Challenging Barriers to Fundraising Culture:

Ownership Wayfinding Workshop Method

Abstract

This paper addresses the following questions: How can social entrepreneurs from communities historically excluded from capital better understand how to access capital? Given that the predominant discourse in fundraising culture is centered on the needs of funders and not of founders, how can social entrepreneurs design pathways that fit the scale and reach of their vision? Ownership Wayfinding is a novel workshop method whereby social entrepreneurs explore different organizational types and capital sources. This includes a series of workshops that address: (1) a future visioning exercise; (2) a discussion of ownership intentions; (3) the exploration of organizational types and capital expectations; (4) a reflection on different wealth-creation and risk tolerance motivations; and (5) the design of organizational options and scenarios. The method has been used successfully by graduate and undergraduate social entrepreneurship students who gain greater agency in the fundraising process by understanding organizational structure and capital alternatives.