Full Spectrum Labs, a fiscally sponsored project of MSC

Big picture, our technology solutions support our strategy to shift capital at a greater scale toward equity and social justice solutions and enterprises. The Blueprint Collaborative  drives capital to communities and monitors the impact of that capital.

It is a data-driven, searchable, web platform that reduces costs and improves transparency in the attraction of capital across solutions and enterprises at all stages of development.

We understand that people, ideas and capital must come together to grow regenerative economies powered by impactful solutions. The Blueprint Collaborative is powered by the work of Full Spectrum Labs (FSL) and Full Spectrum Capital Partners (FSCP) because it is through partnership, experimentation, incubation and learning that we are able to accelerate our collective capacities to develop and implement the solutions of impacted, primarily Black Indigenous and People of Color communities. 

A report by the Brookings Institute describes …”evidence of staggering racial disparities. At $171,000, the net worth of a typical white family is nearly ten times greater than that of a Black family ($17,150) in 2016. Gaps in wealth between Black and white households reveal the effects of accumulated inequality and discrimination, as well as differences in power and opportunity that can be traced back to this nation’s inception. The Black-white wealth gap reflects a society that has not and does not afford equality of opportunity to all its citizens.”

Who owns matters. Our vision is thriving communities where people own their homes, land and businesses. An impactful increase in community- owned assets will be the foundation for communities’ self-determination for generations to come.  However, access to capital remains a fundamental barrier to community ownership. 

Our strategy is simple. If a root cause of inequality is the systemic denial of capital, then a key part of the solution is creating more ways to move capital to the communities denied access. The essential elements of our strategy include: 

• Pathways to access capital are expanded to include traditionally marginalized communities

• Communities invest in vetted homegrown solutions with income generating potential 

• New enterprises are community-owned, new jobs are community-generated and capital provides its intended economic effects, providing a foundation for long term climate resilience and economic power.

The communities we partner with are excluded from capital markets and forced to rely on government, philanthropy and charity. In the same way that philanthropy can reinforce structural racism, much impact investing can mirror this system. Loans through nonprofit lenders, foundation based impact investing efforts, and equity firms also traditionally deny access to the most vulnerable communities. 

The Blueprint Collaborative platform leverages economic cooperation through social change product clustering and aggregation. Communities cluster projects in a “portfolio” that is searchable by geography, demographics and areas of work. The clustering shows the collective, and full spectrum capital needs of communities. Capital providers across the capital stack are able to see what is required and make integrated capital investments into community-driven solutions. 

As we scale, our collective wealth strategies are designed to grow community wealth and ownership, liberating individuals and families from relationships of economic dependency. We believe that by delivering full spectrum capital (grants, loans, equity investments, loan guarantees), our communities will be healthier, more resilient and generate the economic and political power needed for systems change.

Impacted communities, those closest to the challenges, must be at the center of developing and owning the solutions that respond to the integrated problems they want to solve. Community vision, plans and priorities are comprehensive and so when we center frontline leadership, plans and priorities we resource comprehensive and integrated solutions for the racial, economic and environmental challenges of our time. 

The Blueprint Collaborative is a platform to share the aggregated capital needs of community plans and priorities. Its design allows communities to identify the areas of work, the demographics and the integrated capital needs of individual projects and the overall portfolio of projects. Capital providers are also able to see the interdependence of solutions in a portfolio. 

Examples include:

• Black and Indigenous midwives who imagine a birth center in every community (Florida, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, DC, Georgia)

• Indigenous women investing in the undercapitalized women-led initiatives on reservations and in cities (South Dakota, North Dakota, New Mexico)

• Black organizers in Memphis who know that when communities own land and buildings they cannot be displaced (Tennessee)

• Formerly incarcerated community leaders who are proving investing in worker and community-owned enterprises transforms communities (New Jersey) 

  
  

In development or actively on the Blueprint are communities in:

• Tennessee
• Georgia
• Florida
• Texas
• New Jersey
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Washington, CD
• California
• New Mexico
• North Dakota (indigenous-led) 
• South Dakota (indigenous-led)
• Alaska (indigenous-led) 
• National Networks: Birth Center Equity, J40 Accelerator, Climate Justice Alliance and others.

Full Spectrum Labs is an incubator-accelerator that brings people, ideas, and capital together to grow regenerative economies powered by impactful solutions. We see community-based Black Indigenous and People of Color-owned businesses as core to your strategy for community wealth building and transformation. 

The Blueprint Collaborative platform is our technology designed to accelerate access required to launch and sustain community solutions and enterprises. 

Right now communities are generating solutions that are saving the world. Communities are ready for investment in their visions, plans and enterprises -- and investors are ready for impact. Community birth centers are coming together to ensure safe & healthy births for every family. Community leaders are revitalizing neighborhoods by shifting resources from jail and prison systems into youth programs, health clinics, and neighborhood businesses.Communities hit hard by the climate crisis are creating new sustainable options for clean energy, healthy food, and pure water. 

Our vision is families that own their homes, land and businesses; and an increase in community owned assets supports self-determination for generations to come.

