The word “evergreen” is taken from the law and legal drafting, where it refers to a provision in a contract that provides for automatic renewal of the agreement from time to time, unless and until one of the parties proactively gives notice to the other that they will be terminated the agreement at the next anniversary or other recurring date.

We use the word “evergreen” to reference the ongoing sharing in cash flows between an enterprise and its superfiduciary sponsors, after a minimum fiduciary return of and on investment has been realized.

Fiduciary is also a term drawn from the law. It refers to a person who holds legal title and discretionary control over other people’s money (or other property) under a charter of trust for a specified purpose. An ordinary fiduciary holds other people’s money under a private trust for the benefit of an individual or family group.  A superfiduciary holds other people’s money under a public trust for social benefit.  Superfiduciaries include insurance, pensions (a form of insurance), university endowments and endowed foundations.

Every fiduciary has a duty under the law – the law of fiduciary duty – to act with loyalty, prudence and competence in the exercise of the discretionary control over other people’s money that has been invested in them.

For ordinary fiduciaries, standards of prudence are the standards of what it is prudent for ordinary individuals to do.

For superfiduciaries, more is given, and more must be expected.

In ordinary parlance, “finance” is a somewhat ambiguous word referencing generally things relating to money, but with multiple different contexts.

In evergreen, we use finance with more precision, to refer to the process by which 1. surpluses saved by individuals are aggregated and 2. those aggregated savings of others are deployed to sponsor enterprise in creating more by design.

In evergreen, finance is how society chooses which designs for making prosperous adaptations to life’s constant changes can, should and will be evolved through enterprise.

By “enterprise”, evergreen refers to the physical coming-together of people around an idea for doing work that creates more by design.

Every enterprise creates artifacts as expressions of an idea for taking the world about us as we find it, and changing it to be more a way we choose it to be. These artifacts will be more or less popular with others as useful in making their own world be more a way they choose it to be.  The popularity of its artifacts determines the scale at which enterprise can and must operate, the position that enterprise can and must hold within the economy, and the wealth and social power that enterprise brings to its leadership, team, collaborators and financial sponsors.

Some enterprises are for-profit. Others are for-benefit.

All enterprises need money to operate at more than personal scale. When enterprise needs money, finance provides it.

This is capitalism, and there are multiple systems of capitalism for providing money to different enterprises in different ways. Some capitalism is for profit. Some is for-benefit.

Every enterprise that achieves popularity within an economy will flourish for a time, and then fade in the fullness of time, as times change, and people adapt to changing times, coming up with new ideas the inspire new designs for creating more of what the world needs in its time.

Prosperity can only be sustained by riding the flourish and fade of changing times.

Investment, like finance, is a word that in ordinary parlance is ambiguous in its meaning, and is used in different contexts with different nuances.

One common meaning of investment is the purchase for subsequent sale of shares of stock in a corporation within the Wall Street system for trading in securities on expectations for changes in future valuation, or Growth.

This is one form of investment. There are others.

Evergreen is a form of investment in enterprise cash flows, directly.  It is an investment in more that is bigger than Growth.  More can mean growth. It can also mean continuity. And evolutionary adaptation to change.

Where securities trading recognizes only one form of “more” – more as Growth – and therefor crashes into change as evolutionary adaptation, periodically collapsing the economy, evergreen recognizes “more” in all its many forms, and designs its investments accordingly.

In anthropology, “artifact” means the remains of something that was made by people long ago.

In evergreen, we use the word artifact in its anthropological sense, as “the work of human hands”, to refer to the uniquely individual expressions of designs for creating more that is the work of enterprise.

We use “artifacts” rather than the more commonplace “goods and services” to keep at top-of-mind the uniqueness that creates value and the individual insight and collective initiative that creates uniqueness.

It is this creation of uniqueness that gives enterprise its place in the economy, and its own individual journey of flourish and fade as times change, and people make prosperous adaptations to life’s constant changes.

evergreen works from a cognitive construct of the economy as an expanding universe of intellectual and interpersonal connections between people for doing work and sharing wealth through the concentration of effort to create and exchange of artifacts of technology as practical knowledge of how the world about us works, and how we can change the way the world works, to make it work more a way we choose it to…a network of connections that is more or less constantly being reconfigured, as people add new connections, letting others go, while keeping still others strong, as times change and people evolve prosperous adaptations to life’s constant changes through technology and enterprise

in evergreen, we use technology in its authentic Greek meaning, as “practical knowledge of how the world about us works, and how we can change the way the world works, to make it work more a way we choose it to”

technology is an idea that gets expressed through enterprise

if it is fit for purpose, it becomes popular and creates wealth

the popularity of every technology is always provisional, suited to its moment, but subject to change when circumstances change

and circumstances are always changing, in part because we change them through the technologies we choose to use

enterprise as the expression of technology is therefor also always provisional in its popularity

this is the true story of human history and the real pulse beat of prosperity: times change, technologies evolve, enterprises flourish, and eventually fade

good stewardship of society’s shared savings set aside for retirement, education and philanthropy must be true to this true history

in evergreen, we start with change as the defining experience of human economy and society, and measure the success of an economy and its financial system by how easily and well it makes prosperous adaptations to life’s constant changes, so that people live well, and have the opportunity to be happy

this is the purpose of self-government, as written into the Declaration of Independence

it is the purpose of finance, in evergreen