MONEY
The requested donation per person is:
Before March 15, $500
Before June 15, $550
After June 15, $600
Babes in arms are free!
That covers all camp expenses, including staff, food, & materials. (Actually, that doesn't cover all of our expenses, we also do fundraising! ;)
If this sounds like more than you're comfortable contributing, please read below about Family Camp, NVC and Money.
Family Camp, NVC and Money Our consciousness in using NVC is that money is a strategy to meet needs. When we offer workshops, we meet a variety of our own needs, including for contribution, meaning, connection, and growth. We want to also meet our need for support in our livelihood through our teaching of NVC because that way we can contribute most of our time and energy without seeking other work through which to sustain ourselves and our families. Hoping to meet these needs, we ask that each person contribute the most they can. At the same time, we have a deep joy in and commitment to making NVC available to all people regardless of their financial means.
We are aware that "money" is a charged issue for most of us in this culture. In this context, we want to maximize our own and others' opportunities to consider how to shift our relationships to money through NVC. One of our strategies is to create a wide sliding-scale rather than the usual quite narrow sliding-scales. We hope that each person will consider our sliding-scale an opportunity to consider the variety of needs that exist within your relationship to money – your needs for sustainability, security, ease, comfort, and contribution, among others. We hope that each person would consider those needs of yours along with ours which we described above, and arrive at an amount that reflects your financial reality grounded in your needs. Hoping to meet all of our needs, we ask that each person contribute the most that you would like to.
We are excited about this approach as we predict that, over time, it will contribute to meeting all of our needs for learning and for moving toward a society in which everyone's needs fully matter.
Financial Assistance – Frequently Asked Questions “This is the first time I've been able to ask an organization for financial support without losing my dignity.” – BayNVC Student
We have so enjoyed the way we work with money. So many needs of ours have been met, principally among them the sweetness of living in line with our values, and the opportunity to connect with so many people who we might have missed otherwise.
Along with the joy, we have faced two challenges. First, we are aware that some people do not approach us with their needs regarding finances and choose instead not to participate in our programs. We’re sad about this, longing for trust in our commitment and passion for inclusion. We hope that this document will further support everyone in building trust that their needs matter and that we fully wish to include them.
A second challenge is logistical: making individual arrangements with people takes quite a lot of people power on our end, and our staff are stressed. Toward that end, we have created this summary of frequently asked questions and the answers to them. It would contribute to us enormously if you’d be willing to review this document to determine whether you need to contact us with any questions. If your questions are not answered, we will gladly respond to you by email or phone.
We hope your financial situation will not hinder you in any way from participating in our offerings.
Q: The requested financial contribution is a stretch for my family. What can I do? A: See below for information about various options for financial assistance. However, before you consider them, we encourage you to consider doing some fundraising for yourself.
Each person who participates in the program will be contributing back to their community through their skills in living NVC and sharing it with others, in leading groups, mediating, and serving as a hub for those who want to learn more about NVC. We believe many communities and individuals would enjoy investing in an individual who wants to make the commitment to learning and integrating NVC at this level.
Nearly every one of the fundraising ideas below can also become an opportunity to talk with people about NVC and to share flyers or brochures about NVC and/or about the program:
1. Write letters or emails to family and friends, describing your plans and asking for their support.
2. Contact local parenting-oriented organizations (such as La Leche League or attachment parenting groups, PTA’s, etc.), faith-based, neighborhood-based, or civic organizations. Share your plans and ask for their support. You can then offer the group members to participate in the empathy or practice group sessions you will lead later in the program, or hold a series specifically for the group.
3. Offer introductory sessions on NVC in your community, and ask for donations at those events to support your participation in the program.
4. Organize an unrelated fundraiser, such as a bake sale, garage sale, etc. You can hold a bake sale at your local farmer’s market.
5. Ask friends to hold garage sales for you.
6. Organize a fundraising dinner: you cook and host some friends, and ask for donations.
7. Hold an “empathy booth” or “mediation table” at a local café or farmer’s market, with a donation basket.
8. Seek small grants from local grant-makers, especially highlighting that you will offer free series as part of your contribution to the community.
