PROTOTYPE
The Capital Unlocked Field Guide serves as a living resource for New Power Labs’ Fund Canada initiative.
Built around how capital actually moves, it collects tested and emerging approaches, anchored in case studies, that investors, grantmakers, and institutions are using to unlock capital for underfunded and overlooked leaders and communities.
The guide launches with a short set of approaches and will continue to expand on an ongoing basis to showcase 40+ approaches to unlocking capital equitably, alongside almost 40 case studies illustrating how each approach is used.
Upcoming approaches include: Outcomes-Based Finance, Social Procurement, Catalytic Capital, First-loss Capital, Blended Finance, Patient Capital, and more.
What are we missing? We would love to hear from you.
Capital Unlocked Field Guide
Who it’s for
This guide is for asset owners and asset managers, especially Fund Canada pledgers, who are ready to move from commitment to implementation. Each approach offers a practical lever, grounded in case studies, to unlock capital for underfunded and overlooked leaders and communities. If you are still exploring how your organization could deploy capital differently, the case studies show how other funders and investors have started.
How it’s built
Each approach in the guide is reviewed by sector experts and anchored to case studies, so asset owners and asset managers can see exactly how an approach worked for underfunded leaders before adopting it. The Field Guide prototype is a work in progress, launching with a short set of approaches. More approaches will continue to be released in the coming months.
How to use the Field Guide
Approaches are organized by mode of capital deployment, purchasing, and governance:
Investing: Deploying capital through equity, debt, or blended investment structures.
Grantmaking: Providing non-repayable capital to organizations or initiatives pursuing a social or community outcome.
Procurement and Governance: Using purchasing power, procurement, or operational decisions to shift how capital flows.
Start by identifying which mode(s) fit your organization, then use tags or the search bar (top right of the interface) to narrow further. See the glossary for a full breakdown of each tag.
Explore the Field Guide
What’s next
This is our soft launch of the Field Guide, which we will continue to update with new approaches on a rolling basis. All approaches in the Field Guide are available in both English and French.
