"Launching a Gift Economy"
Transform your community with acts of Kindness, Generosity, & Service
"In a gift economy, goods and services are given freely, without asking for anything in return. Instead of "savings", it is the circulation of the unconditional offerings within the community that leads to increase -- increase in connections, increase in relationship strength. Our security lies in our service to the world."
-- charityfocus.org
The Gift Economy principles encourage us to act LOCALLY, act NOW, and act with WHAT YOU HAVE. It is possible to make a difference with nothing more than who you are and what you have at this moment.
It is our quest to make these simple ideas available to people and to prove once again that a small act can have a large impact!
We were recently introduced to the concept of Gift Economy by some young speakers at our 2008 Awakened World Conference: Nipun Mehta and his friends from CharityFocus. While the idea of ‘paying it forward’ is not new, everyone who heard the stories of these five young people was touched and inspired in a new way. They brought to life the action of compassionate service and showed us just how easy it is to make a difference.
The response we received after the conference was incredible. Everyone was contacting us, wanting to know how to integrate these concepts into their programs. We even heard from people who were so moved that they wanted to tell us how they were giving out smile cards and creating waves of kindness. We would like to help keep that spirit of ‘no-strings-attached giving’ alive in our community, so we are offering the following program as a part of our 12th annual Season for Nonviolence.
Three simple steps to make Gift Economy a reality in your community during the 2009 Season for Nonviolence:
1. Hand out Smile Cards once you have learned how to use them
• Hold a discussion group to introduce the principles behind a Gift Economy.
How could you integrate some of these ideas into your personal or working environment?
• Just use the simple templates provided in Folder B-5-6 of your CD ROM
to print out your own smile cards. You can also order them online at: www.helpothers.org
• Download the list of Kindness Ideas from our website and distribute these--
along with smile cards--to churches, schools, and in your workplace.
2. Make a deposit in the StoryBank
• We have a new website designed specifically for sharing your stories and experiences.
Each time you use a smile card or participate in an Act of Kindness, visit www.kindnesstories.ning.com to share your story.
• Your story may be chosen as the Story of the Week, to be shared by email and read to dozens of congregations around the country.
3. Sign up for the Kindness Story of the Week
• Each week, throughout the Season, we will choose an inspirational story from a member of our own community.
Email us at snv@agnt.org to place yourself on this mailing list.
• If you are the head of a church, organization or other activity group, make a commitment to read one story each week during your regularly scheduled event. Click Here for information on how to sign up.