As we started our path as an organization, we spent years observing and learning from the ways young people live and create in uncommon and innovative ways in their communities.
We felt the open sense of possibility they worked from—and the impressive community cooperation their sparks of imagination could reveal and create.
We also saw the challenges that face anyone trying to stay connected to that part of themselves in this world.
It is so easy for that spark to go unseen or flicker out as it is exposed to and eventually immersed in the dominant systems around all of us. But there are many of us who know how essential that spirit is and long to reconnect with it, in ourselves and with others.
All of us, of all ages, are connected at the root of what's most essential for our thriving as individuals and communities. And all of us have a part to play in creating a collective experience that can transform the problems and needs around us into inspired possibilities for connection and change.
But it takes an accessible process and practical mechanism to activate this shared vision in a functional sustainable way.
The fund creates an essential flow of resources shaped entirely by the needs and opportunities of small-scale visionaries.
The operating thesis of the fund is to find, foster and fund small-scale visionaries at key stages that make it possible for them to develop financially and socially sustainable vehicles through which their core vision can continually operate to transform their own lives and the community around them—both locally and globally.
The return on the fund is not only the immediate and ongoing direct impact it catalyzes but also the transformation of philanthropy: when we succeed in making purpose and community-improvement into personal, innovative, sustainable ventures, we untether ourselves from a centralized "donation-to-mouth" paradigm and enter the world of diverse creative innovation.
All this and you still get the tax write-off of a donation.
The Wonderment Cooperative provides the emerging endeavors of small-scale visionaries and the Fund itself with the governance, fiscal sponsorship and resources of a 501(c)3 organization.
For the VISIONARIES it means they have all the tools they need to focus on their endeavor and not the administrative busywork they could otherwise get sucked into in their early development.
For the FUND it means that "donors" and "social investors" can direct their resources through a hybrid instrument of innovation, intention and non-profit status (and tax advantages).
For the ORG it means that persistent, efficient and existential focus stays directly but dynamically centered on the core purpose: co-creating a shared visionary reality.
The Wonderment digital platform is tailor-made for all of these people, pursuits and places to meet and share.
It's where:
It's a field map. It's a field journal. It's a base camp.
An ever-evolving vision and network made tangible and accessible in real time.