Flow Funding
A Collaborative, Trust-Based Model of Giving
No applications. No bureaucracy.
Grounded in collaboration, solidarity, and trusting those who know their communities best to lead the way.
What Makes Flow Funding Different?
Removes
Bureaucracy
Rigid applications and excessive reporting slow traditional philanthropy. Flow Funding eliminates red tape, getting resources to communities faster.
Accelerates
Impact
Flow Funding provides grassroots leaders with immediate resources to address urgent challenges, ensuring support reaches the right people at the right time.
Collaboration & Trust
Flow Funding connects Flow Funders, donors, and communities through a Community of Practice, fostering relationships, shared learning, and lasting impact
Streamlined Processes
Rather than lengthy reports, Flow Funding values narrative storytelling, allowing leaders to share impact while focusing on their work.
Active Participation
Decisions are led by those who know their communities best, ensuring solutions are shaped by local expertise and real needs.
How does Flow Funding Work?
A Trust-Based, Community-Led Process
Flow Funding moves resources quickly and efficiently by trusting those closest to the work to allocate funds where they’re needed most. Instead of a top-down approach, Flow Funders—local leaders with deep community knowledge—identify and support high-impact initiatives in their bioregions.
Step 1: Selecting Flow Funders
The first cohort of Kinship Earth Flow Funders was chosen by Flow Fund Advisors and Kinship Earth’s team and board, based on longstanding relationships and proven impact. Moving forward, Flow Funders themselves will play a key role in selecting future cohorts, ensuring the process remains community-driven.
How does Flow Funding Work?
A Trust-Based, Community-Led Process
Flow Funding moves resources quickly and efficiently by trusting those closest to the work to allocate funds where they’re needed most. Instead of a top-down approach, Flow Funders—local leaders with deep community knowledge—identify and support high-impact initiatives in their bioregions.
Step 1: Selecting Flow Funders
The first cohort of Kinship Earth Flow
Funders was chosen by Flow Fund Advisors and Kinship Earth’s team and board, based
on longstanding relationships and proven impact. Moving forward, Flow Funders themselves will play a key role in selecting future cohorts, ensuring the process remains community-driven.
Step 2: Funding Local Projects
Each Flow Funder identifies and deploys resources to grassroots initiatives that align with the needs of their bioregion. These projects focus on social, ecological, and economic regeneration, ensuring funds are used where they’ll have the greatest impact.
Instead of bureaucratic reports, Flow Funders share stories of impact, highlighting the real-world changes their funding has enabled. This storytelling approach keeps donors informed while allowing leaders to stay focused on their work.
Step 3:
Sharing Impact & Stories
Step 4: Sustaining the Cycle
At the end of their term, Flow Funders help select
the next cohort, passing on their insights and experience to ensure funding continues to flow
where it’s needed most. This continuous cycle of
trust, collaboration, and regeneration ensures lasting impact in communities worldwide.
The Earth Regeneration Fund is dedicated to telling a cohesive story of the bioregional movement, advancing localized solutions to bioregional challenges, and cultivating collaboration across bioregions to drive global impact.
Partnership with the
Earth Regeneration Fund
We’re collaborating with the Earth Regeneration Fund to scale our bioregional Flow Funding efforts.
Why This Partnership Matters:
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Providing Comprehensive Resources: In collaboration with The Earth Regeneration Fund, we’re developing education materials and frameworks that guide donors, foundations, and grassroots groups in implementing localized, impactful solutions.
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Fostering Collaboration Across Bioregions: By bringing together the leaders of bioregional organizing groups, the Earth Regeneration Fund is creating opportunities for cross-bioregion collaboration. These connections are helping us identify and build relationships with groups to fund as well as groups to learn from.
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Strengthening Relationships and Expanding Impact: Through this partnership, we are deepening our engagement with bioregional-based leaders, cultivating mutual learning, and scaling the reach and effectiveness of Bioregional Flow Funding.
By combining the Earth Regeneration Fund’s expertise with our Flow Funding model, we are building a strong foundation for community-driven regeneration and long-term resilience in bioregions around the world.
Tech and Tracking
We are committed to integrating technology into our Flow Funding model to track the impact of our grants.
Our goal is to gather narrative stories and hard data, to measure outcomes, and to continuously improve our processes, while ensuring transparency and accountability in how resources are deployed.
