Better Ancestors: Investing Beyond Our Lifetimes

by moyin. amoo | Aug 6, 2026 | Blog

Image: Made by ColorChic 

Every day, we are shaping a future we may never see.

Through the decisions we make, the relationships we nurture, and the systems we help shape, we are leaving something behind for those who come after us. Whether we realize it or not, we are all becoming someone’s ancestor.

Being a Better Ancestor is not about perfection. It is about responsibility. It asks us to think beyond ourselves and consider how our actions today might shape the world tomorrow.

Will future generations inherit communities where people belong? Institutions people trust? Systems that help people thrive? Or will they inherit the consequences of what we chose not to change?

Throughout this issue, we explore what it means to invest beyond our lifetimes through philanthropy, community leadership, creativity, systems change, and collective well-being.

Because the future is not something waiting for us ahead. It is something we are creating together.

What is The Asks of All of Us

Photo by Blueprint

This is what becoming a Better Ancestor asks of philanthropy and all of us: to think beyond the immediate and tend to the conditions that allow future generations to thrive. It is funding that trusts community wisdom. Leadership that listens before it directs. Relationships rooted in mutual accountability, shared learning, and a belief that lasting change grows through connection, not transaction.

Not certainty. Not control. Not the promise that every investment will unfold exactly as imagined. Just the courage to plant seeds whose full harvest we may never see. The willingness to invest in people, relationships, and possibilities that can carry communities forward long after we are gone.

It means measuring success not only by what we accomplish today, but by what becomes possible tomorrow. Not simply by what we build, but by what endures. Not only by who benefits now, but by who will inherit the world we are helping to shape.

The answer is still being written. We write it through every decision we make, every resource we steward, every relationship we nurture, and every act of care that expands what is possible for future generations.

That is the practice of being a Better Ancestor, and it begins with what we choose to build today.

Read the full newsletter here.

Building a Thriving Future, Together: Modern Intermediaries as Partners in Community Transformation

by moyin. amoo | Jul 31, 2026 | Blog

Published by The Rippel Foundation

As communities face increasing social, economic, and environmental challenges, now is the time to refocus on practices that can build and sustain a thriving future for all. While many organizations have a role to play, intermediaries are uniquely positioned to weave together institutions, communities, and funders in ways that enable lasting place-based transformation. Intermediaries operate at the field level, sitting between grassroots communities and the broader organizational systems—governmental, philanthropic, corporate, and civic—that structure daily life. They add value by catalyzing change through resources, technical assistance, and facilitating learning across communities, even when their roles appear to be in the background.

In this new report, Rippel and fellow members of the Intermediary Learning Network (ILN) explore how intermediary organizations strengthen the conditions for communities to thrive. The report synthesizes a decade of field-level learning, illustrating how strategic investment in intermediaries can lay the foundation for lasting change by

• Amplifying existing community leadership
• Strengthening local partnerships
• Prioritizing belonging and civic muscle

The report showcases several high-capacity, national and regional intermediaries that are using their roles to advance thriving, place-based community investment as a means to uplift our collective future. Taken together, the insights in this report move us from a set of isolated stories and field practice toward a more coherent field narrative—with shared learnings, collective wisdom, and a vision for a future we are building together.

Read the report here.

Well-being and Equity in the World was a contributing funder to the writing of the report.