Beyond Venture and Charity: Defining a Care-Centered Model of Psychedelic Finance

Most financial systems fall into two categories.
They are designed either to maximize return or to distribute aid.

Psychedelic care fits neatly into neither.

Venture capital prioritizes scale, speed, and exit. These logics reward growth over presence and efficiency over continuity. In care-based work — especially work involving vulnerability, altered states, and long integration horizons — those incentives distort outcomes.

Charity models, while often well-intentioned, carry a different limitation. Grants are temporary. They do not recycle. They rarely support long-term autonomy. Too often, they create dependence rather than durability.

Between these two poles lies a quieter middle ground, one that is rarely named but deeply necessary.

Care-centered finance is not about extracting value, nor is it about one-time rescue.

It is about stewardship. It recognizes that facilitators are not startups and not beneficiaries. They are practitioners holding responsibility over time. This middle ground requires patience. It requires transparency instead of leverage. It requires financial tools that adapt to the rhythms of care rather than forcing care to conform to capital.

At Inner Guru, we intentionally avoid both venture logic and charitable optics.

Our lending models are designed to circulate support, not accelerate expansion. Repayment is not a punishment. It is a way to ensure continuity so others may also be supported.

This approach will never move as fast as speculative capital. That is a feature, not a flaw.

Psychedelic care does not need more money chasing influence. It needs financial structures capable of staying in relationship long after attention shifts elsewhere.

That middle ground is where we work.