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 contribution, meaning, connection, and growth. We want to also meet our need for support in our livelihood through our teaching of NVC so that 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 particularly interested in reaching people of color and low-income people for whom our requested contribution would be prohibitive. This intention meets our needs for inclusion, hope, and concrete action toward bringing peace to our world. Hoping to meet these needs, we ask that each person contribute not more than they are able to.
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 can be met.
Financial Assistance
If you cannot contribute within the requested sliding scale, contact the trainer to discuss whether they can accommodate alternatives. You should find contact information for the trainer on the page for the event you’re interested in. If not, please send an email to nvc@baynvc.org with details of the date and name of the training you’re interested in, and ask to be put in touch with the trainer involved.
- Payment Plan: The trainer might be happy to arrange a payment plan with you.
- Scholarships: The trainer will sometimes have a limited number of full and partial scholarships available to people whose financial means would otherwise prevent them from coming to our workshops.
- Trade: The trainer might be open to some kind of trade.
Image credit:”Money Plant” by TaxCredits.net, unaltered, Flickr CCLicense.