A Common Project helps donors and foundations to move money differently, reaching those that are usually unseen and overlooked. We also encourage them to invest their endowed or excess wealth into growing community power. We do so through a reparative lens.

We believe that philanthropy as an institutional practice is paternalistic and extractive. It needs to change to an approach centred on the incredible ideas, imagination, innovation and multiple truths of the many communities that have been, and continue to be, harmed. Communities need to determine their destinies, drive solutions in a way that is regenerative and no one is disposable. We also believe that given the independence of philanthropy as an institution, it has the power to model transformative change. However, change will not occur until philanthropy evolves into more of a cultural practice, where both risk and reward are shared. To successfully rebalance power, donors and foundations will need to acknowledge the roots of its wealth, willingly challenge its own truths and be in service to the imagination of the communities it serves.

A Common Project helps you to shift and grow power with and to those communities, through an 18-month+ programme comprising our learning journey, bespoke educational programming, research, coaching, narrative building, and fund development.