Local ownership
Assets held by the community.
Focus — Livelihoods, Enterprise & Community Prosperity — Community wealth building
COMMUNITY WEALTH BUILDING
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve who owns assets and where value stays for the residents, workers, and institutions of the place.
Why this area
COMMUNITY WEALTH BUILDING
IN CONTEXT.
Wealth building is about who owns what, over time. Ideas qualify when an asset, an ownership structure, or a flow of spending is genuinely shifted.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Procurement
Institutions buying locally.
Local finance
Savings, credit, and investment that stay.
Anchor institutions
Employers and bodies rooted in a place.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A COMMUNITY WEALTH BUILDING
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where who owns assets and where value stays fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — assets held locally, local spend, jobs, or income retained.
- Explains what the residents, workers, and institutions of the place do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of who owns assets and where value stays in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier local economic development programmes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the residents, workers, and institutions of the place, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — assets, contracts, or households involved.
- A stated measure of success — assets held locally, local spend, jobs, or income retained.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves ownership, income, and long-term stability for the residents, workers, and institutions of the place.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named community trust, anchor institution, or local authority able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of who owns assets and where value stays in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the residents, workers, and institutions of the place or the community trust, anchor institution, or local authority.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about community wealth building with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
COMMUNITY WEALTH BUILDING IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about who owns assets and where value stays that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.