Flowing it Forward

by | May 11, 2020 | ShiftHappens

“May the rivers of wealth be undammed and flow freely over the earth. May the gifts move through increased hands until all people experience the abundance of life.” -Marion Weber

One of my colleagues, Carolyn, recently shared that in college, she worked for a mail-order natural foods company owned by a visionary entrepreneur. One day, a single father of three called to place an order, but couldn’t afford everything he needed. Hearing the situation, her boss said something profound: “Give him two of everything he wants. One for his family, and an extra so he can also know the joy of giving.”
This simple act of kindness is one that Carolyn still recalls with a smile, decades later. A similar thing happens often at The Pollination Project. We call it “flow funding.”

To understand flow funding, it first helps to know who makes our funding decisions. Each application we receive is reviewed by at least three “advisors,” which is our term for members of our participatory grantmaking team.

The majority of these 100+ volunteers are changemakers whose own work was funded by The Pollination Project in the past. You can read more about this diverse team of individuals here.

For every ten dockets (our term for a grouping of applications based on focus area) an advisor reviews, they access $1,000 in flow funding to freely give as they wish. The idea of “flow funding” was pioneered by Marion Weber, who envisioned a kind of giving that happened in community rather than isolation, democratized philanthropy, and came from a place of trust and openness. She also found it to be more heartfelt, fun, and adventurous, where her experience in traditional funding had felt like a burden.

No one at The Pollination Project has had more experience with flow funding than Jennie Kay. A longtime advisor, she has used her flow funding to support worthy but off-radar projects, like a program providing homeless people with backpacks full of vital supplies, and a mobile black history museum. Her largest flow fund gift, given in recognition of the thousandth application she reviewed, was to a program that helps justice-involved people reenter the community of Davidson County, North Carolina.

Taken together, participatory grantmaking and flow funding do something powerful. They make it possible to share financial wealth, but also the empowerment, based on trust and relationship, to decide where that wealth should flow. Generosity expands from a one-to-one relationship between giver and receiver, to a many-to-many approach that pollinates kindness abundantly.

Instagram

In the heart of Nkwen Bamenda III Sub Division, Northwest region of Cameroon, the pilot project "Youth and Visual Arts Activism for Social Change" unfolded at Teken Quarter Youth Community Hall. This initiative, running from January to April 2023, targeted fifteen disadvantaged youths—including school dropouts, drug addicts, and other vulnerable groups. The project, supported by a seed grant, was launched by the Collective Arts Development Association (CADA), which provided six art facilitators. These experts delivered extensive training in various artistic skills, from sketching and drawing on canvas boards to graphic design and T-shirt printing.

Participants were introduced to the fundamentals of colors, composition, and proportions, along with practical applications in screen printing on diverse materials like jeans, nylon, and polyester. The primary goal of the project was to leverage art and social entrepreneurship as viable alternatives to drug use, abuse, crime, and poverty in the local community. Furthermore, the project included an outreach program involving sixth-grade pupils from the Government Primary School in Teken Quarter.

The success of this pilot paved the way for a flagship initiative titled "Empowering Marginalized Youths through Life Skill Education Art and Entrepreneurship Skill Development." This ongoing program offers six-month intensive training sessions to thirty disadvantaged youths, teaching them not only visual and graphic arts but also audio-visual skills and crafts essential for economic independence and social inclusion. Moreover, the program includes mental health education, counseling, rehabilitation strategies, and connects participants with mental health professionals as needed, continuing to transform lives thanks to the foundational support of The Pollination Project grant.

#art #socialchange #activism #youthempowerment #mentalhealtheducation #cameroon #heartivism #grants #thepollinationproject
WINNERS!!
Our grantees Manjushree Abhinav and Aanchal Raturi won the Swarnali Roy Vegan Advocacy Awards 2024 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 

Manjushree received a grant for her project "My planet and my plate", inspiring students to become climate activists themselves, to plant the seed of change into the hearts and minds of students, hoping that these seeds will sprout into far-reaching effects. 

Aanchal founded Project Re-Learn, conducting workshops in Uttaranchal colleges to sensitize future agriculturists about ethical practices. 

Join us in congratulating these two incredible heartivists! 🧡 

@hsi_india 
@hsiglobal 
@manjushreeabhinav 
@earthling_anna_raturi 

#animalrights #animalwelfare #vegan #plantbased #veganlifestyle #nocruelty #crueltyfree #heartivism #grants #animaladvocacy #india
🌟 Volunteer Week 🌟  Celebrating our family of Grant Advisors!

Today we celebrate our grant advisors dedicated to #animalprotection .

🔸 April King (Montenegro/United States) 
🔸 Elphas Ongongo (Kenya) 
🔸 Mohini Sharma (India) 
🔸 Evans Okumu (Kenya) 
🔸 Fernanda García Naranjo Ortega (Mexico)
🔸 Leandro Franz (Brazil) 
🔸 Jeremy Gregory (United States)
🔸 Kate Luke (Australia)
🔸 Andrew Alexander (United States) 

@granjitatyh 
@kotorkitties 
@littleoaksanctuary 

#volunteerweek 
#animalrights  #animalwelfare  #heartivism  #grants  #animaladvocacy #advisors