Generosity and fair share as a business model for Toru Education?
Curiosity is a fundamental human feature and leads to our daily wondering and pondering, creating the natural lifelong yearning for learning.
“I wonder why ……. ??”
I believe the best response to such an archetypal human question is to go out there and search for answers in real life encounters and experiences. Flicking out the phone and getting a quick fix answer from Google is not meeting this deeply human need for experiencing moments of mystery and wonder, for meaningful social connections, for adventure and actual experiences. And what about the un-Googleable questions…… , such as ‘Who am I?” and ‘What is my task?’ ………. No quick fix Google answers for such questions…
Toru Education supports this natural appetite for life-long learning and does it in Ako style: in teaching and learning from each other in inter-generational settings. It is a not-for-profit education provider offering hands-on, offline, experiential courses that support sustainable living that is fair and caring for all, nurturing the people, planet and spirit.
The flagship course is the permaculture course which touches many of those core human questions and strives to create off-line experiences that remind us of the inherent interconnectedness of all realms of life.
My greatest wish is to make the permaculture course affordable for all. In this little blog, I ponder how we could achieve this as a private education provider with no external funding, relying on user-pay.
Affordability for all would create the diversity of participants that makes for the best learning experience. In the permaculture course, we deliver a programme with lots of rich and thought-provoking content and many hands-on experiences but the learning provided by the tutors is only one part. Each course becomes unique as we allow sufficient space for all to contribute; for spontaneous initiative and for lots of sharing and learning from each others’ skills, experience and enthusiasm. There is room for lots of pondering and wondering……..
The actual course becomes unique because it is truly co-created by participants and tutors together. Rich diversity of participants brings the real gold: New connections are made that grow into friendships and initiatives, which ripple way beyond the original course.
Who is the permaculture course for?
It is for all! But in reality, the 15-day permaculture course requires a considerable time and financial investment. It appears to attract people who are in a ‘what’s next?’ phase, you know that phase when you
- are in a sabbatical between jobs, and/or re-questioning the current task/profession/job,
- have newly arrived in this area,
- have just come out of a difficult social situation,
- have retired or
- have left school or university, and other such cross road situations.
Ever been in such a cross road phase? Familiar?
People in those situations are often very open for new experiences and keen for the course but the relatively high cost can be a barrier as they might not be in full-time employment (eg. school/university leavers, retired folks). At first glance, a fee of $1800 is a lot. But is it? For 15 days full-time tuition and accommodation and food? Can you book anywhere a holiday that is as deeply regenerative, nourishing, hugely challenging, and fun!?! All at the same time? The course is not expensive for what you get but of course it IS expensive per se.
What is the impact?
It is difficult to objectively measure and predict the value and impact of a permaculture course. I can describe it as a course to teach and role model sustainable living (“Living it!” for two weeks!) and that is surely a ‘good thing’. However, it is impossible to predict what truly happens between 20 people who live together in community for 15 days. It is often miraculous beyond any plan. It is what provides me with my deeply inspired incentive for doing this work, pulling it all together. It might not be ‘big scale’ impact but it can be hugely impactful for those 20 participants. In my world view, effective change happens on this local, small and personal community scale.
How can we apply the permaculture ethics of fair share?
Toru is not-for-profit but also wishes to role-model ‘fair share’ and pay its tutors fairly. The key expenses are venue, food and tutors and the current model is ‘user-pay’, the fees being the source of income. It means that we are striving to create a balance between the financial needs of all involved: the needs of the venue providers, the tutors and the participants. I don’t wish to bargain with the venue providers for a discount as that is their livelihood. It is difficult to get the food ingredients cheaper (we do all our own cooking) and it means that it is the tutors who would carry the effect of reducing the fee. The tutors are the first ones to forgo full payments because they wish to make it fully accessible for all. They are putting a huge amount of time and energy into preparation and delivery and I wish to pay them fairly. Many of them are freelancing and it is their livelihood.
I am imagining a Community of Generosity!
My wish for the future would be that Toru Education is deeply grounded in the principles of gifting and its courses are affordable for all. I believe that life-long education should be free and not be seen like a commodity.
I wish I could advertise the true cost of the course and then promote a scale and freely invite donations, from future and past participants and the wider community, all freely gifting because they can imagine the impact. Imagine a ‘pay forward’ model where you attend the course and afterwards pay what you felt the value was. However, this takes more trust than what I have right now.
The current reality answer is the Toru Scholarship fund!
Toru Scholarship fund is inviting your donations
This scholarship fund was founded through a first grant, received from the OA legacy fund, see here.
A number of the extra tutors from last year’s permaculture course added to the fund by not claiming their tutor payment. The new owners of the Waihoanga Centre, the venue for our permaculture course, have also freely made a contribution to our fund. We deeply appreciate this.
As a not-for-profit organisation, I can apply on behalf of Toru Education to a number of foundations.
Bit by bit, it will grow!
For the permaculture course in January 2018, we set the deadline for scholarship applications for the 1 October and applicants need to describe how they imagine applying the learning from the course beyond just themselves, see here.
How much further can we make this fund grow? Together! We warmly welcome your donations. Every little bit contributes to the dream of a ‘community of generosity‘, which creates ‘affordability for all’!
See the website for the details on how to make a donation:
Thank you!
Doris Zuur, on behalf of the Toru Education Trust
