Common Future (formerly known as Business Alliance for Local Living Economies or BALLE) is a left-of-center advocacy and organizing group promoting collectivist and localist visions of business and production. In 2019, the group renamed itself Common Future and shifted its focus from a localist economic model to a more radical and collectivist economic model focused on racial minorities. ¹

History

Founding

Common Future was founded as the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) in 2001 by Laury Hammel, owner of a group of health clubs in Boston, and Judy Wicks, owner of the White Dog Café in Philadelphia. BALLE held its first annual national conference in 2003, bringing together players in the localism movement nationwide. ²

Race and Diversity

After a strategic planning process, BALLE expanded outreach and programming directed toward ethnic minority business owners. BALLE started offering scholarships to its annual conference in 2010. An equity committee was started in 2015 following a concerted effort to diversify staff, fellows, and board members. ³

Renaming

In October 2019, BALLE changed its name to Common Future. The group renamed because, in its words: ¹

Despite the focus on local economies, our actions have not matched the urgency of unprecedented wealth inequality and economic injustice that primarily affects communities of color. While people of color will constitute the majority in the U.S. as early as 2043, it’s going to take all of us working together to resist those who are are [sic] extracting wealth, not only from marginalized communities, but from working people, the middle class, rural economies, mid-tier cities, gentrifying neighborhoods — all of us. ¹

The group also changed its focus: “This year, we are re-examining our work and shifting our attention in big ways: racial equity and economic justice now have a front seat in new initiatives we are launching to unite capital with marginalized communities.” ¹

The group also announced that it would rebrand as a platform to “incubate ideas,” serve as “an aggregator of philanthropic and impact investment capital, a trusted advisor to funders, a collaborator working alongside our Network, and a mainstream influence for reimaging the economy.” ¹

Programs

Community Credit Lab

Common Future’s Community Credit Lab is a lender with the goal of “powering community led solutions that advance racial justice and economic equity with catalytic capital.” ⁴

In September 2024, Common Future announced the formation of the Community Credit Lab Fund with the goal of raising $35 million. The group sought to expand lending to nonwhite customers and “redirect capital flows” from white Americans to nonwhite Americans. The group accused traditional financial institutions of “reserv[ing] the right to tell a borrower whether they are worthy of capital or not based on traditionally racist and discriminatory practices.” The group says, “We work with partners who want to lend to people who have traditionally been barred from getting loans due to low or absent credit or lack of collateral. We design our underwriting criteria based on relationships and character rather than credit and we don’t require collateral.” ⁵

In 2023, Common Future invested $5,312,173 in Community Credit Lab. ⁶

Futurists

Common Future’s Futurists program advocates for radical-left and left-wing cultural and economic positions. The group opposes immigration enforcement by claiming “no one is illegal on stolen land,” advocates Palestinian nationalism, and seeks to replace capitalism with “cooperative economics.” ⁷

The group has futurists in residence who collaborate with the group’s advocacy and narrative teams to push the group’s economic message. ⁸

Legacy Lab

Common Future’s Legacy Lab invests in and advocates for Black businesses, especially “community-owned” businesses. ⁹

Leadership

In June 2023, Common Future transitioned to a co-CEO model with the appointment of chief strategy officer Jess Feingold, managing director of Community Credit Lab and Common Future Investments Sandhya Nakhasi, and chief operating officer Jennifer Njuguna as the group’s co-CEOs. ¹⁰

Common Future’s board members as of 2025 included Meadow Didier and Jorge Blanton. ¹¹

Financials

According to Common Future’s 2023 tax returns, the group reported $5,307,221 in revenue, $10,336,045 in expenses, and $19,148,279 in net assets. ⁶

The group gave a $226,000 grant to the Tides Center and awarded smaller grants to other nonprofits. ⁶

1. “Balle Becomes Common Future.. for 18 Years, Balle Has Worked… .” Medium, October 20, 2019. https://medium.com/commonfuture/balle-becomes-common-future-9d9503ef6f3.
2. bealocalist.org. Accessed July 23, 2019. https://bealocalist.org/about/history/
3. Suarez, Cyndi. “BALLE- Racial Equity From the Outside In.” Nonprofit Quarterly. October 18, 2018. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/balle-race-equity-change-from-the-outside-in/
4.  Common Future. “Community Credit Lab.” Common Future. Accessed December 8, 2025. https://commonfuture.co/community-credit-lab.
5. “Access to Capital Is Economic Justice.” Common Future, September 25, 2024. https://commonfuture.co/article/ccl-fund-announcement.
6. “Common Future, Full Filing – Nonprofit Explorer.” ProPublica. Accessed December 8, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/201544255/202443209349327644/full.
7. “Common Futurists.” Instagram. Accessed December 8, 2025. https://www.instagram.com/commonfuturists/#.
8. “Futurist-in-Residence.” Common Future. Accessed December 8, 2025. https://commonfuture.co/Futurist-in-Residence.
9. “Legacy Lab.” Common Future. Accessed December 8, 2025. https://commonfuture.co/Legacy-Lab.
10. Feingold, Jessica, Jennifer Njuguna, and Sandhya Nakhasi. “Common Future Transitions to Co-Leadership Model with Multi-Racial, All-Women Co-Ceos.” Common Future, June 6, 2023. https://commonfuture.co/article/common-future-transitions-to-co-leadership-model-with-multi-racial-all-women-co-ce-os.
11. “Board Evolution at Common Future: Towards a New Way of Working .” Medium, June 29, 2023. https://medium.com/commonfuture/board-evolution-at-common-future-towards-a-new-way-of-working-1ed18c26c7f2.