What Matters is a global initiative dedicated to building capacity for a regenerative economy—a life-enforcing system that serves humanity and our precious planet while fostering thriving businesses. We focus on community economic development within the informal economy, recognizing it as the greatest opportunity to spark lasting, meaningful change. Collaborating with local communities—often in challenging environments—we bring together impact creators across technologies, capital, and the humanities, united by a shared vision of a more just and equitable future, both locally and globally.

We don’t claim to have all the answers about what reclaiming humanity in the economy truly means—far from it. But this question serves as our North Star. We embrace the courage to hold space for bold questions, confront shared challenges, and navigate the unknown with purpose.

Transformation is neither linear nor simple. It’s iterative, complex, always messy, and, above all, deeply human. That’s why we evolve together, co-creating local economies to build a just and equitable future for communities—and, by extension, for HUMANITY as a whole.

By turning What If into We Do, we weave the necessary socio-technomic fabric essential for profound change and social innovation. Ultimately, it is us—HUMANS—who are the source, creators, and architects of any kind of economy; the better or the worse. And now is the time to build a better economy for humanity.

We are here to reclaim humanity’s role and power in shaping such a paradigm.

This is What Matters.

Listen what Nicole Bastien, founder of What Matters, has to share.