Kingston Common Futures Completes Community-Driven Funding Process; Announces 11 Grantees

KINGSTON, NY — For the people, by the people: Kingston Common Futures is a community fund offering grants directly to the Kingston community, for the Kingston community, decided by the Kingston community—the first program of its kind in this Hudson Valley city.

Co-led by Kingston community members, the fund has allocated a total of $150,000 in grants, ranging from $5,000-$50,000 for projects within the city. The highly transparent grant funding process is a collaborative effort of community-led decision-making, with a goal of supporting a diverse group of projects serving community needs, while inspiring ways of managing shared resources. 

In addition to non-profits and fiscally sponsored projects, Kingston Common Futures is able to fund individuals, community groups, and businesses with projects that seek to serve the common good in Kingston. 

“This is a unique opportunity for funding to flow through the community in new ways. It is so rare for grant funding to be available for a business with a community project or for a group of neighbors with a community initiative. The 18 community members who designed Kingston Common Futures stressed over and over that this funding should be open to everyone-not just non-profits. The group kept asking, “How can we increase access to this funding? How can we reduce the barriers to apply?”  By expanding who is able to apply, we’re really inviting the whole community to have a seat at the table and plant some seeds for our future,” said Director of Process & Learning, Clay Moodey.  Co-Directors Amanda Cassiday and Clay Moodey were two of the 18 community members who designed Kingston Common Futures and it’s pilot fund cycle.

The pilot fund cycle launched in January 2025. By May 1st, 140 letters of intent had been submitted by a diverse range of community projects seeking funding. After being scored and reviewed by a trained volunteer team, nearly all applicants were invited to complete full applications, and were offered opportunities to connect with 23 volunteer mentors, who were experienced community members eager to support applicants in grant writing, project development, and budgeting. In late June, 107 full applications were submitted. They were then each reviewed by 34 volunteer readers. The 25 top scoring applications were moved to the finalist round.

The last step in the community-driven decision-making process involved what was called the Decision Circle, a diverse group of 8 community members who volunteered over 60 hours of their time in less than 2 months to make final funding decisions. Their role was to review all 25 finalist applications, interview or review videos for each finalist, and work together to make final decisions through a highly structured, democratic process facilitated by the Good Work Institute.

The rigorous final grant review took place over two full days. In addition to considering applications from the point of view of how projects aligned with the fund’s mission and the overall mix of projects, Decision Circle members were guided to bring their hearts and their life experience into the decision-making process.

“The potency of the experience was in the open hearts and vulnerability shared within the group during the finalist review and decision-making process. There, the group was not composed of disembodied heads making rational decisions, but rather whole selves coming to the table honestly; trusting that if they collectively can speak their truths–thoughts, feelings, and lived experiences–then together, they can make exceptionally difficult decisions. In a world where we are confronted with some of the greatest challenges of our times, it feels ever more important to practice moving through our discomfort towards collaboration, by flexing our muscles of compassionate inquiry and conversation. This is just as important as the funds we are distributing!” said Director of Strategy & Development, Amanda Cassiday.

“Working on the Kingston Common Futures Fund is the closest I have ever come to creating enlightened society. Aligned with the GWI principles of Just Transition, I believe the fund will go a long way to raise Kingston up as an inspiring example for communities everywhere.”  shared one Decision Circle Member

Another shared: “Yo aprendí a tomar decisiones con el corazón para compartir con la comunidad y a fortalecer relaciones, pero sobre todo, sentí la inclusión e igualdad de personas.” (I learned to make decisions with my heart to share with the community and to strengthen relationships, but above all, I felt the inclusion and equality of people.” 

Projects that received funding will be implemented over the course of one year and will be provided with support from the Kingston Common Futures team to help share their impact and stories with the community. Also, in line with a commitment to building ongoing resources of mutual support, the Kingston Common Futures team will continue nurturing solidarity networks and skill-building amongst applicants who did not receive funding this year. The larger goal remains to act as a catalyst for building collective resilience, community projects, and strong relationships across Kingson

“Beyond a funding cycle, our goal is to turn funding limitations into opportunities by deepening our relationships with all applicants and becoming a valuable resource as they bring their projects to life,” said Angélica Medaglia, Communications and Outreach manager.  

