The Grubstake Cohort is an annual, guided learning journey designed to equip you with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to start making real community investment decisions that align with your values.
Reclaiming Wealth, Rebuilding Communities
Wall Street’s version of investing prioritizes profits over people, often funding industries that harm the environment, exploit workers, and extract wealth from local economies. Community investing changes that. It’s about redirecting capital into local businesses, affordable housing, and other regenerative projects that strengthen our communities instead of extracting from them.
This movement has been growing—driven by people like you who want their money to reflect their values. More individuals, families, and organizations are shifting their resources away from Wall Street and into Main Street to support real people, real neighborhoods, and real change. But the process can feel overwhelming.
That’s where we come in.
What is the Grubstake Cohort?
At Revalue, we believe that financial empowerment should be transparent, accessible, and rooted in community. The Grubstake Cohort is an annual, guided learning journey designed to equip you with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to start making real investment decisions that align with your values.
Investing in your community isn’t just about moving money—it’s about understanding the process, evaluating opportunities, and making informed choices with the support of a trusted network. That’s why this cohort is built on a combination of expert guidance from Revalue and peer-to-peer learning, so you can navigate this path alongside others who share your commitment to values-aligned investing.
This year, we’re going deeper:
- Where are you on your investing journey, and what do you need to move forward?
- How can we tailor this experience to support your learning and decision-making?
- What actions will you take after this cohort to put your knowledge into practice?
With a cap of 40 participants, we’re creating an intimate space for collaborative learning, shared wisdom, and real transformation.
How It Works
- 6-week guided cohort with live discussions, expert guidance, and peer-to-peer learning.
- Curated resources & tools to help you develop your investment strategy.
- Small group discussions & investor circles for deeper learning and networking.
- Actionable next steps so you can move forward with confidence.
- Limited to 40 participants to keep the experience engaging and interactive.
Register
Why Community Investing Matters
- Keeps Wealth Local – Instead of sending your money into faceless institutions, community investing directly supports local businesses, housing, and sustainability efforts.
- Challenges the Status Quo – Traditional finance prioritizes profits over people. Community investing proves that finance can be regenerative, equitable, and just.
- Empowers Everyday People – You don’t need to be ultra-wealthy to be an investor. Anyone can redirect their resources, whether it’s through local lending circles, cooperatives, or mission-driven funds.
- Builds Resilient Communities – When money stays within a community, it fuels economic self-determination, job creation, and long-term stability.
- Community investing isn’t charity—it’s a strategic way to build wealth while strengthening the world around you.
What You’ll Learn & Experience
Community investing isn’t just a theory—it’s a practice. This cohort is designed to guide you through the actual steps of evaluating, selecting, and making your first values-aligned investment. Along the way, you’ll gain key insights that will support your journey:
- Community investing can feel overwhelming at first, but you don’t have to go it alone. With structured guidance and a supportive peer network, you’ll take it one step at a time.
- Your Investment Policy Statement (IPS) will be your roadmap. This living document helps you define your goals, assess opportunities, and make confident investment decisions.
- You don’t need to be "all in" from day one. Finding the right first investment is about balance—starting with what feels right for you and building from there.
- Your first investment is just the beginning. This is a long-term journey, but every step you take—whether it’s learning, networking, or making a move—is a meaningful one.
- You already have valuable insights to contribute. This isn’t just about learning from experts; it’s about learning from each other. The collective wisdom of this cohort will help everyone make smarter, more informed decisions.
We have structured follow-up actions, like investor circles, to keep you engaged and supported beyond the cohort.
Who is This For?
Community investing isn’t one-size-fits-all, and this cohort is designed to meet you where you are.
🔹 Exploring the idea? You’re just starting out and want to learn how to align your money with your values.
🔹 A community leader? You want to bring community investing education back to your network.
🔹 Ready to invest? You’re looking for guidance as you move your capital and make an immediate impact.
No matter where you're starting from, you belong here.
Join Us
The Grubstake Cohort isn’t just a course. It’s a movement toward aligning wealth with values, demystifying community investing, and reclaiming financial power for the common good.
Spots are limited to 40 participants. Choose your path, and let’s build the future—together. Registration closes on April 24, 2025.
Register Today.
Cohort Structure
This goal of this experience is to deepen your connection to the solidarity economy and to prepare to execute on a community investment. There are five gatherings, plus optional momentum moments after the cohort concludes to help keep you motivated toward action. Each gathering will be 2 hours with 1-2 hours of prep work. Time spent in gatherings is focused on building understanding and connecting with others, while time spent on prep work is focused on introducing new concepts and providing a foundation of knowledge to support your future actions.
- Gathering 1: Introduction - meet your peers, what to expect in this experience, uncover your why, and explore wants and needs
- Gathering 2: Understanding the process - learn about the three brains, meet your investor circle, discover Revalue's community investment tools
- Gathering 3: Making informed decisions - learn about determining diversification targets and how to create a due diligence process
- Gathering 4: Ask Me Anything (AMA) - see an example of completed investment analysis and ask any question under the sun! Then prepare for the Capstone experience together
- Gathering 5: Capstone - get real world experience performing due diligence on an investment offering and hearing from others about their methods, enjoy the issuer coming to present to the group, then a group discussion what decision participants would make if working with their own money
- Momentum moments: Take advantage of these opportunities to deepen your learning as a local pro and build connections with other communities.
- Fireside Chat - discuss the latest happenings in the solidarity economy movement
- Schedule accountability check-ins within the first 90 days of completing the cohort so you can keep yourself honest by setting a goal and asking us to hold you to it!
P.S. You Might Be Curious About...
...where the name Grubstake came from. It's an old word! The term "grubstake" is a linguistic nugget that was discovered during the California Gold Rush, which began in 1848. In mining, a grubstake is money, materials, tools, or food given to a prospector in exchange for a share of their future profits. In business, a grubstake is money given to someone who is starting a business in exchange for a share of the future profits. Very fitting for the work ahead of you!
You'll notice some "unusual" messaging in the Grubstake branding throughout this cohort experience. You'll see and hear us talk about how local (or community or solidarity or impact, whatever term you use) investing is not rude, weird, scary, art, confusing, a mistake, or a unicorn. While it may feel like any of these things in a conversation with people only familiar with (or ardently committed to) traditional extractive investing, we are here to tell you that it is not any of these things - investing in community is the oldest, most sensible form of investing there is!
So why do we say this? Because these are the fears and barriers that often come up when investors think about diversifying off Wall Street and onto Main Street. This is what other people might say when you tell them what you're thinking of doing. This is what the financial industrial complex wants you to believe, to keep you engaged in what they think is best for your portfolio and your community.
But sometimes it is one of these things... And that's what makes it a thing that takes time and energy to discern. Sometimes it really does feel confusing or scary or weird. So how do we strike the balance between perceptions that create unnecessary barriers and realities that create due caution? Through education, peer support, and professional navigation, which is why you're here!
