Dear friends,
Twice a year we reach out to our community inviting financial support for Wisdom & Money. This spring, we are taking up questions that we hear often:
Why work with people of wealth?
Why be a part of an organization for people of wealth?
Why would I donate to an organization helping people of wealth?
The short answer
If we want a world where everyone has enough, every part of the system has to be transformed—that includes wealth and people of wealth.
Why this work matters now
At Wisdom & Money, we recognize that all of us are caught and harmed by systems of injustice, even those of us who are wealthy. If we want a world where everyone has enough, every part of the system has to be transformed. The part we focus on is wealth.
We also see that those of us who are wealth holders—or who make decisions about wealth in our work—are in key leverage positions. The choices we make impact many people. Therefore, if we make decisions about money that are rooted in trust, discernment, and a commitment to the wellbeing of all people and creation, those decisions can have a powerful ripple effect.
✋ Why be part of this work as a participant, or a donor, or both?
People of wealth and people from a culture of wealth join our community for many reasons. Some of us are seeking a change for ourselves and in the world, particularly around money. Some seek to heal a split between our money life and our spiritual life. Some join our community seeking support for a range of issues related to wealth, including trying family dynamics or fear of not having enough. Still others may want to find community with people who are transparent both about wealth and the desire for transformation.
Stay tuned for part two of our response to the question, “Why people of wealth?” We’ll be sending it out next week—there’s more to explore, and we look forward to continuing the conversation with you.
Our approach is counter-cultural and audacious
We start with wholeness—the wholeness of the earth, the wholeness of community, & the wholeness of each person. We believe that each of us is best able to live fully from that wholeness in beloved communities.
We also see the world and many of us are far from that vision of wholeness and are in need of transformation. We know it is possible for everyone, including all of creation, to have their needs met, to experience wholeness. And we know that we can be part of creating a world where everyone thrives.
Wisdom & Money invites people into deep practice and beautiful (and sometimes frightening, and sometimes messy) transformation—at the personal, communal, and systemic levels. We believe that each person (no matter their class, race, gender, religion…) has a wise inner teacher and a unique vocation inside the larger Body of Christ which guides the transformation. And, after 25 years of doing this work together, we have stories upon stories of how this work moves people and money into the world in powerful and positive ways.
We created the community for which we longed
Wisdom & Money traces its roots back to a small group of mostly theologically trained, justice-oriented Christians who felt a gap between their spiritual values and their money lives. Though well-versed in activism and systemic analysis, we had little support in working with our wealth in a way that aligned with our deepest convictions. How could we find a different way than “business as usual”?
What did that path look like? How could we shift internal and external patterns to be more effective partners and allies in the movement for justice, especially with our money? And what could we do when we felt stuck or afraid? Wisdom & Money was born to answer these questions. We created the community for which we longed.
Photo: Early circle members Rose Feerick, Don McClanen, Bryan Sirchio.
️ Our role in a larger movement
All along, we have understood that gathering people of wealth to explore issues related to money is one part of a larger movement for social change.
Much social change movement work focuses on responding to the needs of people who are oppressed, targeted, or marginalized by unjust systems. Other approaches focus on shifting policies to be more responsive to those needs. Both of those approaches are critical—huge percentages of people are barely scraping by at this moment in history as a result of egregiously inequitable and violent systems.
And, in addition to meeting basic needs and shifting policy, we also see a need for spiritual transformation. By that we mean changing the conditions of our hearts and minds from which all our relationships and systems are created and reformed.
To support this work of spiritual transformation, Wisdom & Money offers people of wealth long-term community, deep listening, and spiritual and money practices that help us step outside of the distress of oppression. These offerings help us to learn new ways of being—both personally and in community—and make money decisions that create the world we envision, where everyone has what they need.