Finance & Development Update

By Chris Wolf and Carolyn Reilly

As our vision and mission have solidified over the past year, so have our strategic goals, one being that Springhouse has the resources it needs to sustainably further its mission more effectively. Becoming a sustainable nonprofit organization is an important goal in relationship to all our other goals and especially in carrying out our mission. This goal has recently invited us to reconsider and explore changing our financial model. 

In our spring meditation series we’ve been reflecting on change. It’s a theme we’re well acquainted with at Springhouse. We’ve often said that in a design centered around life the one thing we can expect is change. As we have been working on changing our financial model, we have recognized that it might be unreasonable to think that we can educate effectively about a new economic paradigm and transcend our capitalistic context simply by how we structure and describe a payment process on our website. 

Our programs for teens and adults do have costs associated with them. After a two-year experiment of self-determined payments and a narrative pointing to an ethos of non-transactionality, we are moving to a clearer fee structure for each of our programs. We continue to build our financial model on relationship, transparency and trust, and remain committed to ensuring that no one is turned away for a lack of funds. 

The financial realm continues to be an important practice ground for deep cultural design work, and we are grateful for our community’s willingness to participate in this iterative process and for your support as we take steps towards our continued growth and sustainability.