A project of RSF and the Transforming Money Collaborative.

Core Purposes

The Collaborative has emerged from a growing recognition that changing attitudes and behaviors about money, understanding the social need for and benefits of leveraging and releasing wealth, alleviating poverty, lifting the taboo about money, opening up conversations about money, and bringing money awareness to young people across the educational spectrum, are all necessary strategic activities to foster long term societal health.

1.

Identify and map the wide range of domains engaged in social finance and transforming money in the society.

2.

Create and maintain an innovative administrative infrastructure that supports initiatives in social finance

3.

Continue to serve as a bridge builder, and hold forums for learning and sharing of work

4.

Continue to convene and foster dialogues on money, class, race, spiritual and religious perspectives

This project furthers RSF’s goal of developing the capacity of individuals and organizations to explore the social implications of financial practices. From RSF’s experience, increased awareness of the relationship between intention and action when it comes to economic decision-making is at the heart of social finance.

a group of women in pink shirts and hats

Work

The work of the Collaborative is to bring people and organizations together to articulate approaches, practices and principles for changing consciousness and behavior around money, financial practices, and money system—ranging from personal finance to socially responsible investing, to philanthropy, community banking, consumerism, tax policy and new forms of currency, among others.

woman in teal t-shirt sitting beside woman in suit jacket

Activities

Activities of the Collaborative include hosting conferences and dialogues on topics such as money, class and race, conscious consumerism, social investing, complementary currencies, and designing initiatives to impact on these and other issues (Catalyzing the Release of Wealth, Sequoia Principles, Complementary Currencies Funding Circle).

person in black suit jacket holding white tablet computer

Value

The Collaborative also intends to bring the transforming money conversation across class, race, age and gender differences to open new pathways of trust and communication in our financial transactions and bring values-based principles into practice.

Inspiration

“All wealth belongs to the Divine and those who hold it are trustees, not possessors. It is with them today, tomorrow it may be elsewhere. All depends on the way they discharge their trust while it is with them, in what spirit, with what consciousness in their use of it, to what purpose.” – Sri Aurobindo

Other Purposes

Create and maintain an Internet portal as a resource, and an organizing and communications tool for the emergent field of social finance

Support further development of innovative approaches to money, such as complementary and alternative currencies, sustainable banking, etc.

Articulate a set of principles and practices that will inspire personal, organizational, and systemic change in working with money

Work toward understanding the key transformative elements to alleviating poverty, inequity and class discrimination