An economy can be started on purpose, by a group, from what that group already has. Every lasting economy comes down to the same few moves: decide what is being built, bring in what it takes to build it, and agree where the value goes once it starts to flow. When a group makes those agreements at the start, the value it creates keeps working for everyone who helped, year after year.

We team up with groups who want to do this, and we start with collective financing.

Collective financing is a group with a shared vision, agreeing on what they are building and how, then funding it together within that agreed-upon scope. Money can come back out on terms set at the start, but it does not buy ownership or profit. What it does is help manifest the shared vision, and everyone who helped gets to access the shared results.

What we bring

• A route. Five ways a group starts an economy, each one a full package: one project, many businesses sharing one pool, a gifted start, land rich and cash poor, and partnering with a place that already exists. Most groups combine two.
• A plan. A starting package with templates, strategy and business plan development. We work through four questions with you and keep them separate, because most broken structures come from blending them: what is being financed, who signs and who carries the risk, where the money is held, and how it comes in.
• The financing. Loans from people who believe in the work, gifts, business revenue, contributed labor and materials, and shared pools, combined into the shape your project needs.
• The agreements. Written at the start: the scope, the terms on which money comes back, how decisions are made, and where surplus goes.
• A shared pool. A place value collects for the whole group, set up so that releasing it takes more than one person.
• Tools. GROVE, for seeing the group's numbers, screening ideas and choosing ventures and shared resources together, and the group's own copy of NEOS Den for its decisions.
• Partnership through the build. We stay in it with you, from the first conversation to the day the last loan is repaid and the economy carries itself.

How every route becomes an economy

Every route starts with the group forming an ETHOS (or, for businesses, a consortium that grows into one). Then the group replaces its members' biggest bills with shared access, food and shelter first; puts money first into what brings money in; and expands as more people need access, or when an organization is running on its own.

How the money works, on every route

Money comes in as a loan or a gift. Loans are repaid on the terms agreed at the start. Decisions stay with the people the decisions affect. Surplus flows into shared assets and wider access for everyone involved. The date the payments stop is the date the economy starts: from then on, what the project earns belongs to the shared work and keeps housing, feeding and equipping people.

Every plan is checked with counsel in its own country before money moves.

Who it is for

Start an Economy is for ETHOS groups, and it is free to them. The packages work because the group has the decision models and the tools that come with being an ETHOS, so a group becomes an ETHOS first. There are two ways in:

• The low-cost way: get the ETHOS book (an online edition at a low price when it is out), then go through the paid onboarding.
• The guided way: we walk the group through it by hand and set it up fully, for $1,500.

A consortium of businesses that works in a new-paradigm way can get the packages through a consortium we are part of, for $150 paid to the ecosystem. Becoming a full ETHOS first is still the way we recommend. Packages bought this way come with no guarantee and no refunds, and the consortium is responsible for how it uses them.

Start

Tell us what you are building, what you already have, and who is in it with you. We will look at it together and work out which route fits.

Package 1 · One project

A single shared project, financed by people who believe in it, becomes a permanent source of value once its loans are repaid. The asset at its center can be land, a building, equipment, a workshop or a business. When the people building it lend the starting money themselves and the asset is held for the group, every year of repayment brings it closer to the day it belongs to the shared work outright.

Who it fits

A group with a clear project, an asset in mind, and a circle of people willing to lend toward it.

How it works

1. Form an ETHOS first. The agreements and the way value flows come before the money, so everything is set up to be shared from day one.
2. Agree the vision and the scope. What is being built, by whom, and how decisions are made, written down before any money moves.
3. Fund the core asset with patient loans from the group and its supporters. When land is part of it, the land is held free of bank debt and legally set aside as stewarded for shared access.
4. Fund what is built on top separately. A building loan can rest on the buildings, while contributed labor, materials and gifts carry the rest.
5. The project carries its own costs. The people using it pay toward it, and that income covers running costs, any building loan, and repaying the lenders in turn.
6. Lenders are repaid what they lent, on the terms set at the start.
7. The asset becomes commons once its loans are paid off, held for every generation that follows.

When it becomes an economy

When the last loan is repaid, the same income keeps arriving and the debt line disappears. Through the ETHOS it covers basic needs first, then the project's own growth, and what is left goes to the shared pool, where it buys access for more people.

How it grows into an economy

The same rules carry every package from a first project to a full economy.

