Technological advances and a more connected world have brought tremendous improvements to our lives, but they've also introduced new risks and widened existing divides. For the first time, five transformative platforms—energy storage, gene editing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and robotics—are evolving simultaneously. Yet, despite this progress, only 15% of the Sustainable Development Goals are on track. At Brink we are captivated and infuriated by this paradox.
The world isn't slowing down, and the divide between those who have and have-not is set to widen unless we build an alternative today. If you’re reading this you’ve probably been around long enough to remember the early dot com days, when new technologies promised to reshape our world, from smartphones to the rise of social media and cloud computing.
Today, as platform monopolies dominate our digital lives, it's hard not to wonder, what if, instead of rushing to "move fast and break things," we had taken the time to move mindfully and build better systems? Could we have charted a more thoughtful path, one that prioritised equity and sustainability over speed and disruption?
Now is the time to start charting a more mindful path ahead. We believe that a two degree shift in our efforts today, could change our future trajectory. But even the most well-intended efforts won’t work if the relational and psychological aspects of our work aren’t accounted for alongside the capital.
Eighteen months ago, we set up a foundation to do things differently - and work is well underway.
Brink launched uBoraBora with seed funding from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in April to support education to learn and adapt their way to scale. We planned to disburse six grants, each valued at $75,000 and were overwhelmed with 365 applications, not only from small, grassroots organisations, but also from established players with multi-million-dollar budgets. Why would organisations with tens of millions be drawn to such a small amount of investment? Because their existing funding arrangements guard against agency, change and innovation.
Strict monitoring and reporting constraints typically force these organisations to follow a rigid plan instead of having the permission to adapt based on insight. This compliance-first approach stifles honesty and creativity.
Intermediaries like Brink - reliant on funders for survival - often need to sidestep tough conversations about what’s truly needed to hit arbitrary milestones. The outcome? A culture of "everything is fine", where the real issues are buried under bureaucracy and pressure, and progress is hindered.
This is nothing new. Anyone who has worked with or been part of grantmaking has experienced funders competing over ‘darlings’, gloss applied to inconvenient truths and incentives that counteract the stated goals of the work. These are significant issues and none of them are about capital flow or ‘who gets the money’. Yet most efforts to reimagine grantmaking focus (way too narrowly) on the flow of capital alone.
If we don’t begin to focus on relationships then we will keep missing the mark and misusing our money. Brink Foundation was set up to capitalise on this insight and be a different kind of intermediary. We are on a mission to build a game-changing template for ‘more impact, faster’ with our funders and grantees.
To find out more about why this matters, and the beliefs behind our approach, read this letter from our founders.
