What is a Bioregional Financing Facility?

A bioregion is a territory defined by its ecology and culture rather than by political borders: its watersheds, soils, and living systems, and the human cultures that have adapted to them. The practice of bioregionalism or bioregioning starts from a simple premise: decisions about a place are best made by, and in the interest of, the people and living systems of that place. Its roots lie in Indigenous and place-based traditions that have long understood people as members of the web of life. For those of us whose cultures lost that relationship, it is a practice of unlearning and relearning, done in partnership and solidarity with Indigenous communities rather than as a claim to their knowledge.

For finance, this changes the unit of analysis from the single asset to the place. A bioregion's true wealth is the health of its ecosystems, the strength of its communities, and the vitality of its cultures, and all durable economic value ultimately rests on them. It also changes the timescale. Bioregional thinkers describe change through evolution rather than revolution, paced to how ecosystems recover and institutions mature rather than to quarterly cycles. Bioregionalism also invites us into taking a multi-species perspective – considering the well-being of the animals, rivers, forests, and all the more-than-human life in a bioregion alongside that of humans.

Much of the most important work in a bioregion happens at a small scale: a farmer cooperative, a seed library, a watershed restoration crew, a community land trust. Taken one at a time, these projects are usually too small, too new, or too unconventional for larger funders and investors to see. They also carry the heaviest relative burden of applications, due diligence, and reporting.

A BFF weaves them into a coordinated portfolio. Each project strengthens the others, and together they become large enough and clear enough to attract serious capital. The BFF carries the paperwork, matchmaking, and impact measurement, so small initiatives don't have to navigate government, philanthropy, and impact investment on their own. Grassroots work that would never get funded alone becomes part of something funders can back.

Small doesn't mean insignificant. A tiny initiative can be a keystone in a larger ecology of initiatives, providing a service that many others depend on. Work like this deserves long-term support, not one-off grants.

A BFF is not an attempt to pull all of a bioregion's finance into one institution. Its job is to strengthen the whole financial ecosystem: to find its particular purpose and niche, and to work synergistically and catalytically with what's already there.

What that means varies widely. Some bioregions already have a rich mix of community foundations, CDFIs, aligned local banks, credit unions, land trusts, and local investors. There, a BFF might fill a specific gap, take on early risk, or convene existing funders around a shared strategy. Other bioregions have deep gaps in financial infrastructure, especially non-extractive infrastructure. Some communities have long been overlooked, or locked out entirely, by banks, governments, and conventional lenders. There, a BFF may need to build much of what's missing itself.

A BFF also doesn't have to take on a bioregion's entire economic transition at once. Many start with one system, such as food, housing, energy, education, or healthcare, and go deep on transforming it, knowing each one is bound up with the others. Blue Ridge Foodshed Commons is building financial infrastructure around the bioregion's foodshed: the farms, processors, distributors, and land that feed it. A focused start like this can build the relationships, track record, and trust that let the work widen over time.

Every design also has to work through a real tension between centralization and decentralization:

Some places need a stronger intermediary. Others need disintermediation: fewer layers, lower costs, more direct flow. Most need some of each in different contexts and the balance can shift over time. That's why each BFF is custom-built for the needs of its place, and why they can end up looking quite different from one another – even in the same place! One might be a centralized institution with a traditional board and professional investment staff. Another might look more like a Flow Fund or a Pando Fund, spreading decisions across trusted local people, organizations, and networks so money moves quickly and directly.

Bioregional Financing Facilities: Reimagining Finance to Regenerate Our Planet (2024) offers four templates:

These are starting points to adapt, combine, or leave aside, not a blueprint. They can be built new or grown out of existing institutions.

What makes something a BFF is less its legal form than its character. The book describes 12 attributes. A BFF:

1. 01Aligns with living-systems principles and Indigenous wisdom
2. 02Serves a shared regional regeneration strategy
3. 03Governs inclusively and represents the bioregion
4. 04Works to shift power imbalances
5. 05Is transparent and enables real participation
6. 06Uses an integrated capital structure
7. 07Treats growth and returns as a means, not an end
8. 08Raises capital from purpose-aligned funders and investors
9. 09Aggregates projects and matches them with capital
10. 10Takes an integrated approach to measuring and verifying impact
11. 11Invests in storytelling
12. 12Builds partnerships, local stewardship, and a community of practice