And if money once again served the real economy?

Towards finance connected to concrete projects, with the AGILE tool from the Geneva Foundation for the Future.

Today, money often generates money on its own. But for how much longer? Faced with the systemic limits of an abstract finance, largely disconnected from human, social, and ecological realities, another path is emerging: that of money circulating where life is built — in territories, in concrete projects, in field experiments.

The Geneva Foundation for the Future offers a bold and pragmatic answer: to put finance back at the service of the real economy, with a focus on regeneration and resilience. How? By directly reconnecting financial flows to project leaders, without unnecessary intermediation, without opaque derivatives, and relying on simple, transparent, and adaptable criteria: those of the AGILE tool.

A clearly identified problem: money is not finding projects

Despite the abundance of available capital, many high-potential projects remain unfunded. The disconnection between finance and the field is partly explained by the over-complexification of financial instruments: derivatives, speculative engineering, intermediation chains... layers of abstraction that distance investors from the real dynamics of social and ecological transformation, as detailed in the AGILE White Paper of the Geneva Foundation for the Future.

Another finance is possible: direct, fluid, efficient

The proposal of the Geneva Foundation for the Future is clear:

• Re-enchant finance without derivatives
• Financing directly linked to the field
• Open the floodgates with direct, fluid, and effective links

In other words, making money no longer a speculative financial product, but a vital fluid, an economic oxygen. Its primary function, in fact. To make it flow, connect, accelerate. Just as blood irrigates organs, money should irrigate territories, social enterprises, local innovations, educational or environmental projects.

A finance directly connected to projects is aligned with its original role, pure, and powerful, because it can transform the world.

AGILE: a simple yet structuring tool

Developed from rigorous academic work and the result of 3 years of co-design with representatives from each profession in the world of finance (Family Offices, Banks, Investment Banks, Wealth Managers, Foundations...) brought together with EDHEC and the Geneva Forum, the AGILE tool is a deliberately very simple analysis grid shared among donors, investors, foundations, philanthropists, and project leaders. It revolves around five groups of key criteria: Alignment, Governance, Intention, Leadership, Efficiency.

It allows:

• to identify impact projects,
• to evaluate them in a simple and rigorous way,
• to track their progress,
• to coach project leaders towards scaling up,
• to accelerate financing with transparency,
• to assess the results achieved.

And this applies both to start-ups and to large industrial or infrastructure projects.

It is therefore an operational, interoperable, scalable tool, shared among the various players in impact finance, and above all, designed to be simple and fast to use on a daily basis.

An ambitious vision: rethinking the circulation of money

As expressed by the founding members of the Foundation (Steering Committee), “It is imperative to deeply transform the way money circulates and what it is mobilized for. This transformation can only succeed if we avoid a major pitfall: the capitalization and commodification of life.”

The challenge is not only technical: it is cultural, systemic, ethical. It is about restoring meaning to finance, by reconnecting it to its primary mission: supporting life, cooperation, positive transformation, the circular and regenerative economy.

In practice: how to act starting today?

• Are you an investor, foundation, family office, incubator, project leader?
• Do you want your money to truly serve a purpose?
• The AGILE tool, deployed by the Geneva Foundation for the Future, is operational, simple to use, and adaptable to your needs.

It allows:

• to improve the return on your investments through economically viable projects,
• to reduce risks through shared evaluation,
• to take concrete action for the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals),
• to build an abundant and ethical economic future.

Discover the AGILE tool and its White Paper.

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