Why Gigfunding?

5 years of perseverance, dedication, time, and money; here’s why.

During my degree in Ecology and Conservation, I learned a lot about the depth of problems across the globe, affecting the environment and humans alike. My main takeaway was:

Pretty much every social and environmental issue roots from the systemic ways in which we organise, collaborate and trade; aka our economic and political systems.

I got tuned into system change in 2015, I was musing over the biggest positive impact I could muster in my lifetime. I ended up drawing this map, to help myself understand the global economic system:

It’s a high-level systems map of the main stakeholder groups in the World, showing the influence and money movement. It’s massively simplified, based on lots of assumptions and was made from a stream of consciousness (so don’t take it too seriously). One day I will develop this map with economists and statisticians, to make an accurate and layered representation of the global economic model at this high level. I want the average joe (like me) to be able to understand how the system we are born into and live, really works.

The essential learning I took from this map was that a concentration of power and money in the system causes dysfunction. Oxygen in our lungs is like money in our banks, it must come in and out, like breaths. Our economy of currency only works if the value is passed on and spent. Things break down when we hold on too long. It’s our ability to give and take, hold on and let go, that requires balance. A slow steady breath. But when finance builds up or stops flowing, it causes strain on the whole system.

It seems to me that a mindset of fear and scarcity, leads to this holding on, aka greed. And in turn, this greed, produces an objectification of natural and human resources as a side effect. I need to be safe, at all costs. Meaning that the power, status and wealth that comes with these significant positions of authority, can lead us to make unethical choices to continue holding that position of safety and influence. Either that or those same unethical choices propelled them to those positions in the first place. Good old capitalism, elevating numerical values over more complex value; like eco-system services (clean water, air, and soil) or human happiness. And so I see the fear-based mindset of these corporate and political leaders trickle down the tributaries of our economy; manifesting a consumer culture; where to have more is to be safe. And to follow leaders who promise the status quo, is to be safe. Leaders who use the same fear embodied, to build trust. It isn’t anyone’s fault, we are just afraid. We have lost our ability to be vulnerable in the unknown. We are risk-averse. We’re scared of the dark.

This objectification of resources leads to suffering. Human suffering, from the pressures of capitalism. Psychological and physical stress; from the necessity to be productive, create value, pay the rent, buy food, literally having to produce value to survive. And the environmental suffering should be obvious. Processing our alive complex natural ecosystems into our simplified dead objects.

So why am I explaining all this? Well because I think I have found a route out of this destructive and fear-based paradigm.

A pathway to a decentralised economy and a regenerative culture.

Society 2.0

How do we update society?

#1 Change how we spend our money

This is already happening on a massive scale. The past decade has seen a huge rise in conscious consumerism. we care more than ever about our effect on the environment, others, and ourselves. As we say, we vote with our wallet, and so we are voting for a fairer, more just World; in balance and harmony with its natural environment. Treating resources as precious, realising abundance, through circular economics and repurposing. We have begun to learn that spending money can create harm and good; empowered to create change through our consumer culture. The climate-striking generation-Z and Alpha are about to step into the work and spending force, and I for one am excited to see their influence. We must continue to breathe life into the right places.

#2 Change our contribution model

Every time we pay tax we are voting for this system of governance to continue. One of the main functions of the government is organising this tax for our public services. And we all know that these budgets for schools, hospitals, care centres, and transport are being continuously cut. What if we organised this part ourselves? We already independently donate masses to other essential services; fire fighters, air ambulances, community centres, hospices, the NSPCC, the NHS! If these vital services rely on donations, why not give everyone the autonomy to decide where the rest goes? We are all capable of making the right decisions for ourselves and the collective. We already know technology (such as blockchain) can make this process of splitting our contribution seamless, transparent, and fair. We are capable of choosing where we give our own contribution and being responsible.

Gigfunding’s marketplace offers a new way to, first of all, provision our most necessary causes. To redirect abundant resources to the organisations best creating human and environmental regeneration. Healing human trauma and rebuilding our ecosystems. With this, comes a shift of our collective mindset from one of scarcity to abundance. That there are more than enough resources for everything we need. This too plays into the individual shift, where members, through donating time, can practice a state of abundance. We have more than enough time on our hands, and so want to give a part of that as a gift, to something bigger than ourselves. This altruism and ‘higher meaning’ has been proven to help countless mental health challenges. When we have a purpose, belonging, and meaning beyond ourselves, there is something physically healing about the mental state.

The marketplace is a tool to regenerative the Earth and ourselves. It creates social excuses to meet and connect with our neighbours, others that are different to us, to build trust and social cohesion, and collectively feel belonging in a common cause; improving the World.

Connection is the antidote.

I see the Gigfunding marketplace being one way in which we can decentralise, and democratise our collective contribution. A new form of tax, if you like. Imagine if each time you worked, you got to choose where a portion of the contribution goes. Imagine us all having our own pie chart, where a part of the total is divided into the various causes, public services, and charities we wish is support. Complete empowerment, autonomy, transparency, responsibility, and participation. Highly adaptable, reactive, and resilient.

