News and Updates

This Friday, join us as we discuss the issue of income inequality in the Silicon Valley and brainstorm solutions. Reception at 6pm and the Forum starts at 7pm.

Reserve your seat now.

It’s been a big week for us at Common Change. We have been hard at work over the last few months making new enhancements that our members have been asking for. Some you will notice and other enhancements are less obvious. To all of the members, thanks for using Common Change and for providing feedback. We really appreciate you trusting us with your collaborative giving activities.

Let’s continue to create a better story together.

If I have to be honest, on the night, I wasn’t terribly keen on going to the generosity dinner.

Somehow I just didn’t feel like I had the the energy to sit through debating who needed or deserved money more than someone else; everyone fighting for their own cause. Thinking back, I would not have wanted to be anywhere else that evening!

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One of the things I love most about Common Change is that it is empowering and humbling at the same time.

I first heard about it when I was at a crossroads, relocating after 38 years in the same city. I yearned for community but had little idea how to find or create it. And my spiritual life was also changing, much to my surprise drawing me closer to Jesus (I grew up in a family that was not religious). My whole life was up in the air, and I was looking for ground under my feet, for home. That was how things were a couple of years ago when I heard Darin Petersen speak about relational tithing. It made so much sense, I couldn’t wait to get started. All the things that made me uncomfortable about institutionalized giving, like wondering why so much of the money had to go to administration, and whether the help offered was the best that it could be… Common Change took care of those.

“One of the things I love most about Common Change is that it is empowering and humbling at the same time.” 

Instead of being part of an anonymous mass of givers, I became part of a group of like-minded people with a common goal: to be good neighbors, to care for each other in times of trouble, to help people in our lives through their crises not just with money but with love and encouragement. Common Change doesn’t attempt to solve the macroeconomic issues of poverty and inequality. It’s grounded in real life and real time, and it happens between us, right here. But I think it is revolutionary, and that this way of being and sharing has huge implications for how we help and relate to each other.

“Instead of being part of an anonymous mass of givers, I became part of a group of like-minded people with a common goal.”

For one thing, instead of isolating those with needs as problems to be solved, they’re just us – any of us – in a tough spot than any of us might face. There’s no hierarchy among Common Change groups and their members, no higher-ups or leaders whose opinions or ideas are more important or powerful than anyone else’. We all give, we’re all welcome to present needs, and we’re all welcome to weigh in on the best way to help. It gives me an experience of participating in a restorative economy. When I think about it, it seems quietly radical in a gentle, not-in-your-face way. I feel honored to be a part of it.

What do YOU love most about Common Change?

HOW DO YOU HELP YOUR FRIENDS CATCH ON TO AN IDEA YOU’VE ALREADY CAUGHT?

# Try and get their attention

# Have them listen long enough for you to get to the good part

# Hope that they will understand your explanation

# See if they are interested

WHAT IF THERE WAS AN EASIER WAY?

WHAT IF WE TOLD YOU THERE IS?

One of the ways we have seen people really grab on to the idea of how Common Change works is through hosting what we call, ‘Generosity Dinners’.

# Invite some friends round for a meal that you are hosting

# each guest brings a donation to add to the group ‘pot’

# after the meal, each person has the chance to share a need of someone they know

# after a lengthy discussion and whittling down process, a decision is made

# the whole of the group ‘pot’ goes towards the need that was decided upon

# a follow-up email a few weeks later shares some feedback on how the gift went down.

BEING PART OF THE COMMON CHANGE NEED PROCESS PULLS THEM IN

Instead of trying to explain Common Change to your friends, you invite them to experience it and we help you through the whole process. As it becomes personal, so the likelihood of them wanting to try such a thing again increases.

Contact us now at support@commonchange.com to find out more about how you can throw your first Generosity Dinner or click here for more resources.

Steve Graybill, a member of the ‘Tension Dwellers Anonymous’ group from Washington D.C. shared this story of a need they were able to meet:

A number of years ago I read Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change.  This book asks two simple questions:  What are the biggest problems in the world today? and What does Jesus say about these problems?  As followers of Christ who proclaimed, “The kingdom of God is here.” these are questions that we need to ask ourselves on a daily basis.  Moreover, we need to do more than ask the question; we need to find solutions.

As I begin to answer the first question, I find myself quickly overwhelmed to the point where I feel powerless because of what seems to be an endless list of problems: HIV/AIDS is an epidemic in my home city of Washington DC not to mention the issue of HIV/AIDS worldwide; There are close to 6000 homeless people in my home City of Washington DC; There is an oppressive occupation in Israel and Palestine, myriad wars around the world that destroy life, oppressive justice systems that put people to death rather than recognizing that our Father is a father of restoration and reconciliation; Nearly half the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day, there are multitudes without clean drinking water on our planet and there are 30 million people either in slavery or sexually trafficked or both.  And all of this just scratches the surface.

