Charter: Durable Agency

Purpose. Help people increase and preserve the practical ability to meet essential needs, choose meaningful work and relationships, recover from setbacks and fulfill responsibilities without exploiting others.

Durable agency means having meaningful, usable choices that remain available through foreseeable change. Agency is limited by resources, health, social conditions, institutions and other people as well as by individual conduct. Responsibility begins with an accurate account of those limits.

Wealth matters because it can fund time, care, protection, learning and useful work. Greater wealth does not by itself establish greater wisdom, dignity or freedom. A costly commitment may increase net worth while reducing liquidity, available time or the ability to leave. These consequences must be shown separately.

Whom The Foundation Serves

The primary audience is adults making household, career and small-enterprise decisions. It includes people recovering from debt, irregular work, illness, caregiving demands or prior setbacks. Entrepreneurship, investment borrowing and a particular personality are not admission requirements.

What A Successful Outcome Looks Like

• Essential obligations remain manageable and their risks are understood.
• The person has more credible choices and fewer avoidable traps.
• Plans fit actual time, care, health and access constraints.
• Progress remains compatible with honest conduct and the rights of others.
• The person can choose maintenance, service or creativity when further expansion no longer serves their aims.

The framework aims to support such outcomes. Whether using the package improves them beyond simpler guidance is an open empirical question. [S01; evaluation protocol]