for transformational change? How to bridge silos, build beyond “cliques” and perceived ideological differences among leaders and their organizations? How to deepen, test, and broaden a shared vision and plan for action - to grow community and support more aligned action? And finally: How to create the space for collaborative economic system change experimentation? To move beyond the urgency of today to focus on longer-term system-change efforts that often defy rigid programmatic timeframes and measures of success?
Throughout, one of NCP’s guiding hypotheses has been that creating the space for a range of diverse practitioners from different parts of the system to come together, think together, aspire and act together, in ways that have not been supported before, is a critical system intervention itself. Altering the relationships and connections within a system, the quality of connections and communications among various actors, especially among those with differing histories and viewpoints is a key leverage point. It's why we started by seeking to build trust and respect among a growing group of leaders and funders, and creating scaffolds for collaboration around shared visions and action to make them real. We realize this is the critical ingredient in any change effort.
Our stance to this work has been and will continue to be intentional and methodical while also remaining adaptive and curious. It is the only way to help build a robust ecosystem for increased engagement and experimentation for economic system change. We top this all off with a heavy and sincere dose of humility: working with complex systems demands nothing less.
Learn more about our journey by diving into our sense-making work over time.
Meet the NCP Community
NCP is led by Anna Muoio and Brendan Lehan.
The initial NCP Design Team included: Amit Bouri (GIIN), Andrew Kassoy (B Lab), Bill Dempsey (Amalgamated Charitable Foundation), Carol Anne Hilton (Indigenomics Institute), Edgar Hernandez (SEIU), Eli Kasargod-Staub (Majority Action), Fran Seegull (US Impact Investing Alliance), Jay Coen Gilbert (Imperative 21), Jeremie Greer (Liberation in a Generation), Mahlet Getachew (PolicyLink), Meredith Sumpter (Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism), Rodrigo Garcia (Illinois State Treasurer).
The initial sensemaking phase of NCP was supported by the Omidyar Network and the Ford Foundation. Subsequent phases have been supported by the Omidyar Network, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Kresge Foundation and Skoll Foundation.
The NCP Lab’s experimentation agenda was overseen by Amit Bouri, Carol Anne Hilton, Jeremie Greer and Mahlet Getachew.
The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) has played a key role in conceptualizing and launching this endeavor and hosts the NCP.