At the start of this year I was in a rut spiritually; angry at God for all of these injustices that are taking place in his creation.  I was also frustrated that I could not solve all these problems—I am not God after all.  To be honest, I am still angry at the injustices that we see each day and I still often want to point the finger at God.  However, as I entered this Lenten season and decided to only drink water and coffee for my liquids—difficult for someone who loves Gatorade and likes to enjoy a daily beer or two or three—things began to shift for me.

First off, I had the thought that perhaps the enemy wants us to answer the first question that McLaren asks in his book and actually think that it is our responsibility to solve all of those problems individually.  The enemy does this because it knows that by doing so we will be rendered helpless knowing full well that we are just not capable of that and therefore we will just dwell on those problems in our head and never take any action whatsoever.

Second, I was reminded of a couple of rather pithy statements and 1 Corinthians 12, which discusses spiritual gifts and that each of us has a role to play.  I recall Shane Claiborne sharing a brief story of someone confronting God with the question: “Why don’t you do something about all this suffering in the world?”  To which God responds: “I did!  I made you!”  Of course that can easily put one back with taking all of the troubles of the world on their own shoulders, but then I was reminded another pithy statement: “Do for one what you would like to do for many.”

The beauty in doing for one what you would like to do for many is that it requires relationship—generally you must know one person to help one person—when you look at the actions of Jesus we find that he often focuses on doing something for one person, and he does that through personal interaction.  This is how Common Change works.

Our Common Change group recently had our quarterly dinner gathering.  Essentially, we are a group of 5 affluent westerners—one of us is a South African transplant.  During this dinner that took place the first week of Lent I was amazed and challenged by the community we had in discussing the challenges of being the hands and feet of Christ.  As affluent white people we did not see ourselves as the saviors but felt the conviction of being the oppressors.  We also shared the difficulties and challenges of creating relationships outside of our economic strata.  Most of all though, we felt that we were a community and felt that we were the church during that time—there was richness and depth to our gathering that I have rarely experienced.  I love the epigraph on my friend Valerie Anderson’s email which I think describes our group well: “We are not thinking our way into a new way of acting but acting our way into a new way of thinking.”

Just this week we were able to meet the need of a friend of ours through our Common Change Group.  My wife and I did a homeless challenge last summer where we spent 72 hours living on the streets to experience what it is like to be homeless.  During the evening you have a homeless or formerly homeless “guide” who essentially stays awake the entire night so that you can sleep and not have to worry about being mugged.  Steve Thomas was one of those guides for us.  Recently we saw through Facebook that he needed a walker because of health issues that affect his mobility.  We reached out and talked to him.  The walker is currently in a box in our dining room waiting to be assembled and we have plans to deliver it this Monday while we share a meal with our friend Steve and our other Common Change group members.

We will have done for one what we would like to do for many!

Inspired by the Concept of Common Change? Check.

Signed up, started a group, filled it with your friends? Check.

Started depositing money on a regular basis and have built up a nice group fund? Check.

But now it’s been two months since the last need was submitted and there are no obvious needs staring you in the face. What’s a group to do?

Well fortunately for you, we have seen over $500 000 dollars worth of needs shared over the last 9 years of doing this both formally and informally and so here are some suggestions of types of needs you may not have thought about:

25 IDEAS FOR TYPES OF NEEDS YOUR GROUP MIGHT CHOOSE TO MEET

1] Extract the pain – Share the burden of a friend’s expensive dental procedure.

2] Instead of flowers – Defray funeral costs for a neighbor’s loved one.

3] Give the gift of sleep – Sponsor a weekend getaway for new parents.

4] Ease the Pain – Grief Counselling for a friend in mourning.

5] Help launch a Future- Pay for SAT coaching classes for a student.

6] Invest in a Marriage -Professional Marital Counselling sessions for a struggling couple.

7] New Job? – Professional work clothes for the first day on the job.

8] Extend Hospitality – Language classes for a newly arrived refugee family. 

9] Celebrate a new birth – Put together a gift package of diapers, formula and toys.

10] Keep the Lights on – Pay a friend’s utility bill.

11] Keep communication open – Cover a friend’s phone bill for the month.

12] Fan the flame – Send your married friends on a romantic date.

13] Cheer on a student – Send a gift package to them in the lead up to exams.

14] Growing a family – Cover the adoption costs for a couple navigating the process.

15]  Support Education – Buy School Supplies at the start of a new year.

16] Climb on the bus – Buy a monthly bus pass to help make the commute to work.

17] Patron the Arts – Extra music lessons for a friend’s child during the Summer.

18] Celebrate a life – Throw a birthday party for a neighbor’s child.

19] Promote Independence – Assist a teenager with driving lessons.

20] Share the Burden – Help a friend with medical co-pays.

21] Travel Safe – Cover annual car maintenance fees.

22] Give Breathing Room – Purchase a month’s groceries.

23] Sustainable Income – Help launch a new business with startup money.

24] A Second Chance – Pay first three months rent for someone fresh out of prison. 

25] Equip and Inspire – Technical skills training for a young adult.

Is there someone in your life who has a need like one of these?

This is what being part of a Common Change group is all about.

What are you waiting for? Time to get posting.