How we work
At Access Ventures, we believe our impact will reach only as far as the stories we tell.
We view storytelling as a critical amplifier of our work and the work of our partners, without which we cannot realize our mission.
Explore some of these stories below, and let us know what you think.
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We view storytelling as a powerful way to spark change, exchange ideas, and build empathy. We are currently producing two podcasts that serve as a critical amplifier of our work and the work of our partners.
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We continually share learnings and best practices that advance our collective mission of human flourishing.
Meet the 2026 AV Fellowship Cohort
Six new fellows have joined the AV Fellowship for 2026. They kicked off together in San Diego this week and are now starting a 10-month journey that runs through May 2027. The fellowship supports bold leaders working to foster human flourishing. Each fellow gets a $20,000 unrestricted stipend, mentorship, and three in-person gatherings to build community and move their projects forward.
Here is the 2026 cohort, and what each of them is building.
Goodness, Beauty, and Truth
We're proud to welcome Dr. Amy Orr-Ewing, one of the most respected apologists in the English-speaking world as a Senior Fellow at Access Ventures. In her essay, she argues that the renaissance of belief now stirring in boardrooms, parliaments, and centers of tech innovation is inseparable from the work of human flourishing we care about.
The Culture Is Upstream from Politics
Two hundred and twenty-five years ago, a small community in south London decided the brokenness of their city was theirs to carry. AV Senior Fellow Dr. Steve Garber spent a night and a day where they lived, and it sent him back to a question we keep returning to: what does it take to build a society where people actually flourish, and who is responsible for the parts that are breaking? A reflection on story, vocation, and the culture that runs upstream from politics.
From Potential to Participation: The Peregrine Programme (2027 Applications Now Open)
We are proud to share the 2026 Peregrine Ventures cohort, a group of leaders gathered in Oxford for an immersive experience focused on ethical leadership in a complex world.
The Peregrine Programme brings together individuals across sectors who recognize that today’s challenges require more than technical expertise. They require deeper clarity around purpose, responsibility, and the values that shape decision making.
Introducing Our Inaugural Senior Fellows, Part II
At Access Ventures, we believe transformative change is always shaped by people, by their wisdom, their questions, and their willingness to steward influence for the common good.
We are grateful to continue introducing the inaugural members of the Access Ventures Senior Fellows community, leaders whose work reflects deep wisdom, moral imagination, and a commitment to cultivating human flourishing.
Consciously Constructing Dynamic Portfolios for Human Flourishing
Traditional portfolio construction focuses solely on maximizing financial return with minimal risk, often neglecting the impact of investments on values and ethics. Conscious construction challenges this by aligning investments with personal or corporate values without sacrificing returns, emphasizing the importance of evaluating all investments for their broader impact, and seeking out strategies that provide both financial and positive societal returns.
Announcing the Winners of the 2026 Reconstruct Challenge: Thriving Youth
Six organizations have been selected through the 2026 Reconstruct Thriving Youth Challenge, a 1 million dollar venture philanthropy initiative designed to strengthen systems for youth aging out of foster care in Tennessee.
Rethinking What a Blockchain Base Layer Needs to Power the Future of Finance
Every robust economy rests on a kind of invisible architecture a financial system that doesn’t just sit in the background but makes economic life possible. It moves money, manages risk, and connects opportunity with capital. We interact with it every day through things like mortgages, payrolls, and peer-to-peer payments, rarely pausing to consider the elegant network of trust, stability, and efficiency beneath the surface.
The AV Fellowship Midpoint: Re-Anchoring Leadership for the Long Game
At the midpoint of the Access Ventures Fellowship, six Fellows gathered in Miami for a three day convening, designed to pause the pace of building and re-anchor the leaders doing it. The gathering marked a shift in the Fellowship’s rhythm from early formation and project framing, toward deeper clarity, resilience, and long term leadership orientation.
Introducing Our Inaugural Senior Fellows
At Access Ventures, we believe transformative change is always shaped by people, by their wisdom, their questions, and their willingness to steward influence for the common good.
Today, we’re honored to announce the launch of the Access Ventures Senior Fellows Program, a new invitation-only fellowship designed to engage distinguished leaders whose lives and work reflect deep alignment with our mission to cultivate human flourishing.
When Resources Work Against Mission: Why the One-Pocket Mindset Matters
At Access Ventures, we believe every dollar should matter. That’s why we embrace a one-pocket mindset—an integrated approach where all assets are directed toward building inclusive economies that enable human flourishing .
Reimagining Risk For The 21st Century
For as long as people have organized economies, we have tried to understand and manage risk. From Babylonian merchants insuring caravans against theft to 18th-century ship captains pooling resources against storm losses, risk has always been about uncertainty. Over time, it evolved into formal systems: collateral, credit scores, and portfolio theory.
But in the 21st century, we face a deeper question: what if our definition of risk itself is too narrow?
Conscious Portfolio Construction: Aligning Capital With Mission
Research consistently shows that companies that treat people with dignity and build cultures of trust outperform. One Harvard study found that culture-first companies generated nearly 3x higher stock returns over a decade compared to peers. Costco, for example, has returned more than 12,000% over the last 25 years, compared to Walmart’s ~2,000%. Jim Sinegal, Costco’s founder, was famous for saying: “Paying employees well is not charity—it’s good business.”
For us, the evidence is clear: values alignment is not a drag on returns—it’s a driver of them.
Impact and Profit: A False Choice
For too long, we’ve been told that you can either invest for financial return or for social good – but not both. This false choice has shaped markets, philanthropy, and even our imagination about what’s possible.
At Access Ventures, we reject that premise. We believe that capital is one of the most powerful tools for human flourishing, and when aligned with values, it can deliver both impact and profit.
Beyond Transactions: Rethinking Funder–Nonprofit Partnerships Through Human Ecology
Drawing inspiration from Thriving Cities and Josh Yates’ human ecology framework, we can begin to see cities as more than economic engines or policy arenas. Cities are both beautiful and broken, made up of cultural, structural, and relational “endowments” that form the soil where civic life grows. Funders, then, are not just financiers - they are gardeners, co-stewards of these ecosystems.
The Digital Asset Investment Playbook: A Portfolio Management Approach for 2025
Historically, digital assets were often viewed as speculative, high-risk, high-reward plays. Access Ventures’ approach has now evolved to adopt a portfolio management framework, demonstrating how an investor could construct a portfolio entirely out of digital assets—leveraging blockchain-native instruments for diversification, yield generation, and risk management.
A Flourishing Economy is Resilient
Resilience is the capacity to absorb shock without losing identity. It is the ability to adapt without collapsing. It is strength that does not depend on perfect conditions.
At Access Ventures, we believe a flourishing economy must be resilient — not only financially, but socially and structurally. Flourishing requires durability.
Meet the 2025 Access Ventures Fellows
The Access Ventures Fellowship is much more than a leadership development program; it’s a springboard for young innovators ready to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
A Flourishing Economy is Dynamic
At Access Ventures, we believe a flourishing economy is one that enables people and communities to continually build, adapt, and renew. Flourishing requires movement — the healthy circulation of opportunity, ownership, and imagination across a region.
A flourishing economy is dynamic because people are dynamic.
Announcing the Phase II Winners of the 2025 Reconstruct Challenge
We’re thrilled to announce the five Phase II winners of the 2025 Reconstruct Challenge, who are working to build solutions in Food Justice, Maternal and Child Health, and Healthcare Access.