Episode 229 - hum.community - From Charity to Shared Agency: Participatory Funding and the Future of Local Impact

For Episode 229, I’m thrilled to welcome Mark Pascall, Co-Founder of The Wellbeing Protocol and the newly launched hum.community a participatory funding platform that transforms how local communities allocate funds.

In today’s episode, we explore this question and the origins of The Wellbeing Protocol, the lessons learned from 15 pilot projects across New Zealand, Australia, and the UK, and why hum.community is such a meaningful milestone for the future of community-led impact.

You’ll learn:

• 🌱 What a wellbeing economy really looks like, and how communities can design systems that prioritize connection, belonging, and collective thriving over traditional economic metrics.
• 🤲 Why community-controlled funding matters, and how participatory micro-granting can unlock faster, fairer, and more culturally aligned decision-making.
• 🛠️ How Web3 and Indigenous governance principles come together to create tools that strengthen local resilience and shift real power back to communities.
• 🚀 And the story behind hum.community, a new platform enabling communities to collaborate transparently and allocate resources with unprecedented efficiency and trust.

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--Key Takeaways--

🔗 Ancient Principles, Modern Systems: hum.community is built on Indigenous Māori principles like mana motuhake and whanaungatanga; showing that the future of funding isn’t about starting from scratch, but rediscovering timeless models of collective care and community-led governance.

✨ From Passive to Empowered Participants: Instead of communities waiting on top-down decisions, hum transforms them into active stewards of resources, allowing them to propose ideas, vote, and co-design the impact they want to see. It’s funding powered by agency, not gatekeeping.

🔗 Web3 Behind the Scenes, Accessible by Design:
To ensure accessibility, early pilots ran off-chain to validate the model. Blockchain was introduced later as invisible infrastructure, abstracting away complexity while delivering trust, transparency, and accountable funding flows for all.

--Full shownotes with links available at--
www.cryptoaltruists.com/blog/crypto-altruists-episode-229-hum-community-from-charity-to-shared-agency-participatory-funding-and-the-future-of-local-impact

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--DISCLAIMER--
While we may discuss specific web3 projects or cryptocurrencies on this podcast, do not take any of this as investment advice and make sure to do your own research on potential investment opportunities, or any opportunity, before making an investment. We host a variety of guests on this podcast with the sole purpose of highlighting the social impact use cases of this technology. That being said, Crypto Altruism does not endorse any of these projects, and we recognize that, since this is an emerging sector, some may be operating in regulatory grey areas, and as such, we cannot confirm their legality in the jurisdictions in which they operate, especially as it pertains to decentralized finance protocols. So, before getting involved with any project, it’s important that you do your own research and confirm the legality of the project. More info at cryptoaltruists.com/disclaimer