Phase 1: Collaboration in an Emerging Field—Activities to Date
The Collaborative has evolved over the past four years with leadership from RSF and a wide range of other organizations and individuals. An initial exploration among RSF, Fetzer Institute, Whidbey Institute and Marion Institute early in 2001 led to a gathering on “Money, Wealth and Philanthropy” at Fetzer in November of 2001, and a follow-up meeting at the Marion Institute in the Spring of 2002.
This led to a meeting on “Transforming the Way the World Works with Money” in October 2003 at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in Northern California. That gathering of a dozen “experts” in the field explored the underlying intentions and assumptions regarding this work, identified a number of possible directions for it, and began to identify potential audiences and outcomes.
In March 2004, “Changing the Way the World Works with Money” was held at the Sequoia Seminar Retreat Center in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a site with a long history of meetings related to peace, conflict resolution, and social justice. One specific purpose of the Sequoia Seminar gathering was to bring together a variety of perspectives and approaches to working with money in a socially constructive way. A number of initiatives and working groups emerged from this gathering, including the beginnings of the Sequoia Principles for Transforming Money.
The work of “transforming money, catalyzing wealth” continued following the Sequoia Seminar gathering, and grew further at an expanded meeting in September 2004 at the Fetzer Institute. The gathering at Fetzer deepened the work with the Sequoia Principles and further fostered the initiatives: catalyzing the release of wealth; expanding the conversation about money; curriculum and youth development; and complementary currencies. The issue of class was explored in depth, led by Class Action, through exercises and discussions as a basis for understanding the diversity of views and practices about money. The powerful personal impact of recognizing and honoring differing levels of privilege was also explored.
In April 2005 the Catalyzing the Release of Wealth group met for 2 days in Boston, and in September 2005 the Sequoia Principles Working Group met for 2 ½ days in San Francisco to further develop the Principles and outline next steps for their distribution. Between major in-person meetings, working groups of the Collaborative continued to meet and work via teleconferences and on-line. In addition, the work of the Collaborative has been presented at several meetings organized by others, including Northern California Grantmakers, Whidbey Institute’s Consultation on a New Economic Imagination, and Hollyhock Education and Retreat Centre.
The most recent gathering of the Collaborative, Transforming Money/Catalyzing Wealth, was held at IONS, November 29–December 2, 2005 and included many prior participants plus a significant number of newcomers. More than 50 organizations and individuals participated in this invitational gathering, representing fields ranging from philanthropy to social investing to consumerism, “slow and patient” capital, personal finance, environmental sustainability and complementary currencies. This three-day meeting focused on cross-fertilization of ideas, learning about innovations in the field and innovative programs, exploring the next steps with the Sequoia Principles and other planning. Many new learnings and insights, and new partnerships emerged at this meeting. In particular, a funders circle for support of the development and implementation of complementary currencies was created. There were also many challenges, for example tension between the traditional approach to philanthropy and the real needs and capacities of those working the front lines of social change. There were also challenges in bridging across race and class lines, as well as intergenerational issues. What became evident through the process was that the work of bridging is difficult but essential for bringing about real change in the future. In the end, the group unanimously agreed that the Transforming Money Collaborative should continue and can increasingly benefit the participants and the field. A planning group of twelve individuals stepped forward at this meeting to help develop and design the Collaborative as a vehicle for moving forward the work of catalyzing and transforming money, with a particular awareness of inclusion across class, race, wealth, and age.
To date, more than 80 individuals involved in social change of many varieties have actively participated in the series of invitational meetings that have formed the Collaborative. As a new form, the Transforming Money Collaborative is a work in progress, both flexible and responsive to emergent initiatives. Based on chaordic and network models, the Collaborative fosters its participants taking initiative, forming alliances, even creating new “organizations” that spin off from the Collaborative yet remain connected through gatherings and the website. What began as a simple collaboration of four organizations is now an evolving structure driven by the partners rather than from one central guiding vision. The Collaborative is the connection and roadmap holder, resource gatherer, and thinking partner with activities across the field of social finance. As such, the Collaborative is undertaking an organizational model that speaks to the future, one in which the participants are truly co-creators.
It is clear that momentum in this “field” is growing rapidly, due in part to the leadership provided by participants, and due in part to the growing recognition that “transforming the way the world works with money” is critical given today’s state of the world, the disparity of financial resources around the globe, and the growing awareness of poverty and class issues—and the suffering these engender.
The work to date has been an important beginning. New and deep relationships and partnerships have formed, collaborations have developed, individuals have deepened their relationship to money in a context of personal inquiry, and a profound interest in exploring this emergent field has been demonstrated by the intense involvement of a wide range of participants. There has been much deep learning, enough to seed the next phase of the Collaborative and to celebrate the closure of the first phase. The initial objective of the Collaborative has been met—creating a forum for deep conversation about money among diverse constituencies towards transforming how money is seen and used.
"This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy."
- Douglas Adams
