How the Fundación Territorial Paisano is thinking outside the traditional development financing box

The mission of the Fundación Territorial Paisano in Bogotá is simple: “We work together to build the city of our dreams.” Though still relatively young – having emerged out of the COVID-19 pandemic and formally registering in 2022 – the Paisano team quickly realized the limitations of the traditional development financing system. Rather than supporting its work of collective dreaming and fostering sustainable and autonomous development, the old system, conversely, leads to competition between actors, encourages short-term thinking that doesn’t incorporate a wider systems view, and reinforces harmful power dynamics. Seeing no need to try and fit into this outdated “financing box”, Paisano decided to develop its own model: one that dismantles the traditional logics of philanthropy and development, and allows for the real transfer of power and resources to communities in Bogotá. What follows is Paisano’s own description of how it is doing this.  

We are mycelium[1] in our territory.

Paisano is an organism: the fabric of life, collaboration and transformation that nourishes, communicates, regenerates and cares for the life of the Bogotá ecosystem.

Our mycelium extends beneath the living, fragmented soil of Bogotá. A diverse, paradoxical and deeply creative city, where community life persists despite distance and structural difficulties. We do not conceive of Bogotá as a sum of localities, but as an interconnected urban ecosystem, where each neighbourhood, each network and each human group has something to contribute to the collective well-being. From the vegetable gardens in Ciudad Bolívar to the public libraries in Fontibón, Bogotá is full of roots that sustain the common good. Our task is to recognize them, strengthen them and weave them together.

Like underground mycelium, Paisano builds a silent but powerful network, where the most important thing is what is woven together. We do not seek to centralize or take centre stage. We seek to connect, care for and sustain the bonds that make collective transformation possible. Our network is made up of neighbours, organizations and social collectives, entrepreneurs and conscious businesses. All connected by a common desire: to live in a more abundant and equitable city.

That is why our central purpose is to connect the territory and its people in a living ecosystem of abundance, authenticity and shared purpose.

We are a community woven together by trust, respect and the conviction that the territory flourishes when those who inhabit it recognize themselves as an active part of its transformation. The community is made up of neighbours (individuals who love, inhabit and dream about their neighbourhood or locality), civil society initiatives (foundations, associations and collectives that work for the collective good) and enterprises and companies (that believe in the potential of the territory).

At Paisano, we developed the theory of “Thinking Outside the Box.” Based on our living mapping of our community, we found that the current development financing system has a series of characteristics that make it a “box” that limits the systemic view of the territory and, therefore, the scope of lasting, sustainable, autonomous and regenerative development. On the contrary, it is a system that increases the gaps in development in communities.

The current “development financing box” operates under the following characteristics:

1. Fragmented financing: Social financing tends to focus on a single population or issue, without a systemic view or a comprehensive understanding of the territory.
2. Funding for projects without real participation: Although it is argued that funding is directed towards projects for and with communities, strategic decisions – especially economic ones – are made solely in the interests of the funder. The community is excluded from the process that directly affects it.
3. Funding that promotes competition rather than cooperation: Funding is always managed through competitions, calls for proposals and tenders that generate competition, weakening ties within the social sector and promoting fragmentation.
4. Equal funding for unequal realities: Standardized budgets ignore the fact that social organizations vary in size, capacity and scope. This approach pushes them all towards a culture of artificial maximization in order to qualify.
5. Funding is mainly directed towards visible impact: Budgets are allocated exclusively to visible results in the populations served, ignoring the organizational needs that arise from the implementation of projects. Organizations often have learning curves that must be funded. Impact cannot be sustained without the development of organizational capacities.
6. Funding that promotes vulnerability as a brand: Traditional logic dictates that resources must be directed towards “vulnerable populations”, a narrative that reinforces stigma, inhibits empowerment and perpetuates inequality. It divides people into “saviours” and “saved”, replicating a colonial and welfare-based view of development.
7. Short-term funding: Funding is increasingly directed towards short-term projects with high expectations. Demands are made in terms of impact, scope and results that exceed the capacity of the project itself. In addition, they generate expectations in the communities that fade away when the project ends. Progress is lost, left in limbo or, worse still, communities are required to sustain the work without resources or support. At Paisano, we call these projects “chronicles of a death foretold.”
8. Top-down funding: The relationship between the funder and the implementing organization is a one-way relationship. The funder determines thematic limits, budget ceilings, limits on actions as well as impact and results frameworks. In this relationship, the organization receiving the funding is a mere executor of the funder’s interests, ignoring its potential, experience and capabilities in the territory.
9. Funding from philanthropic ego: In the traditional model, one or two funders concentrate power over economic resources and demand disproportionate visibility as “saviours.” Their image is imposed on the project and those who execute it, ignoring years of local experience and work – without which their project would not be possible. In addition, those who are “saved” are deprived of their own human resources.