9. Ask friends for other fundraising ideas – and share them with us so we can share them with others!
Q: It’s not sustainable for me to make the full financial contribution that is requested. What are my options? A: There are three main options you can consider:
1) Extended payment plan
2) Work exchange
3) Tuition scholarships
See below for information about room and board options for retreats.
Q: What needs may be met by each of these options? A: Many needs may be met with each one. Some might include:
1) Extended payment plan
Needs that may be met for you:
• Contribution at the level and within a timeframe fully sustainable for you
• Joy of contribution at a level fully sustainable for us
Needs that may be met for us:
• Sustainability, support
2) Work exchange
Needs that may be met for you:
• Joy of contribution of your energy and time
• Learning/engagement with an organization fully committed to living NVC
Needs that may be met for us:
• Support, mutual contribution
3) Tuition scholarships
Needs that may be met for you:
• Support, ease, sustainability
Needs that may be met for us:
• Contribution, inclusion, living in line with our values
Q: How do extended payment plans work? A: You determine how much you can contribute per month, and decide for how many months you’d be open to making this contribution.
Our preference would be to set up automatic monthly credit card payments through your credit card company, ideally of at least $50/month (because credit card payments incur a charge for us). If this is not an option for you, you can give us post-dated checks, or send us regular payments at intervals that we work out together (such as monthly or quarterly).
Q: How does a work exchange plan work? A: There are several aspects to answering this question.
First, please note that, while we are grateful to receive offers of your time, we only want people to make work exchange agreements if they are connected with a desire to contribute to us in this way.
We generally want to receive as much time as you are comfortable and happy to give – not more. At the same time, each time we have a volunteer or work exchange person working with us, it takes staff time to train and support that person. Therefore, we request some minimum time commitments in order to consider a work exchange option.
Here are our general guidelines. We are open to working out specific arrangements with individuals who have different strategies in mind.
Generally, we would enjoy receiving about an hour of your time for each $12-15 of the fee, wherever you want to position yourself on the sliding scale. (For example, for a series with a sliding scale of $200-400, you might choose to position yourself in the middle at $300, and offer us 20-25 hours of your time.)
We will also gladly consider less time if you have specific skills that will contribute to us in significant ways and save us an expense. We prefer not to consider much less time, because any work with volunteers takes training time; we want to invest our time in a way that will also contribute to us significantly enough that the time investment is sustainable for us.
For work exchange for longer programs, we will discuss options and amount of time with you individually.
Q: How do you make decisions about scholarships? A: We aim not to turn anyone away for lack of funds, for any of our programs. For longer programs, we keep to this aim provided the program as a whole is sustainable. So far we have successfully managed to find ways of including virtually every person who has wanted to come to one of our retreats and programs and let us know of their desire ahead of time.
We offer full and partial scholarships for tuition for those who would not otherwise be able to attend and who are unable to or prefer not to offer their time or a payment plan.
It is much more difficult for us to offer a scholarship for room, board and other direct expenses, and so we ask participants to contribute this portion if at all possible, even if over time.
Q: Do you offer scholarships for room and board? A: In every one of our retreats and longer programs we have covered the room and board expenses for a small number of people. Because this is a direct expense for us, we see it as an investment in the spread of NVC; we want to bring NVC to as many people as possible, so we give priority to those who are intending to bring NVC to the world in some way. Therefore, when we consider a request for a scholarship for room and board, we want a sense of what you want to do with your NVC training.
Since we are also trying to meet our needs for sustainability as an organization, it is a hardship for us to offer a room and board scholarship to someone if the overall income from a retreat or program is less than is sustainable for us. Therefore, we may request people who would like room and board scholarships to wait before confirming their acceptance into a retreat or extended program, until we are confident that the program is sustainable.
Q: What is the process for requesting financial assistance? A: The registration forms include space for you to indicate the type and amount of assistance you are requesting. In many cases, we will simply confirm your registration, accepting the payment plan, work exchange or scholarship request you have made. In some cases we will put you on a waiting list until we confirm whether the type of assistance you are applying for is sustainable for the particular program in question. If we have any challenge in meeting your request, we will let you know and try to find a different arrangement.
