The Night Strategy Came to Visit
Every so often, your subconscious runs a workshop without inviting you.
Recently, I had a dream where I fully designed a philanthropic model for a fictional renewable energy purchasing co‑op I’ll call “Amigos.” By the time I woke up, there was a surprisingly coherent blueprint for a different kind of community‑rooted philanthropy.
This post is my attempt to get that dream out of my head and into the world.
The Problem: Philanthropy Feels Distant
Traditional philanthropy often looks like this:
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- Wealth accumulates at the top.
- A foundation is formed.
- A small group of people – often far from the communities affected – decides which projects get funded.
Even when the work is good, it can feel distant, opaque, and disempowering to the people on the ground.
At the same time, values‑aligned businesses and co‑ops sit at powerful junctions of:
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- Customer relationships
- Recurring revenue
- Community trust
Yet those relationships rarely get used as a front door to democratic, locally directed giving.
The Dream: The Amigos Foundation
In my dream, Amigos is a national purchasing co‑op in renewable energy. Its members are local companies installing solar and related systems across the country.
The big idea: create an Amigos Foundation funded not by a billionaire’s endowment, but by distributed, opt‑in contributions at the project level.
- A Simple 1% Opt‑In
Each Amigos member offers customers the option to add, say, 1% to their project budget. It’s framed clearly as:
“Would you like to add 1% to support local community projects chosen by our employees and customers?”
No guilt, no pressure. Just an invitation.
Those opt‑in contributions are:
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- Pooled by each member company, not centralized.
- Routed into segregated sub‑funds of the Amigos Foundation, earmarked for that company’s local community.
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- Customers Nominate, Employees Decide
Here’s where it gets fun.
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- Customers who opt in can nominate local initiatives they care about:
- A food hub or farm stop
- A conservation project
- A community land trust
- An after‑school arts program
- Periodically, employees of that local company review the nominations and vote on who receives grants.
- Customers who opt in can nominate local initiatives they care about:
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This structure does a few things at once:
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- Puts decision‑making in the hands of people actually living in those communities.
- Treats customers as partners in place‑based investment, not just revenue.
- Gives employees a direct line of sight into the impact their work is supporting.
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- Grants Paired with Gatherings
Each grant is more than a wire transfer. It’s paired with a small community event:
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- A site visit and celebration at the funded zoo exhibit or community garden
- A volunteer day with the food hub or mutual aid group
- A public acknowledgment of the customers and employees who made it possible
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The goal is not just funding, but relationship‑building:
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- Between the company and its community
- Between employees and local organizations
- Between customers and the places they live
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Why This Feels Different
The “Amigos” model tries to blend:
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- Co‑op DNA: Shared ownership, democratic decision‑making, local control
- Community foundation spirit: Long‑term, place‑based support
- Crowd‑funding mechanics: Small, voluntary contributions at scale
What changes compared to traditional philanthropy?
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- Who provides the money: Everyday customers, not just wealthy benefactors.
- Who decides: Employees and local stakeholders, not a distant board.
- Where it flows: Into hyper‑local projects chosen by the people affected.
It’s a small structural tweak with potentially big cultural implications: philanthropy as a practice of democratic participation, not merely charitable distribution.
From Dream to Template
Will an “Amigos Foundation” ever exist? Who knows. But the architecture is portable.
Anywhere you have:
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- A network or co‑op of mission‑driven businesses
- Recurring or project‑based revenue
- A desire to anchor wealth locally and democratically
…you could adapt this model:
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- A network of food co‑ops or farm hubs
- A group of independent clinics
- A regional worker co‑op federation
- Even a consortium of professional services firms
The point isn’t the brand; it’s the pattern:
Opt‑in contributions + employee democracy + community nomination = locally rooted, bottom‑up philanthropy.
An Invitation
This all came from a single, very vivid dream. But it sits at the intersection of things many of us already care about:
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- Worker and community ownership
- Regenerative, local economies
- Moving beyond charity toward shared power and responsibility
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Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The content provided should not be relied upon as a substitute for consultation with a qualified attorney. For specific legal questions or situations, please consult with a licensed legal professional who can provide advice tailored to your particular circumstances.