Faced with this reality of development financing, at Paisano we have developed a disruptive model of innovative solutions to break out of this “box”:

1. We overcome the fragmented vision: we build cities from a systemic perspective. Funding through our “Fondos Bacanos”[2] promotes an ecosystem perspective amongst diverse civil society initiatives. Through their own actions, each initiative contributes to a collective landscape: what is done in each neighbourhood or locality is part of a larger structure where everything is connected. Solutions are not isolated; they must be correlated.
2. We overcome the lack of real participation: we decide together, with autonomy and shared responsibility. Instead of imposing closed financing, with the Fondos Bacanos, civil society initiatives, companies and neighbours – who know the territory – make strategic decisions about the allocation of economic resources. They are the ones who define how resources in the funds will be used, exercising real, autonomous and co-responsible participation. Here there is less protocol, more trust and distribution of power.
3. We transform competition into cooperation: there are no calls for proposals, there is trust and dialogue. Instead of generating competition between initiatives for economic resources, we open spaces for meeting and honest dialogue between civil society initiatives. There, they get to know each other, connect, exchange ideas and knowledge, and more – this is so that they can support each other, and so that resources can be shared and used most efficiently. What once divided us now unites us. Trust replaces competition, and the result is a vibrant network of collaboration.
4. We break with the logic of “one size fits all”: each person decides what they need and deserve. With the Fondos Bacanos, we do not impose equal amounts for unequal realities. Civil society actors, together with neighbours and businesses, decide autonomously how much they need and for what. Instead of adapting their projects to the money available, the funds adapt to the needs of the territory. Resources are allocated according to real needs, not external rules. Equity replaces rigidity.
5. We don’t just finance results, we support processes: we contribute to dignifying social work. We understand that impact is not possible without a solid organizational base. That is why funding from the Fondos Bacanos supports direct actions with communities, but also supports those things that make impact possible. This includes human resources, physical spaces, equipment and organizational capacities. We support processes, not just results, because we believe in the dignity of social work.
6. We reclaim vulnerability as a force for connection: no more “saviours” or “saved.” Vulnerability has been a label that has generated a strong culture of minimizing people. We do not recognize vulnerability as a flaw, but rather as a fundamental and universal part of the human condition: we are all vulnerable, and it is from that starting point that we can find each other, love each other and build horizontal relationships. Therefore, we are moving away from a culture that reduces people to their shortcomings and forces them to expose themselves from a position of misery in order to be helped. We are working towards a community where support is not earned by showing oneself to be broken, but rather by showing one’s assets, resources and opportunities. Because we build territory from potential, not from what is lacking.
7. We overcome short-termism with a vision for the future: we invest today for tomorrow’s landscape. We believe in processes that mature over time. Every peso invested today is sowing the seeds for the territory we dream of seeing flourish in 20 years. That is why we overcome the logic of projects that last months or years, generating expectations and then disappearing without the necessary care and respect for communities and their dreams. This also implies encouraging a mind-set shift with civil society initiatives, because the system has established a culture of immediacy that makes it difficult to think long-term. Our approach is different: to transform the future from the present, with patience, depth and shared purpose.
8. We redistribute economic power: from philanthropic ego to collective contribution. Through the Fondos Bacanos, funding comes from many hands: neighbours, companies, as well as local, national and international social organizations. By contributing, they are not buying power or recognition. They give up their ego and convert their resources into collective assets, managed autonomously by local initiatives.
9. The financing relationship is circular and complex: The Fondos Bacanos do not set thematic or budgetary caps, limits on actions, or frameworks for impact and results. Rather, the funded initiative and the funder build a negotiating relationship in which each party’s contributions are equally recognized. The top-down relationship is blurred, and the interests of the territory take precedence over those of individuals.

Just as mycelium nourish the ecosystem, at Paisano we believe that resources should flow, not be concentrated. Through the Fondos Bacanos, we mobilize money for community purposes.

[1] An underground network of fungi that connects trees and plants, facilitating the exchange of nutrients, communication and resilience in ecosystems.

[2] A collective funding vehicle that pools resources. Through different funds, individuals or organizations can contribute (from as little as COP 10,000, equivalent to about USD $3) towards different types of social, environmental and community initiatives. The funds offer a bottom-up way to channel small contributions into collective investments in community well-being.