The requested donation per person is:
Before March 15, $500
Before June 15, $550
After June 15, $600
Babes in arms are free!
That covers all camp expenses, including staff, food, & materials. (Actually, that doesn't cover all of our expenses, we also do fundraising! ;)
If this sounds like more than you're comfortable contributing, please read below about Family Camp, NVC and Money.
Family Camp, NVC and Money Our consciousness in using NVC is that money is a strategy to meet needs. When we offer workshops, we meet a variety of our own needs, including for contribution, meaning, connection, and growth. We want to also meet our need for support in our livelihood through our teaching of NVC because that way we can contribute most of our time and energy without seeking other work through which to sustain ourselves and our families. Hoping to meet these needs, we ask that each person contribute the most they can. At the same time, we have a deep joy in and commitment to making NVC available to all people regardless of their financial means.
We are aware that "money" is a charged issue for most of us in this culture. In this context, we want to maximize our own and others' opportunities to consider how to shift our relationships to money through NVC. One of our strategies is to create a wide sliding-scale rather than the usual quite narrow sliding-scales. We hope that each person will consider our sliding-scale an opportunity to consider the variety of needs that exist within your relationship to money – your needs for sustainability, security, ease, comfort, and contribution, among others. We hope that each person would consider those needs of yours along with ours which we described above, and arrive at an amount that reflects your financial reality grounded in your needs. Hoping to meet all of our needs, we ask that each person contribute the most that you would like to.
We are excited about this approach as we predict that, over time, it will contribute to meeting all of our needs for learning and for moving toward a society in which everyone's needs fully matter.
Financial Assistance – Frequently Asked Questions “This is the first time I've been able to ask an organization for financial support without losing my dignity.” – BayNVC Student
We have so enjoyed the way we work with money. So many needs of ours have been met, principally among them the sweetness of living in line with our values, and the opportunity to connect with so many people who we might have missed otherwise.
Along with the joy, we have faced two challenges. First, we are aware that some people do not approach us with their needs regarding finances and choose instead not to participate in our programs. We’re sad about this, longing for trust in our commitment and passion for inclusion. We hope that this document will further support everyone in building trust that their needs matter and that we fully wish to include them.
A second challenge is logistical: making individual arrangements with people takes quite a lot of people power on our end, and our staff are stressed. Toward that end, we have created this summary of frequently asked questions and the answers to them. It would contribute to us enormously if you’d be willing to review this document to determine whether you need to contact us with any questions. If your questions are not answered, we will gladly respond to you by email or phone.
We hope your financial situation will not hinder you in any way from participating in our offerings.
Q: The requested financial contribution is a stretch for my family. What can I do? A: See below for information about various options for financial assistance. However, before you consider them, we encourage you to consider doing some fundraising for yourself.
Each person who participates in the program will be contributing back to their community through their skills in living NVC and sharing it with others, in leading groups, mediating, and serving as a hub for those who want to learn more about NVC. We believe many communities and individuals would enjoy investing in an individual who wants to make the commitment to learning and integrating NVC at this level.
Nearly every one of the fundraising ideas below can also become an opportunity to talk with people about NVC and to share flyers or brochures about NVC and/or about the program:
1. Write letters or emails to family and friends, describing your plans and asking for their support.
2. Contact local parenting-oriented organizations (such as La Leche League or attachment parenting groups, PTA’s, etc.), faith-based, neighborhood-based, or civic organizations. Share your plans and ask for their support. You can then offer the group members to participate in the empathy or practice group sessions you will lead later in the program, or hold a series specifically for the group.
3. Offer introductory sessions on NVC in your community, and ask for donations at those events to support your participation in the program.
4. Organize an unrelated fundraiser, such as a bake sale, garage sale, etc. You can hold a bake sale at your local farmer’s market.
5. Ask friends to hold garage sales for you.
6. Organize a fundraising dinner: you cook and host some friends, and ask for donations.
7. Hold an “empathy booth” or “mediation table” at a local café or farmer’s market, with a donation basket.
8. Seek small grants from local grant-makers, especially highlighting that you will offer free series as part of your contribution to the community.
