Third Horizon Fund

Building the financial foundations for a regenerative economy in the Hudson Valley and neighboring regions.

Our Vision: A flourishing future for our bioregion

We envision a future in which communities thrive in reciprocity with the living systems of their places, regenerative enterprises meet local needs and create meaningful livelihoods, and stewardship of land and community is recognized as a foundation of shared prosperity.

Across the Hudson Valley and neighboring regions, people are already building toward this future. But many of the projects and enterprises that could accelerate this transition struggle to access the right kinds of capital.

We believe finance can play a different role: supporting the long-term health of communities and ecosystems rather than extracting wealth from them.

What We're Building: a Bioregional Financing Facility

The Third Horizon Fund is an emerging initiative to develop an impact-first, place-based financing facility that can help move capital toward the regeneration of our bioregion. Our approach brings together three complementary strategies:

Fill the missing middle - Supporting projects that are too large for grants but too unconventional, complex, or slow-growing for conventional financing.
Blend & coordinate capital - Bringing together philanthropy, investment, and existing financial institutions to develop financing solutions suited to the needs of regenerative projects.
Build accountability to place - Exploring governance and ownership structures that keep financial decision-making accountable to the communities and ecosystems the fund is intended to serve.

Priority Investment Areas

Regenerative Enterprises - Local businesses and nonprofit organizations providing goods, services, livelihoods, and infrastructure that contribute to bioregional flourishing.
Local Governments - Bridge financing for climate-smart community projects: resilience, water, energy, buildings, and other shared community needs.
Bioregional Commons - Supporting stewardship and provisioning beyond what conventional financing allows — ecological restoration, shared infrastructure, community capacity building, and commons governance.

Three Horizons of Change

The name Third Horizon reflects our ambition to support both immediate improvements and longer-term economic transformation.

Horizon 1 — Improve. Make existing financial arrangements more affordable and accessible.

Horizon 2 — Bridge. Develop financing structures that help enterprises and communities transition toward more regenerative models.

Horizon 3 — Transform. Support new forms of ownership, governance, and economic relationships that keep wealth circulating in the bioregion.

What we're hearing from the bioregion

Through workshops, conversations, and collaborations with people and organizations across the region, five interconnected priorities have begun to emerge. These priorities are provisional. As we deepen our relationships across the bioregion and learn from real projects, they will continue to evolve.

1. Feed the People

Strengthen regenerative agriculture, regional food infrastructure, and the systems that connect local producers with local communities.

2. Democratize the Transition

Expand access to financing for energy efficiency, building retrofits, electrification, and community resilience.

3. Restore the Commons

Support shared stewardship of land, housing, infrastructure, and other resources that sustain community life.

4. Make Local, Buy Local

Strengthen locally rooted enterprises, cooperative ownership, regional production, and economic relationships that reduce dependence on imports.

5. Heal the Land

Finance the restoration and stewardship of watersheds, forests, soils, wetlands, and biodiversity.

Where Things Stand: From vision to implementation

Following two workshops in July 2026 and a gathering during New York Climate Week in September, we're moving into the next phase of developing the Third Horizon Fund. Our current areas of work include:

Developing a prototype portfolio: Identifying regenerative projects across the bioregion and understanding their financing needs.
Designing the financing model: Exploring how different forms of capital can be combined to support projects on affordable, non-extractive terms.
Building partnerships: Engaging local lenders, funders, investors, and organizations already serving the region.
Developing the institution: Refining the fund's proposed governance, operating model, and organizational structure.

We are learning as we go and sharing what emerges.

Help shape what comes next

We're building the Third Horizon Fund through relationships with people and organizations who share a commitment to the long-term flourishing of this bioregion. Whether you're developing a regenerative project, working within an existing financial institution, exploring new approaches to investment, or helping communities shape their futures, we'd like to hear from you. Visit our Get Involved page.

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