FAQs

What is the New Capitalism Project (NCP)?

The current application of capitalist principles, which permeates our economy, is out of step with our evolving world. We lack an economic system that works for most people and for our earth. This is the underlying premise of the New Capitalism Project.

NCP was launched in 2020 to understand the broad landscape of activity already underway to shift the economic system, in the US, by shifting the norms, behaviors, rules, and practices of business and financial sector leaders. Based on the insights from this sensemaking work, in 2021, we convened 12 leaders on the frontlines of economic system change, the NCP 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. This team’s collective point of view and shared vision, developed over a year of intense collaboration, has become the focal point of NCP’s work going forward

Who is the New Capitalism Project community and its funders?

The initial NCP Design Team included these leaders: 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 Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) has played a key role in conceptualizing and launching this endeavor.

What was the New Capitalism Project Lab?

In August 2022 we launched the NCP Lab with the belief that achieving transformative ideas for a better economic system requires bold and collaborative experimentation. Over the following two years, the NCP Lab:

  • Created a collaborative space for economic system change idea identification and experimentation—to serve as a broader field-level capacity 

  • Grew the NCP community of leaders to increase the diversity of perspectives, potential ideas and continue to align action around economic system change

  • Provided $50,000 planning grants to chosen Idea Champions; and a facilitated process to help develop their nascent, transformative ideas into actionable strategic experiments 

  • Connected chosen Idea Champions with each other and the broader NCP community, to catalyze opportunities for collaboration and align collective action as we build a set of ideas that work in a System Change Portfolio

  • Convened a set of funders interested in funding economic systems change work that emerges from the Lab, and how they may adapt their own practices to support new approaches to economic systems change

Who was an Idea Champion?

An Idea Champion was a leader of an organization working to intervene to create a better economic system—or if not working within an existing organization, was able to leverage, convene, and influence organizations or a network of leaders behind their idea. An Idea Champion is willing to:

  • Think big and engage in radical imagination, grounded in aspirations for moving towards the NCP shared future—and tackling the NCP identified barriers to that vision (Paradigm, Power, Policies/Practices)­.

  • Receive a $50,000 planning grant to support the time and space to develop their nascent, transformative idea into actionable strategic experiments as well as use the funds to…

  • Actively engage other field leaders and their organizations (Idea Partners) to become a collaborative team, co-developing and launching the idea. This is not a go-it-alone effort.

  • Go through the Lab, supported by the Idea Canvas Tool—a process to articulate the opportunity, the biggest obstacle to that opportunity, a hypothesis about how to overcome it and launch a set of strategic experiments to start learning by doing.

Who made decisions about which Idea Champions to support?

Idea Champions and their ideas were selected for Lab support by the NCP Governing Team, a group of BIPOC leaders who played key roles on the NCP Design Team. The deliberate choice to have the Lab’s planning grants governed by the Design Team’s BIPOC leaders was motivated by the reality that historically, “new economic thinking” resources have largely been made to and governed by white, male-led organizations. In the governance of our Lab, we sought to embody aspects of a different economic system we envision, where the power over the allocation of funds is in the hands of those typically excluded from such decisions in the philanthropic realm, and beyond. 

The NCP Governing Team included:

  • Amit Bouri, Global Impact Investing Network

  • Carol Anne Hilton, Indigenomics Institute

  • Jeremie Greer, Liberation in a Generation

  • Mahlet Getachew, PolicyLink

What is an NCP Lab idea?

An NCP Idea works to tackle one or more of the barriers to a better economic system identified by the Design Team. Ideas that focus on shifting: Paradigms—the mental models, individual and collective mindsets, and habit of thought that direct any system. Power—the distribution of decision-making power, authority and both formal and informal influence among individuals and organizations. Policies + Practices—government, institutional, organizational rules, regulations and priorities that guide action.   

These are complex levers to affect. As such, an NCP Idea is marked by three attributes. It is:

  • Transformative: Seeks to make long-term change at multiple levels (from practices to power to paradigms) to our economic system, aligned to the shared NCP Vision. This is distinct from ideas focused solely on improving the current economic system. 

  • Experimental: Doesn’t need years of a “proven track record;” but applies rigorous learning practices to how it designs and pursues its transformative intent in the context of the complex adaptive system of our economy. The success and strategy for the work is defined by a trajectory of iterative experimentation rather than pre-determined benchmarks of progress.

  • Collaborative: Cannot be accomplished by one organization alone. Through collaborative work reaches multiple parts of the system and engages multiple change types (Warriors, Lovers, Entrepreneurs, etc.) to effect change. The idea itself is richer because of the involvement of collaborators, not just an exercise is “subcontracting” one party’s vision.

A more detailed discussion of the NCP vision for a better economy and related barriers can be found in NCP Phase 1 Report: Vision and Barriers.

What’s the process for joining the Lab?

The first iteration of the NCP Lab has concluded and we are not accepting new Idea Champions into the NCP Lab at this time.