Common Future

We are excited and honored to introduce the Common Future Accelerator—2024 Cohort! Building on our successful 2023 program and an incredible surge in applicants for this year's cohort, we're thrilled to announce the 10 remarkable organizations selected, each pioneering innovative approaches to tackle the racial wealth gap. Join us in celebrating this year's cohort: https://lnkd.in/en_k8E5H #CFAccelerator2024

In the midst of continued and concerted #backlash to #racialprogress, it feels difficult to think beyond our current conditions to create the enabling conditions for a world where all people can thrive. But, it’s necessary, now more than ever, to make space for imagining what is possible by examining the concepts that keep the status quo of concentrated wealth and power in place. Reframing the concept of #fiduciaryduty is just one of these examples of how to challenge underlying arguments that are cutting off capital to the communities and organizations that need them most. I hope this reframe offers space for us think differently about our responsibilities to each other in ensuring that we all have the resources to thrive. I want to recognize Agnetha Jaime Gloshay, Jennifer Swayne Njuguna, Esq. SHRM-SCP, Jess Yupanqui Feingold, Ryan Glasgo,Victoria Monteiro, Donovan Ervin, Marjorie Kelly, Lisa Nutter, Leslie Christian, CFA, and Steve Dubb for your thought partnership (in small and big ways) to help bring this piece from musings and frustrations over the past few years to something productive. Article: https://lnkd.in/eEEe4PDu #impactinvesting #fiduciaryresponsibility #fiduciaryduty #systemschange #communityinvestment #philanthropy #economicdevelopment

To create new systems, we must first challenge, reconsider, and redefine our current extractive systems. Sandhya Nakhasi, co-CEO here at Common Future explores what it might take to create a "reoriented framework that centers humanity" by exploring finance, and the role fiduciaries have for the communities we center. https://lnkd.in/eW2s3Dc4

"With fear for our democracy, I dissent," are the words of Supreme Court #JusticeSoniaSotomayor in response to the case permitting #presidentialimmunity from prosecution for "official" acts. Indeed, this has been a #SCOTUS term for the ages. In addition to the presidential immunity case, SCOTUS has also significantly weakened the #federalgovernment's power through 3 cases this term: - in #LoperBright, SCOTUS overruled a 40 year old #doctrine known as #ChevronDeference. This doctrine afforded deference to #federalagencies (e.g., FDA, EPA, etc.) precisely to issue guidance, regulations, and other determinations that bring clarity to ambiguous areas of the law and that also provide protections through enforcement action (e.g., clean air and water, safe food and drugs, etc.), and thus, fairness and safety. Now, with this deference to federal agencies overruled, we will have to overly rely on the #judiciary to make such determinations. - In #CornerPost, SCOTUS changed a critical element of the #statuteoflimitations for challenging federal regulations. The statute of limitations was previously 6 years, and now, with this ruling, challenges to federal regulations can be endless and without any certainty, due to a shift in when the statute of limitations clock starts to run. - In #SECvJarkesy, SCOTUS stripped the #SEC of its ability to use in-house tribunals to adjudicate and enforce actions around securities laws violations, and in question is the enforcement power of many other agencies. While there are other consequential decisions from this term, I wanted to highlight the ones above because in an instant, these, and other cases are part of a troubling trend reflecting legal and other power shifts that 1) weaken the federal government, 2) that concentrate more power in a judiciary that has a heavy lean along ideological, partisan lines (as we have seen with ignoring decades of precedent and overturning settled case law re: reproductive rights, affirmative action, voting rights, and many other areas), and 3) that enable the President as a "king above the law" in official acts, according to Justice Sotomayor. So what now? I know that sometimes, it can seem like some of these cases don't impact us directly in our day to day lives, but they do. They are a part of the #legalstructure that governs the #remedies we seek, the #solutions and #designs we implement, and the #power we have to create a #justsociety, including an #equitable #economy as we do at Common Future. In my latest piece, I share more examples on where we are seeing these shifts and restrictions, as well as what we can do so that we can continue our journey toward the ideals of a #multiracial #democracy and an equitable economy. This is what I will be reflecting on this week as we mark #IndependenceDay, and as we are two years away from the #250th anniversary of the #DeclarationofIndependence. https://lnkd.in/e4vHhBrt

