By Shavon Prophet, Director of Education & Partnerships
This past spring, as I began designing ARC’s first mentorship program, I kept running into the same question underneath all the practical ones: why are we building this, and what do we actually believe about how community works?
Every fund manager who comes through our ARC Fellowship arrives with a thesis about capital. Almost none of them arrive with a thesis about relationship. And yet relationship is what determines whether their fund survives its first hard year.
So, is an attempt to name something we’ve been doing intuitively, so we can start doing it deliberately.
What we mean by relational infrastructure
Most field-building organizations invest in content infrastructure: curriculum, platforms, frameworks, reporting tools. We do that too. But when I think back on this year’s ARC Capstone, the moments fellows named as most meaningful weren’t our learning sessions or fund-building tools. They were honest conversations — with each other, with alumni who’d already been through it.
What became clear is that relationship is the most valuable part of the “curriculum”. Not a supplement to it.
At BII we define relational infrastructure as the deliberate design of conditions where trust, kinship, and mutual accountability can form — not as a soft add-on to programming, but as the actual delivery mechanism for everything else we’re trying to build: capital literacy, governance models, fundraising readiness, staying power.
If integrated capital means blending grants, debt, and equity to meet a fund where it is, relational infrastructure is the human equivalent: blending mentorship, peer learning, and community accountability to meet a person where they are.
This isn’t new. It’s already ours.
Across many of the traditions our fellows come from — Indigenous, African diasporic, Latinx, Asian, and others — there’s a shared understanding that predates and challenges the extractive frameworks that have governed mainstream finance: that the self is not separate from community, that responsibility flows from relationship, that wealth, when it’s real, is held collectively and passed forward.
This isn’t a framework we’re imposing on our fellows. It’s a recognition of something many of them already carry. Part of what we’re building is a container spacious enough to honor that — one where capital strategy and cultural values aren’t in tension, but reinforce each other.
Why?
We’ve found that the funds are the vehicle. But, the people are really the point.
Five commitments guiding how we build
These are the design principles we’re holding ourselves to across every relational program at BII — whether it be mentorship, peer circles, convenings, or whatever comes next:
Peer-led wherever possible. Trust travels faster between people who’ve stood in the same place. The people closest to the experience should hold the relationship; staff facilitate, community leads.
Reciprocity, not extraction. When we ask people for their time, expertise, or networks, we owe them something back. Generosity flows in both directions, or it isn’t ours.
Rhythm over density. A relationship with breathing room outlasts one that’s overscheduled. A lighter commitment that actually happens is worth more than an ambitious one that doesn’t.
Opt-in trust, not assigned obligation. Participation only works when people genuinely choose it. A mismatch should be easy to name and exit without shame.
Infrastructure should be legible, not just felt. Relational strength shouldn’t live only in staff memory. It should be documented, transferable, built to outlast any one person or program cycle.
Where this is headed
Our ARC network is now 90+ fund managers strong. If we reach our north star of $100M moved to underinvested communities by 2030, it won’t be only because of what each fund deployed individually. It will be because of the relationships between funds — co-investments, referrals, shared knowledge, collective advocacy.
Relational infrastructure is how a collection of individual funds becomes a movement. That’s the horizon we’re building toward and we hope you’ll support us in our journey. The ARC class of 2027 is starting this September! Read about the incoming cohort HERE.
What We Learned This Year
The ARC Class of 2026 taught us — the program team — as much as we taught them. A few lessons that are shaping how we move forward:
Relationship is the curriculum. The sessions, tools, and frameworks are valuable. But consistently, the moments fellows named as most meaningful were the ones where they were in honest conversation with each other and with alumni who had been through it. Peer learning is not supplemental to the program. It is central to it. Next year, we’re building more structure around that.
Space and pacing matter as much as content. We came in full of things to share, and early in the year the sessions reflected that. Over time, we learned that leaving more room for discussion, for questions, for sitting with something instead of trying to digest and apply as quickly as possible, actually produces better outcomes. Fellows want to go deep, not just fast.
The fund is the vehicle. The people are the point. Every fellow who came through ARC this year is more than a fund manager in training. They are movement leaders, community builders, innovators, connectors, and educators. The most important thing we can do as a program is make sure they leave feeling that identity fully — not just technically prepared, but clear on why they belong in this work and what they’re capable of.
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hat’s Coming Next
Applications for the ARC Class of 2027 open June 1, 2026. We’re recruiting emerging fund managers across the country, with a particular focus on building cohorts that represent the geographic and strategic diversity of this field.
We’re also deepening our investment in the alumni network. The ARC community now spans 90 fund managers across 38 organizations in the U.S. and Canada. Collectively, 29 launched ARC funds have raised and deployed millions into small businesses and real estate projects in communities that traditional capital markets have long overlooked. That network is an asset — to the fellows themselves, to the field, and to the future of community-led investing. We want to steward it accordingly.
This fall, we’ll convene the full ARC community at the ARC Summit in September 2026 — a moment to reconnect, learn together, and continue building the infrastructure this movement needs.
A Note of Gratitude
I came into this year knowing the mission. I leave the year knowing the people. That is the real gift of fellowship — not what we built together on paper, but the sense of shared purpose and mutual belonging that now lives in this community.
To the ARC Class of 2026: it has been an honor to learn and build with you. I can’t wait to see what comes next.
To anyone reading this who is building a justice-aligned fund and wondering whether a program like ARC has a place for them: it does. We’d love to talk.
The ARC Fellowship is a program of Boston Impact Initiative, nonprofit impact investment fund based in Roxbury, MA. Applications for the 2026-2027 cohort open June 1, 2026. Learn more at bostonimpact.org/the-arc-fellowship.