Contributions
Everyone who joins CTC is asked to contribute to Miki (financially and/or otherwise), which also means contributing to BayNVC. At present, financial contributions are divided between Miki (65%) and BayNVC (35%).
Everyone is also invited to contribute to the community and/or to the world. At the same time, CTC is founded on the vision of a gift economy. What this means is that there is no connection between level of contribution and level of access to CTC resources. A number of people are not contributing in any of the ways named above, and some people are giving more than what is requested below. All are fully welcome as members of CTC.
From Miki: While contributing to CTC in the ways that I do is incredibly nourishing and inspiring, I am also holding with a lot of care my own sustainability in being able to continue to do this work. I would want anyone who joins CTC to do so with a willingness to hold my own sustainability as a priority. At the same time, I am eager to work with whoever is serious about the commitments and wants to be part of this community, regardless of their financial situation.
I would love each person to find an amount of money that feels possible for them to contribute every month, however small or large. (A monthly contribution is easiest for me and for BayNVC.)
Having said that, when I think about what would support sustainability for me, and a sense of joy in continuing to show up for the program, I would love people to commit to contributing at least $250 a month. Currently, only a handful of people within CTC contribute at this level or above. As of the September 2010 revision of this document, the total monthly commitment of 60 members is $1,645.
I am hoping that some people who have access to resources will contribute much more than $250 a month. More funds will allow me to cover essential needs, including sustaining a level of self-care which takes into account how much energy I put out into the world. My current assessment is that $2,000 in monthly contributions to CTC (of which $1,300 are added to my monthly salary) would be sufficient. I plan to reevaluate this amount at least twice a year.
Getting this full amount will allow me to have more ease and support, more capacity to focus my energy on teaching and writing only what most emerges from my soul, and less involvement with administration. More funds will allow me to engage in projects that support transformative social change even when they do not generate income. More funds will create much more ease in making everything available to everyone, including those who have nothing to contribute. More funds will allow others to meet some of their needs for sustainability through CTC. (See section 4 below.)
If no amount of money is available to you, I want to reiterate that you are completely welcome to participate like everyone else. I would still love for you to find other ways of contributing to me: administrative or personal support, special skills and talents, or anything else that works for both of us.
Contributions within the Community
So far CTC has been almost completely self-sustaining in terms of its functioning (with the exception of financial administration and publicity done by BayNVC). Everything within CTC is either offered out of someone’s initiative or in response to someone’s request. Below are some of the ways that members of the community contribute to the group:
- Participate in administrative or other ongoing support of community functioning, such as joining an ad hoc group that explores community decision-making processes or calls for those holding responsibility for the functioning of the community, researching and recommending technology for use by the community, providing technical support for conference calls, or managing Groupsite.
- Offer mentoring to others who request it (generally done only by members with extensive prior experience with NVC). Mentoring includes feedback and coaching on living and sharing the commitments or anything else mutually agreed upon.
- Initiate and/or schedule and/or facilitate groups and calls to explore commitments, areas of application, projects, etc.
- Attend quarterly evaluation calls to explore the progress of the community and to participate in co-creating any changes to the structure, infrastructure, or offerings.
All members of the community can contribute to the world in at least the following ways:
- Share NVC consciousness and practice explicitly with others in their community or elsewhere (e.g. practice groups, workshops, and presentations).
- Use NVC and apply it (usually implicitly) in one’s family, workplace, or social change project.
- Create specific service projects designed to infuse the broader consciousness of nonviolence described in the commitments into the world without necessarily naming it as such (e.g. the BayNVC Empathy Team).
- Support others’ service projects
The invitation to contribute outside the community is a form of stretching the experiment of the gift economy, especially if anyone contributes only outside the community and is still accessing all that CTC offers.
More on the Gift Economy
To stretch the idea of a gift economy even further, you are welcome to participate even if you are not finding any willingness or capacity to contribute anything. This is part of the vision of the world that Miki put forth in creating CTC: to take care of those who have (or see themselves as having) nothing left to offer.
Having a gift economy also means distributing CTC funds in more and more ways. Beyond the initial amount that Miki would like to receive (not yet reached at current levels of contribution), anyone is invited to make requests and be in dialogue together about how to use the remaining funds. Uses are likely to include contribution to the sustainability of those holding the community as well as supporting projects within CTC. Over time, as new members join, the flow within CTC may increase to the point of creating funds to support a variety of additional needs. The sky is the limit of what can be createed together in this way.
NOTE: if you would like to be inspired by what a gift economy can create, you can look at the story of Charity Focus.
Financial Contributions for non-CTC Offerings
Participation in other classes
If you choose to take classes or join programs through BayNVC, you will be asked to contribute to that separately, and the usual “no one turned away for lack of funds” policy will still be applied to you. Similarly, and depending on where you live, you may sign up for private sessions or classes with NVC trainers who are members of CTC, and you will be asked to contribute based on whatever financial arrangements these trainers maintain.
Retreats
If you want to join an existing non-CTC retreat as part of a CTC sub-program (provided enough support is available), you will be asked to cover the direct out-of-pocket expenses, and contribute what you can and want to toward tuition. If you choose to join a regular BayNVC retreat, the usual policies apply. At present BayNVC is only able to offer tuition scholarships and you will still be expected to cover the out of pocket expenses of your participation (room and board plus a few other expenses).