• Replace bills with shared access. Look at what every member spends money on and replace those costs with shared access, starting with the two biggest: food and shelter. Food often comes first, bought or traded as a group for less, usually by teaming up with farmers. Housing follows.
• Income first. Money goes first into what brings money in, so it keeps working after it is spent. Sharing what already earns well multiplies fastest: when one member's know-how can help ten others earn, the whole economy grows.
• Every asset brings value back. The group buys or builds only what returns value, so everything is used to its fullest.
• The people set the pace. When everyone in the ETHOS is supported by the commons, income moves from buying assets to growth. As more people come in and need access to the shared assets, that is the signal to expand.
• When the organization is capped out, running on its own and needing no more investment, the group first checks how much more its assets can hold and brings in people to use them, including people who simply work on the assets, since that adds value too. Then it expands into another ETHOS or a new project that brings value in.
• Income keeps coming in while assets become shared. The economy stays healthy when both happen together.
• Decisions run on one shared method, ACT by default, so every choice about money and assets has a clear way to be made.

What we bring

A starting package with templates, strategy and business plan development, and our help working through it with you. It comes with GROVE, our tool for seeing the group's numbers, screening ideas and choosing the best ventures and shared resources together, and the group's own copy of NEOS Den for making decisions its own way.

One group taken care of becomes a fund that keeps taking care of people, and the asset passes forward whole.

Package 2 · Many businesses, one pool

Businesses that share a pool grow faster together than any of them grows alone, because every shared purchase lowers everyone's costs. Each business keeps trading in the ordinary economy. When each sends part of its surplus into one shared pool, the pool buys what all of them need and each would struggle to buy alone.

It starts with no money down. The surplus comes from working together: restructuring, sharing costs and buying together, and sometimes a better joint product that earns its own return. Nobody donates; each business gains by joining. The businesses need a good reason to come together, and building a new economy is one of them.

Who it fits

Working businesses, or businesses about to open, that already know each other and want to build something larger together.

How it works

1. Start as a consortium. It is a form people already understand, and it is where sharing begins. Over time the businesses work their way into forming ETHOS, inside each business and one together.
2. Find what connects you before any money is shared. The shared goal or shared product comes first.
3. Make a full roadmap. What the money is for, and which shared assets get built first, second and third: ordinary, careful business planning.
4. Each business trades as it does today, pays its own costs and wages first, and sends an agreed part of its surplus into the shared pool.
5. Members lend to the businesses that need starting capital, repaid on terms set at the start; repayment comes first, then the pool.
6. The pool buys shared assets such as a building, equipment, insurance or a reserve for a hard quarter, and each business gets access to them, which lowers its costs and leaves more to put back in.
7. It grows by bringing in more members and more organizations.

An example: a high-leverage deal

A consortium that is already built and ready can win work that brings in a lot of money at once. A city wants to go solar. The group brings it the newer technologies and the consortium that can deliver them. When the city says yes and signs a power purchase agreement, that agreement brings in funding for the consortium's companies to manufacture and install the panels, and the group earns a percentage of the funding, and possibly of the sales contract. The same works for introductions: finding an investment program for someone and earning a percentage when they say yes. Done as a group, it runs through agreed procedures so everyone involved is protected. ⚖️ Legal/Lawful is looking at the best way to structure these contracts, the percentages and the group's exposure; until then this is an example, not an offer.

How it grows into an economy

The same rules carry every package from a first project to a full economy.

• Replace bills with shared access. Look at what every member spends money on and replace those costs with shared access, starting with the two biggest: food and shelter. Food often comes first, bought or traded as a group for less, usually by teaming up with farmers. Housing follows.
• Income first. Money goes first into what brings money in, so it keeps working after it is spent. Sharing what already earns well multiplies fastest: when one member's know-how can help ten others earn, the whole economy grows.
• Every asset brings value back. The group buys or builds only what returns value, so everything is used to its fullest.
• The people set the pace. When everyone in the ETHOS is supported by the commons, income moves from buying assets to growth. As more people come in and need access to the shared assets, that is the signal to expand.
• When the organization is capped out, running on its own and needing no more investment, the group first checks how much more its assets can hold and brings in people to use them, including people who simply work on the assets, since that adds value too. Then it expands into another ETHOS or a new project that brings value in.
• Income keeps coming in while assets become shared. The economy stays healthy when both happen together.
• Decisions run on one shared method, ACT by default, so every choice about money and assets has a clear way to be made.