Reflecting on the mounting racial backlash, Common Future co-CEO Jennifer Swayne Njuguna, Esq.'s experience as a lawyer tells her that, "the legal and political designs of today will not only set our course for tomorrow, but for decades to come. Yet, I know that the law, coupled with other tools, can still be used to advance justice and that the law is for remedies." Fortunately, such remedies are already at work: — Fearless Fund is calling for an Executive Order and Congressional action to protect the right to fund marginalized groups if and when racial disparities exist. — ACLU, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. are at the forefront of efforts in the courts, from providing defensive legal support as well as continuing offensive legal strategies to challenge racial and other disparities. — California, New York, New Jersey, and Chicago have seen serious calls for economic repair and remedy through reparations task forces convened to study and make recommendations, despite backlash. These task forces reflect the work of citizens and state and local governments. — Through state ballot measures, many voters have opted to affirmatively recognize and protect reproductive rights in state constitutions, with Ohio being the most recent. Dive into these solutions and more: https://lnkd.in/eDFVAshX

"Hope is the foundation upon which we use these and other tools and tap into our collective imagination and will about what can be. It is also how we hold onto the yet to be realized ideals of a multi-racial democracy, an equitable economy, and recognition of our individual and collective human dignity, even when the law and other tools, at their worst, are used to design the contours of injustice. " —Jennifer Swayne Njuguna, Esq. SHRM-SCP Jennifer Njuguna, co-CEO of Common Future, reflects on the extensive recent legal and political backlash against progress and how not only our resilient history, but the collective efforts of the present, remind us of our power to fight back and vision forward toward a just future. https://lnkd.in/eDFVAshX

Join us this Thursday, June 27 for "Risky Business: Moving from Fear to Bravery to Create a Just Society" —the first in a series of live conversations hosted by Common Future around redefining risk. Beginning at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT, @Nonprofit AF’s Vu Le and Common Future co-CEO Jennifer Swayne Njuguna, Esq. Njuguna will discuss the shift from reactive considerations of risk to proactive culture changes that help you understand and intentionally weigh risk and challenge the root causes of inequity. https://lnkd.in/eZk_RA6d

Join us, we're hiring! Common Future is hiring a Fund Development Manager. This role supports and influences strategy development for the Revenue Team, strengthens funder engagement initiatives, and contributes to growing a diverse waterway of funders. A core function of their role is planning and leading grant proposals and reports from start to finish with guidance from the Director of Philanthropic Partnerships. They are also pivotal in funder prospecting, specifically in building new funder engagement strategies that increase unrestricted, flexible funding. This is a full-time, exempt position. The salary range is $79,500 to $85,800 USD. Common Future offers a generous benefits package including a remote, four-day workweek–learn more and apply here: https://lnkd.in/e9SGStmU

What are intermediaries? And how do they serve our movements? Live on Stanford Social Innovation Review -“How Movement-Accountable Intermediaries Can Change Philanthropy” (co-written by our Director of Operations & Strategic Engagement, Jennie Goldfarb, Sonya Crespo Childress and Sahar Driver, Aldita Amaru Gallardo, Allistair Mallillin, Lindley Mease, Alicia Sanchez Gill, MSW and angela vo) unpacks movement-accountable intermediaries’ efforts to ensure transparency in how we steward resources, and invest in a work culture that is spacious, joyful, and healing-centered. “In the social justice movement space, community ‘intermediary funds,’ as we understand them, are organizations that help allocate funding to people-powered activism. We exist because movements have asked us to help move money more effectively; to embed more equitable grantmaking practices across the sector; and, ultimately, to work philanthropy out of existence.” https://lnkd.in/e6Xmr63j

Common Future is hiring an Impact Investments Manager, a systems change thinker, who is an earnest collaborator and power shifter to bring their professional, volunteer, and lived experiences as they source, diligence, structure, and manage investments for the Community Credit Lab (CCL) Fund, Common Future’s impact-first investment fund. This is a full-time, exempt position. The salary range is $79,500 to $85,800. Common Future offers a generous benefits package including a remote, four-day workweek–learn more and apply here: https://lnkd.in/e9SGStmU