Notes from Radical Imaginings: Moving Toward Regenerative Futures

What if changing the financial system didn’t start with spreadsheets… but with imagination?

That was the question humming through the Radical Imaginings: Moving Toward Regenerative Futures conference hosted by the Good Ancestor Movement in London this November. The room was full of financial activists, funders, lawyers, organizers, and advisors all wrestling with the same big challenge: how do we make wealth serve people and the planet instead of extracting from them?

For those of us in the Collective Action for Just Finance (CAJF) community, it felt like stepping into a familiar, but still refreshing, conversation, unfolding from another angle of the system.

Meet the Good Ancestors

If you don’t yet know about the Good Ancestor Movement (GAM), they’re doing brave work in the UK, organizing wealth holders and financial advisors to rethink business-as-usual: endless accumulation, tax avoidance, and private control of resources.

Founded by private wealth lawyer Stephanie Brobbey, GAM is disrupting the wealth advisory industry from the inside out. While CAJF uplifts community-rooted funds, GAM is working upstream to shift the mindsets and practices of those who control large pools of capital. 

A Circus and a Top Hat

The day opened with “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka, setting a playful, joyful tone. Then Kate Raworth, creator of Doughnut Economics, appeared in a top hat and invited us into a “circus” exploring the emotional drivers of our financial system.

An audience member stood center stage with a vacuum-hose briefcase, extractive finance made literal. Fear, Ego, and Hope were invited in (played by volunteers!) not to be rejected, but transformed into behaviors that would serve people and the planet. 

Throughout the day, conversations ranged from reparations and the risks of extreme wealth, to radical philanthropy, divestment from genocide, and ethical engagement with wealth holders.

Organizing the Field

A standout theme of the day was a focus not just on moving money, but on organizing the people who move it.

From lawyers and accountants to wealth managers and auditors, the conversation centered on building a new kind of financial professional, one equipped to center justice, not just returns. This isn’t about better decisions within the same system, but about building an entirely new field to support regenerative, community-led finance.

The launch of the Private Wealth System Map, from Coalition for Impact, made this especially tangible, identifying where real leverage for change exists within the private wealth system.

There was also refreshing honesty about the emotional side of this work: supporting wealth holders through fear, resistance, and uncertainty so capital can move faster and more courageously.

Why This Matters for CAJF

For the CAJF community, the Good Ancestor Movement feels like a natural ally. Where CAJF strengthens and connects radical funds and community-controlled finance, GAM is helping wealth holders and advisors move their capital toward exactly those kinds of vehicles.

I also shared our “We Say Restorative” one-pager at the conference, continuing CAJF’s work to shift not just financial flows, but the language of finance itself. These are the tools needed to ensure lawyers, accountants, auditors, and advisors are better equipped to center community needs when working with their clients.

Urgency, With Hope

The day closed with a powerful mix of urgency and possibility.

Transformative investment must happen now, not later, and we already have many of the tools and models we need.

For CAJF, it was a reminder that we’re not alone. Across the system, people are imagining, and building, financial futures that are regenerative, redistributive, and rooted in justice. 

And maybe most importantly, we can do it together.