A group of individuals in a specific community decide to form the a Golden Seed Community Land Trust (GSCLT) as a non-profit organization. The organization begins by raising funds through donations, grants, and other means or by finding a land owner that is willing to donate their land to this cause. With the funds raised, GSCLT purchases a piece of property in a desirable location within the community. The property is then leased to a trustee, who is responsible for maintaining the property and paying a small fee to the GSCLT each month, this fee is used to cover the costs of maintaining the non-profit and to fund the purchase of additional properties.
As more properties are acquired and more trustees are added, GSCLT has a larger pool of funds to work with, allowing it to purchase properties at an increasing rate. The organization continues to acquire properties and leases them to trustees who meet certain qualifications and agree to the terms of the lease.
The lease agreement is for a 2-year term, with the option to renew for lengthier terms up to 33 years. The trustee has the option to extend the lease term eventually to 33 years, this length would prevent leases from outliving the people involved in the agreements. The trustee is also able to transfer the lease to their heirs or others, just like a traditional property, without incurring capital gains taxes or inheritance taxes.
Over time, the GSCLT has a large portfolio of properties and generates a significant amount of revenue through the fees paid by the trustees. The GSCLT uses the monthly fees collected from the trustees to maintain the organization, pay for property taxes, and to eventually fund community services such as paving roads, installing solar panels on homes, and other projects that would benefit the community as a whole. This would show the power of keeping our rents circulating in our communities rather than being siphoned off by the current banking system.
Each regional GSCLT can utilize the Golden Seed's online forum where trustees, members of the organization, and other stakeholders can share information, ask questions, and provide feedback. This platform allows for the sharing of successful strategies for acquiring properties, managing and maintaining properties, and collecting fees. It also allows for the sharing of legal and regulatory compliance, and addressing specific challenges or issues that may arise.
The online forum also enables the sharing of legal agreements and contracts, and soliciting feedback from community members and legal experts. This allows the organization to refine and improve the agreements over time, and to ensure that they are clear, fair, and legally enforceable.
It's important to note that this is just one example of how the "golden seed" land trust model could work in practice and that the specifics of the model would vary depending on the specific community and location. The legal framework and regulations also need to be taken into account, as well as the specific needs and goals of the community.
In the future, with hundreds regional GSCLTs across the globe using the online forum and contract library, the "golden seed" land trust model would have a much larger impact. Each regional GSCLT would operate independently, but they would all have access to the same online forum and contract library. Thus improving resiliency and preventing corruption from infection the entire network.
The online forum would be a central hub for sharing information, best practices, and feedback among the regional GSCLTs. This would allow each regional GSCLT to learn from the experiences of others and adapt their own practices and contracts accordingly. For example, if one regional GSCLT develops a successful strategy for acquiring properties, other regional GSCLTs could learn from it and adopt similar strategies.
The contract library would be a central repository for plain language agreements and contracts that could be used by the regional GSCLTs to purchase, hold, and transfer land. This would allow for a standardization of the agreements and contracts across the regional GSCLTs and would make it easier for community members to understand the agreements and for legal experts to review them.
The collective impact of 100 regional GSCLTs would be to provide more affordable and sustainable housing options for more people and to improve communities across the globe. This would be accomplished by having a larger pool of funds to work with, by having a more efficient and effective implementation of the model.