Learn: practical answers for land projects and communities
Plain answers to the questions people ask before starting a community, funding a land project, or choosing how a group makes decisions. Written from what we run: a 13-week incubator for regenerative land projects, a fund that invests in them, and a game that tracks contribution across nine forms of capital.
- I have land and want to start a community. Where do I begin?: Begin with three answers in writing: who holds the title, how a person joins and leaves, and how decisions get made. Communities that skip these run fine for two years, then break on the first hard disagreement. Settle them first, then start small with people who already show up for the work.
- Intentional community structures and funding options: Intentional communities usually hold land through an LLC, a housing cooperative, a community land trust, or a nonprofit. The structure you pick decides your funding options, because it sets who can buy in, who can borrow, and who qualifies for grants. Choose the structure from how you intend to be funded, then file it.
- How to start an ecovillage: An ecovillage is an intentional community that designs its ecology, economy, culture, and governance as one system. Start by forming a founding group of three to seven people who have already worked together, settle title and decision rights in writing, then build water and access before housing. Economy comes last and matters most.
- Community governance models, compared: Community governance models differ on one question: what makes a decision final. Consensus needs everyone to agree. Consent needs nobody to have a reasoned objection. Majority vote needs half plus one. Token voting weighs by holdings. Pick by how your group behaves under disagreement, not by which model sounds fairest.
- Crowd pooling: community investment in land, beyond cash: Crowd pooling is crowdfunding for everything money is not: hours, tools, materials, equipment loans, skills, and knowledge. A land project lists exact needs with counts and deadlines, people claim the pieces they can bring, and nothing counts until it is delivered. ReGen Civics tracks that capital and routes cash to partners.
- The nine forms of capital, and why we added a ninth: ReGen Civics measures nine forms of capital: the eight from Ethan Roland and Gregory Landua's regenerative economics framework, plus health capital. Health covers a person's physical and emotional vitality, the wealth a bodyworker, herbalist, or movement teacher holds and gives away. The original eight have no place for it. Land projects run on it.
Start with the incubator, the fund, or the community forum.