The Gift Culture |
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In keeping with the lessons we have learned from Charles Eisenstein, his book Sacred Economics, and his concept of a gift culture, Environmental Change-Makers is no longer charging for our events (unless we have to cover some fixed cost to an outside party). Instead, we invite you to participate with us in The Gift Economy. Eisenstein states, and we agree, that the time has come to stop making people pay for intellectual property. That is why our handouts and materials are free, and nearly all of our current writings are posted online. We are happy to offer them as a gift. If you feel grateful and would like to sustain us in our work, you may give a gift to us as well. |
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| How much should you give? Choose an amount that feels right to you. Gifts should arise from gratitude, so sit for a few moments with your eyes closed and connect with the feeling of gratitude that brought you to this page. Perhaps a number will come into your head. The right amount will give you a feeling of fairness, upliftment, generosity, or clearness -- the feeling you get when you have given a gift perfectly appropriate to a situation. | ||
| When you click the "Pay now" button, you will be taken to a Paypal screen to confirm your payment. (Note: You may need to classify the payment as a "purchse", because of how PayPal works.) | ||
| Our Experiences in a Gift Culture | ||
ECM has actually been operating in a "gift culture" for quite some time; we just didn't realize it or have a name for it. For a long time we offered all of our garden classes and most of our events for free -- simply because we believed the message was too important to bar people from entry simply because they didn't have the money. Peter and Holy Nativity have generously offered facilities, on what has been a "gift culture" basis. This generous attitude has come back to us time and again in the form of gifts we never expected. The funds to buy the rainwater barrels. Rocks to edge the garden. Art. Music. Teachers. Volunteerism. The community connections which enabled us to be able to start the Emerson Avenue garden. Through the Community Garden has created a "gift culture" as well. Volunteers give their time to make the garden produce and flourish. The garden gives the gift of a learning experience and beauty to many people. The produce grown in the garden is given to Food Pantry LAX. And now, through the Harvest Westchester program, people give homegrown backyard fruit and vegetables to each other and to the needy. Giving encourages giving. and at ECM people have given very generously. This exchange of "gifts" is precisely what has enabled ECM to become all that it has. |
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| A Brief Explanation
of the Gift Economy |
In Sacred Economics, Charles Eisenstein makes the case that a good bit of the mess we’re currently in is because we have lost a sense of the sacred and the special – the meaningful and connected nature of transactions between people. He points out how “unlike a modern money transaction, which is closed and leaves no obligation, a gift transaction is open-ended, creating an ongoing tie between the participants.” For example, when we go into a supermarket and hand over money to buy a tomato, the conventional, moneyed transaction is finite, complete. It ends there. We have no further obligation to the store clerk, nor he to us. Contrast this with a friend giving you a homegrown tomato, still warm from the sunshine of her garden. As she hands you the tomato, she tells the story of how she selected the heirloom seeds and she describes the luscious flavor of the salad she made yesterday with its twin. You accept the tomato (and the stories) eagerly and with gratitude. You feel a connection, an obligation. You make a mental note: “I’ll bring her some of my zucchini bread when I bake tomorrow.” This is the ongoing connectivity, the flow and wealth of a gift culture. Eisenstein says “Another way of looking at it is that the gift partakes of the giver, and that when we give a gift, we give something of ourselves.” |
| Is this a Tax Deductible donation? |
We have an avant-garde non-organizational structure here at Environmental Change-Makers. We consider ourselves to be a "Resilient Nonprofit" of the new age. Legally, we are a non-entity. We do not have a checking account.
Additionally, we continue to encourage you to bring backyard produce to any of our events to exchange with others or to donate to Food Pantry LAX. |