It was built to be extractive and to concentrate wealth, power and ownership. And it does that extremely well.
We are a community building something different: a financial system that shifts power to those closest to the problems, shares ownership rather than hoarding it, and puts people and planet first. For now, we call it innovative finance.
If you've ever wondered whether another way is possible, you are in the right place.
Do you spend your time reimagining how finance could work, questioning long-held assumptions, pushing back against where power sits? Does it feel lonely? It has for us too. Even in the rooms where impact is on the agenda, we often felt like we didn't quite fit. That is why we built IFI as a community of radicals.
You're structuring capital differently. Building funds and deals that share power and ownership instead of concentrating them, even when the market has no template for it.
You're redesigning your own portfolio. Moving your foundation, family office, or balance sheet toward the people capital should actually serve, and rethinking who decides along the way.
You're building something the market doesn't know how to value yet. An enterprise, a vehicle, a model designed around real needs rather than the usual defaults.
You're asking the harder questions. Who decides, who benefits, who carries the risk, who captures the value, and refusing to accept the answers finance usually gives.
Not a fund. Not a consultancy. Not a think tank.
IFI is the connective tissue for the people already doing this work: the peer network, the tools, and the shared knowledge that turn isolated experiments into a field that moves together. We don't deploy the capital or build the vehicles ourselves. Our job is to help the people who do, find each other, learn from what's working, and build the things no single organization would build alone. And we're built to be temporary. Success is handing this off to the community, not running it forever.
There are so many ways that we can show up. We try to focus on these four.
Showing it can be done. We make the invisible visible, through case studies, mission outputs, and the testimony of people already doing it.
See the case studies (coming soon)
Room to try things. We hold the spaces where you can test ideas and be honest about what isn't working yet, in Missions, peer groups, and off-the-record conversations.
See how Missions work →
Building what the field needs. Together, we build the tools and frameworks no single organization could build alone.
See the framework →
Pushing past what's comfortable. We ask the frontier questions and name the tensions most people in the room would rather leave alone.
Follow the conversation →Membership at IFI isn't a ladder. It's based on what you're here to do, not how senior you are, so pick the one that fits what you need right now.
Stay in the loop. The lightest way to follow what the community is building, through the newsletter and public resources.
LearnerBuild your fluency. For people going deeper into the mechanics of innovative finance through the IFI Academy.
BuilderContribute to what we're building. For people ready to help shape the tools, frameworks, and resources the field shares.
ExplorerGo all in. The deepest layer of involvement, for people ready to commit real time, knowledge, or capital to the work of Missions and Peer Groups.
However you show up, these are the spaces where the work happens.
Small, application-based groups working toward a defined output over a set period.
Lighter, ongoing peer exchange. No defined output, just honest conversation with people in it too.
Structured trainings, from foundational courses to deeper coaching, for building real fluency.
Open, one-off sessions. No application, just a low-barrier way to hear what's happening.
Regional gatherings and convenings held through the year, where the community meets face to face.
Explore membership and the different ways to be part of this, from learning alongside others to building something new.
Explore MembershipExplore our resources and learn more about innovative finance.
Innovative Finance 101Building something new in finance is hard to fund, because it doesn't fit the usual boxes, and building something designed to hand itself away and end is harder still. The funders below backed it anyway. They gave us room to figure this out, patience when the answers weren't obvious yet, and trust that a community of people reimagining capital was worth betting on. We are deeply grateful to them, and this work is theirs as much as ours.
No. IFI doesn't deploy capital and isn't a deal-sourcing or matchmaking platform. What you get is proximity: the same Missions, Peer Groups, and rooms that funders and practitioners are already in, not brokered introductions.
No. IFI isn't a consultancy. The value is peer-structured, through Missions, Peer Groups, the Academy, and the resource hub, not bespoke engagements.
IFI was built to end, not to grow indefinitely. Success means the tools, frameworks, and relationships outlive us, adopted by the community rather than run by us forever.
Missions are application-based, to protect the mix of perspectives in the room. Other parts of IFI, like the newsletter, some events, and resources, are open to everyone.
It depends on how deep you go. A newsletter subscriber and an Explorer have very different commitments, so it's worth being honest with yourself about which one you're signing up for.