What we bring

A starting package with templates, strategy and business plan development, and our help working through it with you. It comes with GROVE, our tool for seeing the group's numbers, screening ideas and choosing the best ventures and shared resources together, and the group's own copy of NEOS Den for making decisions its own way.

Each business stays its own, and together they hold a base that keeps every one of them standing.

Package 3 · A gifted start

A gift arrives as commons on day one, so every dollar given turns straight into access. A loan has to be repaid before what it built belongs to the shared work. A donation skips that stage: it is shared from the moment it lands.

Who it fits

Work that serves people directly and is meant to stay open to them: education, open learning material, care, or seeding a project before it can carry a loan.

How it works

1. Form an ETHOS to receive and steward the gift, with a written scope so every donor knows what their gift builds.
2. Open a shared pool under a nonprofit or a fiscal host. Gifts are received, recorded and visible to everyone, and releasing funds takes more than one person.
3. Put the gift first into something that brings money in, so it keeps working after it is spent. A gift with nothing earning behind it runs out.
4. Replace costs with access the smart way. Food comes through teaming up with farmers and buying as a group, with no need to build a farm.
5. Share what already earns. When a member's business or know-how can help others earn, sharing it grows the economy faster than a project with little income.

Running now

Green Earth Vision's shared pool is live on Open Collective today, receiving gifts and putting them to work.

How it grows into an economy

The same rules carry every package from a first project to a full economy.

• Replace bills with shared access. Look at what every member spends money on and replace those costs with shared access, starting with the two biggest: food and shelter. Food often comes first, bought or traded as a group for less, usually by teaming up with farmers. Housing follows.
• Income first. Money goes first into what brings money in, so it keeps working after it is spent. Sharing what already earns well multiplies fastest: when one member's know-how can help ten others earn, the whole economy grows.
• Every asset brings value back. The group buys or builds only what returns value, so everything is used to its fullest.
• The people set the pace. When everyone in the ETHOS is supported by the commons, income moves from buying assets to growth. As more people come in and need access to the shared assets, that is the signal to expand.
• When the organization is capped out, running on its own and needing no more investment, the group first checks how much more its assets can hold and brings in people to use them, including people who simply work on the assets, since that adds value too. Then it expands into another ETHOS or a new project that brings value in.
• Income keeps coming in while assets become shared. The economy stays healthy when both happen together.
• Decisions run on one shared method, ACT by default, so every choice about money and assets has a clear way to be made.

What we bring

A starting package with templates, strategy and business plan development, and our help working through it with you. It comes with GROVE, our tool for seeing the group's numbers, screening ideas and choosing the best ventures and shared resources together, and the group's own copy of NEOS Den for making decisions its own way.

A gifted start puts the shared vision to work immediately, and turns into an economy once something is earning.

Package 4 · Land rich, cash poor

This is the one economy that starts with no money at all. Many places that look poor already hold everything an economy is made of: land, food, skill and labor. They need no new resources. What they build, they build together through contribution, by making better use of what they already have.

Who it fits

A community with land and food in surplus, and a clear need that money alone has kept out of reach: a school, a clinic, clean water, a place to store the harvest, a shared vehicle.

How it works

1. Ask the community what it needs. The answer comes from the people who live there.
2. Form an ETHOS, and set the land aside properly. Each household agrees what part of its spare land it gives to the economy. That land is legally structured and reserved as stewarded for shared access, so everyone who contributes can rely on it, well beyond an agreement on paper.
3. Agree one way of deciding, ACT by default, for choosing what to build first and how.
4. Build it together through contribution. Labor, skills, local materials and food all count as contributions, and contributing is what grants access: the people who build the school are the people whose children learn in it.
5. Make the most of what is already there. Improve and share the land, tools and harvest the community already has.
6. Build outward, one shared piece at a time. Each finished piece makes the next one easier.

What keeps it fair

The stewarded land stays shared for good, the community's access is written and permanent, and any land a family adds is protected forever, beyond anyone's reach, including ours.

Why it lasts

This economy is made of land held for good, food that grows every season, buildings already paid for, and agreements between neighbors. It stands on what people have, so it holds steady through whatever money does.

How it grows into an economy

The same rules carry every package from a first project to a full economy.