Our work in Memphis, TN is a current example of the implementation of our theory of change. We are working with The Historic Clayborn Temple, the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s last campaign and a broader network within 11 historically Black neighborhoods to plan restorative development projects to build thriving communities. Specifically we are: 

• Helping communities refine land acquisition and real estate development strategies (Coaching & Capacity Building)

• Building capacity for cooperative economic development, training and small business incubation (Blueprint Collaborative)

• Creating new infrastructure for investment by high wealth donors and giving circles (Blueprint Collaborative and Community Capital Infrastructure)

A recent milestone is onboarding 20 clusters onto Blueprint. Getting to this milestone has allowed us to incorporate more feedback from community organizations as we develop new features. Each cluster represents 5 - 15 projects or enterprises. Today, there are enough projects represented on the platform to ramp up onboarding of more capital stewards. By the end of 2022, our plan is to onboard 50 additional community clusters and 30 capital stewards. 

In 5 years we hope to 100x the number of clusters, projects and capital providers on the platform. Our impact metrics include the health and well-being of a community -- we do not have numbers of the number of people our solution we directly impact -- the communities we partner with must name the indicators. 

We work with BIPOC-led community wealth building projects and initiatives. Communities must directly own and manage the resources and assets required to transform community priorities into community owned solutions.

Our approach is multi-layered and we do our work in deep partnership with others in the ecosystem. FSL’s primary role is direct capacity building and infrastructure support to Community Stewards and Collaboratives. We see community stewards everywhere we look. Community stewards are the Black midwives who imagine a birth center in every community; the indigenous women investing in the undercapitalized women-led initiatives on reservations and in cities; the Black organizers in Memphis who know that when the community owns the land and the buildings displacement is not possible; the systems-impact formerly incarcerated leaders who prove that divestment from prison systems and investment in worker and community owned enterprises transforms communities; and so many more.

Our engagement with each community steward and cluster of community wealth building projects varies by community and capacities, it combines technical assistance, human development and capacity building, infrastructure building and cross-learning facilitation. The heart of the work is about supporting community stewards to: 

• Break free, from old, extractive institutions and structures

• Dream, build, vision and be expansive about what is required to build community wealth and power

• Own, and prepare our communities to build institutions and structures to steward, govern, own what we build. 

We support Community Stewards and collaboratives best when we are able to lead with relationship building and trust; allowing Community Stewards to be real about current capacities and needs. We support Community Stewards best when we reflect back their expansive vision for their communities and the scale of the capital required to achieve it.  And, we support communities best when we are able to bring early catalytic investments to validate their vision and support them to operate from a stance of abundance and not scarcity.

We also know, and imbed in our approach, that communities solve bigger problems when they cooperate economically and that by delivering full spectrum capital (grants, loans, equity investments, loan guarantees), our communities will be healthier, more resilient and generate the economic and political power needed for systems change.

Full Spectrum Labs is working to change the relationship of low-wealth communities to ownership in order to address income inequality, secure ecological restoration and increase democracy and human rights for all. 

The COVID-19 crisis has instigated yet another economic boom and bust cycle. Despite the harm this pandemic will cause, it is possible to build new systems that can better weather the related health, economic and environmental shocks. Those solutions must include long-term strategies, innovative tactics, and new avenues to capital through community focused financial products.  

We seek to:

• Fortify local economies to be more resilient to cyclical change within the global economy

• Design and sustain models of ownership, production and community wealth in ways that protect the economic stability of families.

• Provide investment opportunities through financial products with structural protections for the most vulnerable populations.

Strengthening local and bioregional economies through community wealth building provides a foundation to resolve the interlocking cultural, political, economic, health, and ecological crisis our world faces. We move towards a more stable and resilient world by fortifying the self-sufficiency of the most vulnerable communities. Full spectrum investment now ensures that our great-grandchildren and our great-great grandchildren will thrive.

Felipe Ventura, our lead applicant, is a community organizer and software engineer whose career focuses on the transformative power of community networks. Felipe led the largest community of Latinx tech professionals in the country, scaling it from a Bay Area meetup to a national nonprofit chapter organization.  Felipe brings his experience both in the private and nonprofit sectors to the Blueprint Collaborative. He built the first growth experimentation platform on the largest US loan marketplace and developed workflow management systems that power family offices.

Taj James, Taj is a father, poet, strategist, designer, philanthropic and capital advisor. Taj thrives on connecting community stewards and capital stewards to bring financial value into alignment with sacred values in ways that build community wealth. 

Jermaine Henry: Founder of Norus Technologies, Jermaine and the team at Norus Technologies provide software development for startups and organizations looking to build and launch digital/software products. 

Ruben Hernandez: For over 15 years, Rubén has been a global entrepreneur and investor working with early stage companies.  Rubén was also the Chairman of the Board of the Greater San Jose Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, where he was responsible for global business development and led over 15 trade missions to Europe, Asia, South East Asia and Latin America.

Rachel Burrows: Rachel loves the intersection of vision and action and finds great energy and joy in supporting people to explore their right roles and relationships in the sacred work of building a new tomorrow.

We are excited to learn more about the Truist Foundation and MIT Solve program. The areas of support -- in addition to financial support -- that resonate most include:

• Access to a network of resource partners, mentors, and coaches across industries and sectors. 
• A monitoring and evaluation track to support finalist teams in building their impact measurement practice. 
• A peer-to-peer network to build a community of practice with dedicated spaces to convene throughout the duration of the support program. 
• Wraparound services including an invitation to a two-day Truist Leadership Institute Retreat in 2023.