Unlock Ownership Fund
Increasing household wealth and well-being through asset ownership
Unlock Ownership Fund accelerates the development of equitable asset ownership through grants and investments. Specifically, the goal is to build wealth in historically underinvested households through home and employee ownership.
How We Do It
The fund brings together a growing movement of leaders in the field to ensure that capital is being moved to the places where it can effectively accelerate change. From the outset, fund governance, including decisions for fund grants and investments, will be made by the leaders in shared ownership for the benefit of the community.
We aim to rapidly deploy capital over the next 2-3 years to help close the racial wealth gap.
What We Will Invest In
The following serves as examples of investment criteria. Actual investment criteria will be formed by the inclusive governance committee.
- We seek fund managers who are committed to building wealth in underinvested households and communities.
- We invest in home ownership and employee ownership models with potential to add community wealth building models.
- We invest in methods that blend innovative finance with economic justice; models which have been refined through relevant experience or pilots.
- We seek fund managers with a holistic approach, including wraparound support that homeowners and worker owners may need to get both short-term and long-term benefits.
- We seek fund managers who see themselves as part of an ecosystem working alongside other partners and advocating for policy change.
- We invest in business models that are expected to return capital.
Examples of Investments
The funds listed below serve as examples only of our investment strategy as many are not currently fundraising, and would need to be approved by the inclusive governance committee:
Shifting Power through Inclusive Decision Making
We have heard from leaders in shared ownership of the importance of their voices and expertise in ensuring that capital is most effectively deployed to accelerate shared ownership. To that end we are building an inclusive governance model that empowers those leaders to make decisions over the fund.
All grant and investment decisions will be made by an inclusive governance committee of experts, asset allocators, fund managers in the portfolio, and the fund founders. Our governance process and advisers will be refined for launch, periodically updated and shared publicly.
We hope to demonstrate the success of a truly inclusive governance model.
Who We Are
The Unlock Ownership Fund uses donations and Donor Advised Fund (DAF) capital to develop more shared ownership investing options. The fund is actively seeking additional mission-aligned investors and donors.
Next Steps
As a first fund of its type, we will be exploring several things including:
- How can catalytic capital help build more investable options in shared ownership and home ownership?
- Does an asset ownership fund appeal to other investors?
- How can we leverage the existing shared ownership and racial wealth gap investing ecosystem to move quickly and efficiently?
- How can we shift decision making power to people closer to the problems and solutions?
Join the Ownership Movement
Contact us to learn more about our investing strategies, supporting grants and how to join the shared ownership movement.