• Replace bills with shared access. Look at what every member spends money on and replace those costs with shared access, starting with the two biggest: food and shelter. Food often comes first, bought or traded as a group for less, usually by teaming up with farmers. Housing follows.
• Income when it comes. Once money arrives, it goes first into what brings more in.
• Every asset brings value back. The group buys or builds only what returns value, so everything is used to its fullest.
• The people set the pace. When everyone in the ETHOS is supported by the commons, income moves from buying assets to growth. As more people come in and need access to the shared assets, that is the signal to expand.
• When the organization is capped out, running on its own and needing no more investment, the group first checks how much more its assets can hold and brings in people to use them, including people who simply work on the assets, since that adds value too. Then it expands into another ETHOS or a new project that brings value in.
• Income keeps coming in while assets become shared. The economy stays healthy when both happen together.
• Decisions run on one shared method, ACT by default, so every choice about money and assets has a clear way to be made.

What we bring

The listening process, the land structuring, and a starting package with templates, strategy and business plan development, and our help working through it with you. It comes with GROVE, our tool for seeing the group's numbers, screening ideas and choosing the best ventures and shared resources together, and the group's own copy of NEOS Den for making decisions its own way.

The wealth is already there, and the economy starts the day people begin building with it together.

Package 5 · Partner with a place that exists

Zero money down. Use buildings that already stand, and let what the work earns build a place of your own. Retreat centers, lodges and campuses sit half empty much of the year. A team that fills one with retreats and workshops brings the center steady income, covers its own basic needs, and builds a shared fund from the first event.

Who it fits

A team with people, programs and momentum, and little land or starting money yet.

How it works

1. Form an ETHOS for the work. Then partner with a center that has room to spare. Its buildings, kitchens and staff are already in place, and the team agrees a price with it for the whole stay.
2. Run retreats and workshops on a steady rhythm, for example one every two weeks across a three-month stay, at an accessible price with an open invitation to give more.
3. Basic needs come out first. The retreats pay the center's rent for the whole place for the whole stay, plus the team's food and living costs. The team lives there while it works.
4. Each retreat splits 40-30-30. 40% to the people running it, shared among them, taken as access, as money for food and daily needs, or to pay things off. 30% to their ETHOS. 30% to the ecosystem, which keeps the shared coordination frameworks running for everyone.
5. The ETHOS share pays ahead. It covers the next stay's rent before it is due, then builds toward a longer lease or a building of the team's own. GROVE helps the team choose what it secures first.
6. Each one teaches one. The people running retreats bring others in and teach them to run them, so the work passes on. People can do three months and take a break, rotate between places, switch locations, or open a second center.

What everyone knows going in

The work covers the team's needs and builds the shared fund and the team's access; it is set up for growing together: needs met, access shared, and the fund growing for everyone. While we are in transition, some extra expenses can be paid out to people, and the group agrees those as they come.

Keeping it strong

Add a second partner center early, so the income rests on more than one relationship. Plan on retreat income, and treat gifts as the part that speeds the build. Describe the price and the invitation to give with care, so every guest reads them clearly; counsel checks the wording before it is advertised.

How it grows into an economy

The same rules carry every package from a first project to a full economy.

• Replace bills with shared access. Look at what every member spends money on and replace those costs with shared access, starting with the two biggest: food and shelter. Food often comes first, bought or traded as a group for less, usually by teaming up with farmers. Housing follows.
• Income first. Money goes first into what brings money in, so it keeps working after it is spent. Sharing what already earns well multiplies fastest: when one member's know-how can help ten others earn, the whole economy grows.
• Every asset brings value back. The group buys or builds only what returns value, so everything is used to its fullest.
• The people set the pace. When everyone in the ETHOS is supported by the commons, income moves from buying assets to growth. As more people come in and need access to the shared assets, that is the signal to expand.
• When the organization is capped out, running on its own and needing no more investment, the group first checks how much more its assets can hold and brings in people to use them, including people who simply work on the assets, since that adds value too. Then it expands into another ETHOS or a new project that brings value in.
• Income keeps coming in while assets become shared. The economy stays healthy when both happen together.
• Decisions run on one shared method, ACT by default, so every choice about money and assets has a clear way to be made.

What we bring

A starting package with templates, strategy and business plan development, and our help working through it with you. It comes with GROVE, our tool for seeing the group's numbers, screening ideas and choosing the best ventures and shared resources together, and the group's own copy of NEOS Den for making decisions its own way.

People arrive as guests, some stay to help, and the place they build together is earning from its first season.