#3 Change how we make decisions

It’s clear to many now, that our democracy is a fallacy. The bottom line is; we have very little say and power in what happens in our cities, countries, and the globe. We are still using an ancient system of decision making, and public representation, in comparison to the modern, digital age we are all living. The responsibility is given to a small group, and we spend most of our lives complaining they are the wrong decisions.

No one is to blame, everyone is just doing the best with what we have. But it is time we all realised we all have the ability, power, creativity and collective intelligence to come up with a better system. We have become so risk-averse, even trying something new is seen as radical. We must find our vulnerability in trying something new. Give ourselves permission to make mistakes. Embrace failure. E-democracy is looking to be one of the answers to collective decision making, paired with some sort of Citizens’ Assembly (in-person) arrangement too.

So this is where part of Gigfunding comes in. Ideaspace. (our E-democracy offering) Using the infamous Loomio as a prototype, we are slowly empowering members to make decisions about our organisation and other causes fundraised for, through the site. Imagine a well designed online forum, with a ‘poll’ type feature attached. It’s a smart discussion and decision-making tool, to organise large group decisions.

Causes might ask supporters something practical like “Where can Shelter find 10 second-hand mattresses in East London?” or something more strategic, like “How shall we spend the £5000 donated through Gigfunding this month?” Or even a more personal question like “What aren’t we doing well as an organisation?” And most importantly, these questions can be aimed at the beneficiaries too; opening up an invaluable conversation.

So you see, Ideaspace is designed to empower everyone to be a part of the solution, while giving an opportunity to practice online democracy and engage as an active citizen. It teaches listening, compromise, self-organising; while leveraging collective intelligence and creativity. We will build confidence in our new ideas, our ability to create, give, contribute, and be helpful in a diversity of ways.

No one is as clever as everyone.

If we can get good at making collective decisions for causes, there’s no reason why we can’t do it for at a district or even national level eventually. If we become experts at E-democracy there won’t be a need for a centralised body to make decisions on our behalf. We can share the responsibility, power, and creative process. We can all be responsible and we are all an expert in something.

#4 Change our mindset

Most of us have ‘bought into’ the centralised governance systems. Some of us feel we need the support of a ‘parent’ type figure; helping organise our basic needs. And many can’t imagine an alternative, or feel imprisoned in the lack of choice. I often hear the phrase “That’s just how it is” — which is a terrible, disempowering sentence. I am here to tell you there are many alternatives, there has never been a better time to try one, and it begins with you believing it’s possible.

After thinking on the systems map, I learned that there are pieces in this puzzle, that we ‘the people’ can redesign or reappropriate. When we begin to see our collective power to have influence, we step into a position of authority in our lives. Taking the responsibility for our futures and becoming our own changemaker. We all have equal power in this World, only those that realise it, get to use it.

We first must change from a collective mindset of ‘I need help’ to one of ‘I can help’.

We have also become normalised to objectifying resources, we do not see the natural World as part of ourselves. We must shift our mindset to the truth of oneness. You are another me. We are all from the same. We are made of the same. And to learn everything has a knock-on impact, which ultimately comes back to us. Our systems, ecology, lifecycle, economy; are all circular. The idea that anything can be linear is a fantasy. Our waste does not exit Earth, fuels do not disappear when burnt, the atoms of our bodies don’t leave the planet in death; everything transforms and continues. It’s a circular system, just like in our bodies.

So this is why Gigfunding, in my mind, it’s the most effective way to alleviate the greatest amount of suffering, while simultaneously creating the largest amount of healing. This is why I’ve dedicated my life to this work.

Regenerating mental and environ-mental health.

Building human connection, and trust.

Redesigning how we organise ourselves.

Growing inner and outer peace.

Concerns

Here are some concerns that have been voiced about this vision:

(Feel free to add more in the comments or message me)

‘Won’t people just help themselves? Humans are habitually selfish’

> I believe this is a myth. Humans are inherently collaborative and community-led creatures. The very reason we have thrived on this planet is down to our ability to work together, share resources, information and care for one another. Division of labor and eusocial behavior.

‘How can we trust others to make the ‘right’ decisions?’

> I see trust as a two-way street. You have give someone your trust, to allow them to prove to be trustworthy. We are, majority, good at making the best decisions for ourselves and the collective, when we have the true and full information necessary. A significant part of this long process into collective democracy will be learning how to make decisions and compromising with others. We will have to grow the required listening skills. Truth and information sharing will also be key; you can’t expect people to make a wholehearted decision withouth having the true surrounding context and information nessisary. Liquid democracy is just one way of enabling a fairer voting on decision we don’t have the expertise.

‘Aren’t some skills more applicable than others?’

> Yes, I see Gigfunding, to begin with, mainly working for freelancers and retired skilled individuals. While the more essential public service workers will eventually be supported by donations. But the freelance workforce is speedily rising, making for a more adaptive and resilient economy.

‘How do we make the jump from our current tax system to this?’

> I don’t know, I’m not going to pretend to. And I don’t think we need to know yet. But in my imagination, I see a point where collectively we realise we don’t need our centralised-bottleneck of governance. Perhaps this will be a tax strike, with a gentil movement to a new way of organising the collective contribution.