A New Process Builds New Muscles

As the heat begins to break and summer is showing signs of cooling, we find ourselves at a moment to pause, take stock, and celebrate all that we have accomplished together:

We had a total of 107 full application submissions, that is 80% of applicants who were invited to continue to the full application round!
We estimate that roughly 55 applicants were supported by nearly 25 Mentors.
34 Readers read across the LOI and Full Application phase.
In the full application phase, a total of 321 application reads were conducted, meaning every single one of our applications were read by 3 different readers!
25 Finalists were selected to continue on to our final round of selection.
8 Decision Circle members came together to make final decisions, using an approach rooted in deep democracy, listening and curiosity, and bringing their full selves into the deliberation.

The Decision Circle was a group of 8 community members who volunteered over 60 hours of their time in less than 2 months to review all 25 Finalist applications, interview large grant finalists, review small grant finalist videos, and make final funding decisions through a highly structured, democratic process facilitated by the Good Work Institute. The potency of the experience was in the open hearts and vulnerability shared within the group during the finalist review and decision making process. There, the group was not composed of disembodied heads making rational decisions, but rather whole selves coming to the table honestly; trusting that if they collectively can speak their truths–thoughts, feelings, and lived experiences–then together, they can make exceptionally difficult decisions.

In a world where we are confronted with some of the greatest challenges of our times, it feels evermore important to practice moving through our discomfort towards collaboration, by flexing our muscles of compassionate inquiry and conversation. This is just as important as the funds we are distributing!
A Journey To Celebrate, Together
In all, over 200 people have made a mark on Kingston Common Futures’ pilot fund: bringing to life and participating in a design for a fund that has never been done before. We did it!  We look forward to celebrating with all those who have played a part in our pilot fund on September 5th from 5-7:30 at 65 St. James St., where we will also announce our Finalists and Grantees!  We hope you’ll come.
And We’re Not Done!
Like you, we are experiencing this fund process for the very first time.  We are also reflecting and listening deeply right now, and welcome your input from the process as well as we seek to evolve the fund to better support community needs. Share your thoughts here.

As we evolve our work for future fund cycles, all of our applicants from THIS fund cycle stand at the forefront of our minds and hearts. The creative, physical, and mental labor required to complete our application process was no small feat, and we believe that, while our funding this year was limited, there remains more to be offered to these projects.  In the Fall, we invite all applicants together for a Commoning Exchange: an opportunity to share information, resources, and support amongst projects. Plans are still underway, so stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks!
Photo: A movement captured from our workshop with Theatre of the Oppressed in March, where we applied play and somatic-based movement toward vulnerable topics for the Kingston community. Taken by Maria Fernanda Hubeaut.

What is the Commons?

We use this word frequently at events and on our website, but what does it mean? The word itself originates from medieval Europe and referred to the management of land that was shared “in common” among communities. But the idea of the commons has existed all over the world and is as old as human history. At its core, the commons refers to the practice of people coming together to manage, share, and self-govern collective resources–food, water, land, tools, skills and knowledge. David Bollier, an author and activist for the commons, helps us break down the concept down into 3 essential parts: 

1) The resource: often a natural part of our earth–land, a garden, a wildlife species that offers sustenance; though it can also be another form of material good, a skill or knowledge, or even money. Whatever it is, this resource not only offers something of value, it is also finite and often requires tending to support its wellbeing and longevity.

2) The community: a group of people who not only benefit from this resource, but are also responsible for tending to it.

3) The social norms, values, and practices: this is the social system that organizes and guides community use and stewardship of the resource. What is the importance of this resource to the community? What shared values and purpose align community members to each other? What are the roles and responsibilities of community member? What does decision-making look like? All these questions and more must be clearly established and known within a community for live into the commons. While governing social systems are highly unique to the community and the resource, Elinor Ostrom, distills 8 design principles for the commons to be successful after documenting over 800 cases around the world. 

Credit: DebateGraph

Overall, the commons is highly relational, highly empowering, and highly local–taking ownership of the responsibility we have as community members to support each other and the resources we share in common, while building and stretching our muscles for deep democracy.

We hope to action more commoning here in Kingston, to move from privatized and capitalized systems to collective and regenerative ones. Like the name of our organization clearly states, we share a common future here in Kingston, and we aspire to bring community together to seed, grow, and steward that future: one where we share more access to local resources and decision-making power within our communities.