I invite you to consciously consider your contribution as you work with me.
I ask that if you choose to work with me, you consciously contribute the most you are able to and would like to, considering both your own needs for sustainability, security, comfort, ease, and contribution and mine.
As you are considering the invitation to bring consciousness to contribution, I offer some guidelines for how to choose a level of contribution:
Consider paying a higher amount if you…
own your home
have investments, retirement accounts, or inherited money
travel recreationally and spend money or recreational items easily and often
have access to family money and resources in times of need
work part time or are unemployed by choice
have a relatively high degree of earning power due to level of education or another reason. Even if you are not currently exercising your earning power, I ask you to recognize that as a choice.
Consider paying a lower amount if you…
are supporting children or have other dependents
have significant debt
have medical expenses not covered by insurance
receive public assistance
are an unpaid community organizer
are an elder with limited financial support
are part of a group that typically holds less systemic power (from the Global Majority, LGBTQ+, disabled, etc.)
Please know that I may sometimes be open to trades and am very often open to payment plans. I am willing to think creatively with you. My hope is that together we can find ways that meet both of our needs in beautiful ways.
If you’d like to contribute to make my work more accessible, you can do so here. These contributions make it possible to offer classes on a gift economy basis, class scholarships, and/or private sessions for those with fewer resources. You can also contribute on Buy Me a Coffee, simply to show appreciation for my work.
Wondering where these ideas came from? Keep reading…
As our world exists, many of us have complicated relationships with money.
Like many people, I have had a complicated relationship with money. I mourn that too often in the dominant cultural context people prioritize acquisition of money over nurturing expansive (or even minimal) well-being of people and the planet. I mourn that so many people can’t meet their basic needs and don’t have access to resources that would help them thrive, and that it is more often people from the global majority who are most detrimentally affected by a wildly unequal distribution of resources. I mourn that in the dominant cultural context we often judge people by how much money and stuff they have and that in our culture those who have more money are considered somehow “better” or more worthy of our attention and/or care than people with less. I mourn that a significant measure of “success” in our culture is acquisition of money.
Nonviolent communication differentiates universal human needs from strategies to meet needs. Food and housing are needs; money is a tool or strategy to meet those needs. In the way the world is currently structured, it is difficult to meet our needs without the tool of money. This, too, I mourn.
I have grappled with striking a balance between my own sustainability and making my work accessible.
When I set off into the world of self-employment, I held and continue to hold the question:
How do I both make my work accessible to many AND sustain myself?
The words “sustain myself" set up a false notion that my sustenance is solo work. That is not true. Rather sustainability is a leaning into the web of interbeing, supporting myself in some ways and inviting others to contribute to my well-being as I hope to contribute to theirs. In my first years of self-employment I often skewed my work toward accessibility for others to the detriment of my own sustainability and to the detriment of honoring the value of my time, energy, and gifts. I have been working to find greater balance.
When I offer the various forms of my work, I am meeting some of my needs, such as contribution, connection, meaning, purpose, self-expression, discovery, and growth. I also want to meet my need for support and sutainability by dedicating my time, energy, and passion to this work that I feel deeply called to without having to seek other work to “make money.” I wish this not only for myself, but for other people, too.
With a desire to live into my values of inclusion, relationship, and integrity, I want to make my work accessible regardless of financial means and particularly to people who historically haven’t had access to these types of offerings, namely people with lower incomes, people of color, and other groups whose access to money has often been limited or denied.
Considering all of the above, I offer my goods and services with a variety of pricing models. I have set prices for some things, like Cards for Remembering, Heart Portraits, and other art, based on the cost of materials and the time and energy it takes to create them.
I offer some of my workshops and classes with set prices. I offer some in the spirit of the gift economy, suggesting a value for the offer, but not requiring a particular (or any) contribution. I offer others on a sliding scale with suggested levels of contribution and guidance for how to choose a level (as outlined in the first section). Because workshops and classes take time and energy to create (not only the workshops and classes themselves, but the infrastructure to put them out into the world) and also time and energy to facilitate, receiving reciprocal support is important to me.
Offering my work in these ways is how I strive to reach the balance. It is a way I strive to move toward relationship and away from working in a purely transactional way. If you are reading this, I thank you for being in relationship with me or discerning whether doing so is right for you. I trust that you’ll do what works best for you. Blessings.