Building Better Bridges

The Geneva Rethinking Finance Collaborative (GRFC) is challenging the “profit before people and planet” paradigm and the limitations of the “charity” mindset. We’re organizing a series of events leading up to Building Bridges Week 2024, culminating in a public seminar hosted by the Centre for Finance and Development at the Graduate Institute on December 4th: Building Better Bridges to Finance Sustainable Futures.

The Problem


Though there have been numerous events on innovative/sustainable financing and impact investing (major conferences, seminars and workshops), the volume has not been reflected in sufficient or timely responses from any of the individuals or organisations that hold the keys to a successful transition from the old ways of thinking and working to a more sustainable, and by definition, more inclusive approach.

Efforts to build bridges falter because of the asymmetries of power in partnering, the obsolete world views, and the multilateral, legal and regulatory systems that support them. The result is a continuing impasse in “communications” with a flurry of grand statements failing to achieve progress to overcome inequalities and misalignments or achieve anything approaching levels of financing to overcome the many disadvantages faced by entrepreneurs proposing and proving the effectiveness of different kinds of solutions.

Our response


Our starting premise is that, without immediate mobilisation of substantial financing in and for more than half of the world’s population, access to known solutions in and for the richest 10% will not achieve any of the Sustainable Development or Climate Goals or reduce the imminent and present danger of the collapse of economic and environmental systems that support all life on the planet.

During these events, we will consolidate proven or emergent models for financing and implementation at scale, sharing a collectively-branded syntheses of critical success factors and solutions and a call for action on the following topics:

  • re-thinking finance – identifying the critical success factors for a more equitable and more sustainable economy
  • re-calibrating risk and success indicators for sustainable and more equitable capitalism – a coherent and comprehensive cross-sectoral approach
  • consolidation of known and aligned organisational and business models to break down sector and disciplinary silos and the related and scalable financing modalities using case studies
  • scaling of known or promising methodologies to deliver on the unfulfilled promise of digitisation underpinning conventional and crypto currencies, reducing transaction costs for the clustering or aggregation of many small activities, and increasing confidence via re-aligned and re-configured accountability reporting.
  • overcoming communication and competency challenges on both sides of the bridge – a brokered dialogue between impact investing NGOs and international agencies and aligned funders and investors.

To learn more about these events, visit: