Contextual
Capital Lab
Community-rooted projects aren’t uninvestable. What’s missing is the infrastructure that allows them to meet aligned capital without compromising what makes them work. The Contextual Capital Lab is designed to build that layer.
The capital exists.
Significant pools of public, philanthropic, and private capital are actively seeking opportunities that can deliver meaningful ecological and social outcomes. Community lenders—CDFIs, credit unions, and cooperative networks—sit closest to this work, with deep relationships and contextual understanding of what is emerging in their regions.
The work exists.
Across regenerative food systems, land stewardship, cooperative infrastructure, and Indigenous-led development, there is no shortage of viable, place-based solutions. These efforts are grounded in scientific research, sustained by ancestral knowledge, and shaped by the lived experience of communities most affected by extractive development.
What’s missing is fit.
Conventional financial structures rely on standardized assumptions about risk, return, and readiness that often exclude these models, or require tradeoffs that undermine their integrity. As a result, very little moves between capital and community-rooted projects in practice.
What’s needed is a connective layer: the pre-development work, governance design, financial structuring, and translation required to move from locally grounded viability to investable opportunity. This is not a pipeline problem so much as a coordination gap—and it is the gap the Contextual Capital Lab is designed to address.
What we do
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With Projects
Pre-development support for community-rooted initiatives: business modeling, governance design, legal scaffolding, financial modeling, impact frameworks, and investment narratives. On their terms, without forcing convergence with extractive templates.
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With Structures
Codifying replicable fund and vehicle designs such as non-dilutive revenue participation vehicles, cooperative holding entities, and community-controlled land and infrastructure trusts. So each region doesn't have to reinvent what already works.
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With Capital
Helping philanthropies, family offices, public agencies, and mission-aligned investors find credible opportunities and structure blended stacks that respect community-defined outcomes.
All over the world, community members, businesses, and funders are working together to address the unique challenges and opportunities of their economies and ecologies. Open Future Fund supports resource stewards in identifying, investing in, and growing the innate capacity of these communities to advance their own resilience. By working alongside local leaders, funders, and industry experts, we will model the greater acuity, creativity, and outcome that comes when resources are stewarded by and in alignment with the self-determined needs and capabilities of local communities.
Over decades of atomization and runaway scaling, we have seen the investment industry lose sight of its wider context: the interconnectedness of economic, social, and environmental factors that influence long-term value creation. This level of specialization has fragmented decision-making and left an outsized focus on particular asset classes, at the expense of wider potentials to nurture the growth and long-term resilience of our investments.
Some sectors and communities are already engaged in aspects of what we call “contextual capital”: using blended approaches to apply the right forms of financial and non-financial capital at the right time in the project lifecycle, while nurturing outcomes through the appropriate pre-development, community engagement, knowledge sharing, and common infrastructure. Our goal is to resource and expand these existing initiatives, providing the financial resources, knowledge and best practices, and financial innovation needed to nurture and grow these practices over time.
Areas of Focus
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Ecological Restoration
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Regenerative Food Systems
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Community Wellness & Built Environment
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Cooperative Infrastructure
Tools & infrastructure
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Social
Building upon Open Future Coalition’s interdisciplinary global network, we curate communities of practice that provide ongoing contexts for knowledge and resource sharing. Each collaborator, fund, and project is bolstered by a growing pool of peer support, learning, and best practices.
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Technical
The Open Impact platform helps us all provide greater transparency and contexts for shared learning, while facilitating operational and measurement processes with greater confidence and acuity. We will continue supporting the development of shared tools for cooperation, compliance, de-risk, and asset innovation.
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Financial
We are stewarded by a growing pool of financial innovators committed to reshaping our definitions of value to better align with human and ecological thriving. Together, we are equipped to solve unique and complex resourcing challenges—from the design of multilateral funding mechanisms to the innovation of new instruments.
Our team
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Kaitlin Archambault
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Strategy & Investments
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Sushant Shrestha
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Operations & Investments
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Gregory Wendt
Co-Founder &
Strategic Advisor -
Sydney Bolger
Strategic Advisor
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Samantha Power
Strategic Advisor
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Bill Stoddart
Strategic Advisor
DISCLAIMER
The information on this page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy any Open Future Fund securities or investment products. It is not legal, tax, investment, or professional advice; consult your advisors regarding investment suitability and its legal, tax, and regulatory implications. Investing in Open Future Fund-managed funds carries risks, including potential loss of principal. Fund performance is subject to market, economic, and other risks, with fluctuating investment values. This document includes forward-looking statements, not reliable predictions of future events; results may differ due to various risks. Past fund performance doesn't guarantee future results. Consult relevant offering documents and your advisors before making investment decisions. This page doesn't solicit or recommend specific Open Future Fund products for investment. Actual investment offers require private placement memorandum and related subscription documents.