Good Economy

Brownie Points

Good Economy

A new parallel economic model that reveals and funds hidden social value—transforming philanthropy into participatory economics.

Cape Town, South Africa

ZAF

For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models

The global economy fails to value the work that sustains society—care, restoration, social cohesion, and grassroots innovation. This blind spot affects every pillar of society: - Government struggles to meet constitutional mandates and SDG targets, with strained public finances and widespread service delivery crises. South Africa’s Auditor General flagged R7.9 billion in unauthorized, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful (UIFW) expenditure, exposing systemic mismanagement and lack of accountability. - Private sector faces rising social risk; in Southern Africa, 67% of CEOs cite inequality as a threat, yet current investment tools ignore social return. - Civil society is overwhelmed—South Africa’s 290,000 nonprofits serve millions but 73% receive less than 3 years of funding, and most are excluded from sustainable markets. - Academia lacks real-time data and feedback loops to evaluate what works across contexts—reducing their impact on policy and innovation. - Communities bear the brunt, with 59.6% youth unemployment and over 28 million dependent on social grants—despite doing essential but uncounted work. Globally, this failure affects billions who contribute meaningfully but are locked out of economic systems. We address this by building a parallel economy that tracks, values, and funds verified impact—turning social work into measurable, tradable value.

The Good Economy is a digital infrastructure that tracks, values, and funds social impact—turning verified work into currency, trust, and investment. We begin by helping nonprofits and community-based organizations log their verified impact outputs—such as meals delivered, trees planted, or youth mentored—using geotagged photos, attendance data, and stories. These feed into a live Theory of Change and impact dashboards. Next, our AI-backed Value Engine converts these outputs into multidimensional value using local baselines, outcome modeling, and feedback loops. Impact is scored across social, economic, and environmental dimensions. All data is cleaned and verified using a Trust Pyramid of layered validation (evidence, narratives, peer review, community input). Each stakeholder receives access to interactive, real-time dashboards that reflect live results. A complementary data portal provides ecosystem-wide insights, trends, and anonymized benchmarking to inform strategy and investment. Participants then earn two currencies: an Impact Score (a cumulative reputation metric) and BPX (a spendable, demurrage-based currency backed by verified impact). The final layer activates distributed governance and exchange: funders buy “impact shares” or contribute to a Commons Fund, unlocking value-aligned portfolios and public trust ratings. We’ve piloted this with 35 nonprofits and government partners in South Africa. Demo available on request.

The Good Economy primarily serves underserved communities, nonprofits, and informal workers—those doing essential work yet excluded from recognition, funding, and economic participation. In South Africa, over 290,000 nonprofits provide care, education, food, and safety to millions. Yet 73% receive short-term funding, and many are trapped in a cycle of dependency. Meanwhile, over 28 million South Africans rely on social grants, with more than 40% living below the lower-bound poverty line—despite an abundance of meaningful work to be done across civil society. Our model unlocks this mismatch by connecting underused resources (like unemployed people) with unmet needs in communities, through a bottom-up, asset-based community development (ABCD) approach. It values what already exists: time, labor, trust, wisdom, and purpose. Nonprofits and participants log their verified contributions and earn BPX (a spendable social currency) and build Impact Scores (a cumulative reputation metric). This creates new income pathways, long-term sustainability, and dignity. While communities and civil society are at the center, the solution also benefits government (by improving service delivery and accountability) and business (by reducing social risk and unlocking shared value). The result is a regenerative ecosystem where all sectors are incentivized to co-create prosperity.