True wealth is not merely money in the bank. It must be defined and managed in terms of the well-being of the whole, achieved through the harmonization of multiple kinds of wealth or capital, including social, cultural, living, and experiential. It must also be defined by a broadly shared prosperity across all of these varied forms of capital. The whole is only as strong as the weakest link.
Community Sourced Capital is tapping a rich ore of human desire to participate in holistic community wealth value creation. The organization has developed a zero-interest lending mechanism that brings a community together to finance a business they know and love. In the words of CSC Co-Founder Rachel Maxwell: "Money does not have to be about creating more money, it is a tool we can use to create the world we want."
While the Evergreen Cooperatives are based in inner city Cleveland, we see the model as a way forward for a great diversity of communities to regenerate through more equitable wealth distribution and, at the same time, through a broader, more holistic understanding of what constitutes wealth. Evergreen's three cooperative businesses are built on a creative and productive use of their community's internal assets, including that of their "anchor" institutions, and through their stakeholders' shared purpose and respect for the limits of the earth’s regenerative capacities.
