Catalytic capital
Our recoverable grants program for post-colonial trade.
What
Savimbo is piloting a new kind of investment into Indigenous and local communities. No-strings-attached catalytic capital via recoverable grants. Made by, and for, Indigenous Peoples and local communities to practice conscious business from a strengths-based relationship with the industrialized world.
How
Recoverable grants are an outcomes-based loan through a nonprofit that provide an influx of technical capacity, training, and salaries to a community in advance of formal business contracts. They enable a community to make decisions about business relationships from a position of information and strength on their own timelines. Grants typically run for six months to three years. They encompass formal FPIC processes. If the community decides not to proceed they keep the capital which converts to a donation. If the grant leads to a revenue-generating business they are repaid at the communities’ discretion from business revenue.
Why
Proper FPICs take time. In many traditional communities, it requires advance funding to conduct in-person meetings across remote landscapes. Communities need language, technology, data stewards, and legal interpreters to make informed decisions. Its better if those experts are trained from their networks instead of external advisors so they can inform the community adequately over time. For companies seeking healthy business relationships this is an up-front investment of capital which (if done properly, and in an unbiased fashion) might lead to a polite refusal to do business. Its better for everyone if this process is conducted through a neutral intermediary that seeks only for a “win-win or no deal” outcome.