9. Ask friends for other fundraising ideas – and share them with us so we can share them with others!
Q: It’s not sustainable for me to make the full financial contribution that is requested. What are my options? A: There are three main options you can consider:
1) Extended payment plan
2) Work exchange
3) Tuition scholarships
See below for information about room and board options for retreats.
Q: What needs may be met by each of these options? A: Many needs may be met with each one. Some might include:
1) Extended payment plan
Needs that may be met for you:
• Contribution at the level and within a timeframe fully sustainable for you
• Joy of contribution at a level fully sustainable for us
Needs that may be met for us:
• Sustainability, support
2) Work exchange
Needs that may be met for you:
• Joy of contribution of your energy and time
• Learning/engagement with an organization fully committed to living NVC
Needs that may be met for us:
• Support, mutual contribution
3) Tuition scholarships
Needs that may be met for you:
• Support, ease, sustainability
Needs that may be met for us:
• Contribution, inclusion, living in line with our values
Q: How do extended payment plans work? A: You determine how much you can contribute per month, and decide for how many months you’d be open to making this contribution.
Our preference would be to set up automatic monthly credit card payments through your credit card company, ideally of at least $50/month (because credit card payments incur a charge for us). If this is not an option for you, you can give us post-dated checks, or send us regular payments at intervals that we work out together (such as monthly or quarterly).
Q: How does a work exchange plan work? A: There are several aspects to answering this question.
First, please note that, while we are grateful to receive offers of your time, we only want people to make work exchange agreements if they are connected with a desire to contribute to us in this way.
We generally want to receive as much time as you are comfortable and happy to give – not more. At the same time, each time we have a volunteer or work exchange person working with us, it takes staff time to train and support that person. Therefore, we request some minimum time commitments in order to consider a work exchange option.
Here are our general guidelines. We are open to working out specific arrangements with individuals who have different strategies in mind.
Generally, we would enjoy receiving about an hour of your time for each $12-15 of the fee, wherever you want to position yourself on the sliding scale. (For example, for a series with a sliding scale of $200-400, you might choose to position yourself in the middle at $300, and offer us 20-25 hours of your time.)
We will also gladly consider less time if you have specific skills that will contribute to us in significant ways and save us an expense. We prefer not to consider much less time, because any work with volunteers takes training time; we want to invest our time in a way that will also contribute to us significantly enough that the time investment is sustainable for us.
For work exchange for longer programs, we will discuss options and amount of time with you individually.
Q: How do you make decisions about scholarships? A: We aim not to turn anyone away for lack of funds, for any of our programs. For longer programs, we keep to this aim provided the program as a whole is sustainable. So far we have successfully managed to find ways of including virtually every person who has wanted to come to one of our retreats and programs and let us know of their desire ahead of time.
We offer full and partial scholarships for tuition for those who would not otherwise be able to attend and who are unable to or prefer not to offer their time or a payment plan.
It is much more difficult for us to offer a scholarship for room, board and other direct expenses, and so we ask participants to contribute this portion if at all possible, even if over time.
Q: Do you offer scholarships for room and board? A: In every one of our retreats and longer programs we have covered the room and board expenses for a small number of people. Because this is a direct expense for us, we see it as an investment in the spread of NVC; we want to bring NVC to as many people as possible, so we give priority to those who are intending to bring NVC to the world in some way. Therefore, when we consider a request for a scholarship for room and board, we want a sense of what you want to do with your NVC training.
Since we are also trying to meet our needs for sustainability as an organization, it is a hardship for us to offer a room and board scholarship to someone if the overall income from a retreat or program is less than is sustainable for us. Therefore, we may request people who would like room and board scholarships to wait before confirming their acceptance into a retreat or extended program, until we are confident that the program is sustainable.
Q: What is the process for requesting financial assistance? A: The registration forms include space for you to indicate the type and amount of assistance you are requesting. In many cases, we will simply confirm your registration, accepting the payment plan, work exchange or scholarship request you have made. In some cases we will put you on a waiting list until we confirm whether the type of assistance you are applying for is sustainable for the particular program in question. If we have any challenge in meeting your request, we will let you know and try to find a different arrangement.