Our Gift Economy Approach
All of our services (our courses, workshops, programmes and individual sessions) are offered on a Gift Economy basis. This means that rather than setting a "market price", we invite you to contribute an amount you are willing and able to give. This page gives more detail about how we offer our services, and what this means for you.
What is the Gift Economy?
What would the world look like if the principles of care, compassion and awareness of human needs that are at the very core of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) were integrated into every part of our lives...including our economic interactions with each other?
Which of our many current world crises (e.g. poverty, inequality, polarisation, the climate crisis, wars) might be resolved if the world’s resources flowed to human needs rather than to those who have the greatest advantages of birth or more savvy business strategies?
At Peace Talks, we are committed to taking concrete steps to creating a world where we can truly care for each other, operate from connection to community and give and receive from a generosity of heart.
Instead of considering “what is the price?” (as in a typical economic exchange) a gift economy approach asks you to consider your needs and our needs together: What do we each need? This isn’t always easy; but it is very powerful, and potentially life changing.
A gift economy is an attempt to recreate a world where, even in our economic interactions:
- we can all care for each other;
- we acknowledge that our well-being is inextricably tied up in each others’;
- our focus is on need (not greed).
"The gift economy represents a shift from consumption to contribution,
from transaction to trust,
from scarcity to abundance and
isolation to community"
~ Charles Eisenstein, Sacred Economics.
Why do we operate this way?
A gift economy approach transforms the moment of economic exchange into a relational moment - your wellbeing and ours are brought together into shared consideration. It creates a tiny microcosm of possibility; a world where we care for each other, where the implications of our economic choices are a little more visible to us, and where we are able to use our daily financial decisions as a way to meet needs and support each other.
Creating systems where resources flow to needs. We want the support, care and guidance that we offer to flow in the most direct way to anyone who needs that support, care and guidance, regardless of their financial circumstances.
Integrity and alignment with our values. The values of connection, care and compassion that are at the heart of NVC are the guiding principles of our lives, not “add ons”. The gift economy allows us to offer our services in a way that integrates our values of care and cooperation and moves us towards a world where resources flow to needs.
Discovering new ways of being, grounded on NVC teaching. We want to create a powerful experience of what NVC can look like in the “real world”, not just at the level of inner consciousness or in their close relationships, but how we operate with each other in our daily lives.
Our Gift To You
All of our courses and services are offered as a gift. We put a lot of heart into creating our offerings, including a large amount of time, energy and passion. We would therefore like to let you know about some of the less visible, “behind the scenes” elements that go into our work:
♡ Expertise and experience
We both have extensive training and expertise that underpin everything we teach. We are both internationally certified in Nonviolent Communication, and between us have years of training and experience in psychology, mediation, neuroscience, research, community building and communication. This is our passion and our life’s work. (Learn more about Sally and Jorinde).
♡ Research and development
We put hundreds of hours each year into researching, planning, creating, writing, filming, editing, and developing materials for the people we work with. We live and breathe the question of how to create more peace and connection in families and communities, and everything we learn, we strive to put back into our offerings.
♡ Lived practice and Integrity
We conscientiously practice what we teach, working daily to bring Nonviolent Communication into every aspect of our lives. As a participant in our courses, you can be confident that anything you hear from us is something that we actively integrate in our own lives with our children, communities, friendships, families, business practices and in our work with each other.
♡ A commitment to what actually works
We aim to use our skills, expertise and training to support you to make genuine change in your life. Our courses are carefully designed using pedagogical principles, cognitive behavioural techniques. We incorporate community and individual connection to motivate and support you to make lasting changes, and we constantly refine our offerings in line with the feedback we receive to make them as useful and engaging as possible.
♡ Authenticity
Every word you read or hear from us was written by us. We research, write and create all of our courses, newsletters, emails, blogs, materials and resources. We have a deep commitment to authenticity, because we believe in the life-changing power of real, imperfect, heartfelt human communication. This takes a lot more time than “more efficient” methods, like using AI to write emails, articles and courses, but we trust that you will feel that difference when you engage with our work.
♡ Support and Care
We put a lot of individual care and attention into supporting people in our programmes. Making change in your family life can be difficult, and we want to walk beside you for a time and support you to while you do this work. We stay engaged through email, phone, text and one-on-one check in sessions. We know that everyone's situation is different, and we want you to know that you don't have to do this alone.
How does the Gift Economy actually work?
The Gift Economy is a very different way to contribute, and we realise it can be confusing at first! We have answered some common questions we receive about how to contribute to help acquaint you with this way of offering our service.
How much do your services cost?
Does this mean all of your courses are FREE?
Are your courses all externally funded?
I really want to do this, but I do not have the financial means....
I don't have time for this - I just want to pay something
How do I decide how much to give?
How do you come up with your recommended ranges?
Do you want to support our vision?
Financial contributions are just one way of supporting our work. If you are inspired by our mission and would like to contribute in other ways, we’d be deeply grateful. Here are some simple ways you can support our mission:
Share our work with friends, on social media or with communities you are connected with. Our work is shared primarily by word of mouth, and your help makes an enormous difference in helping us to reach more parents and families in need of support.
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Offer us a testimonial sharing what you value about our offerings. If our work helped you, please let us know! It really encourages and motivates us and helps others to build trust that change is possible.
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Giving us feedback so we can keep improving what we offer. We are continuously improving our offerings to make them as supportive and transformative as possible. Your feedback really helps us.
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Offer some support with a skill or service (e.g. technical or administrative) that would allow us to focus more of our time on caring for people and teaching. Please contact us if you would like to discuss this.
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Contribute financially. If you would enjoy contributing to our work, and would find it easy and within your means to do so, every contribution makes a huge difference to us being able to continue to offer our work in this way. You can make a one time donation here, or join our circle of support by making a regular donation.
Join our Circle of Support
Do you feel inspired to join our mission? At this tender stage of Peace Talks development, we are building a much needed “Circle of Support” to offer financial and other kinds of support that would hold us with loving and caring arms as we do the same for the parents and families we support.
This is for people who are passionate about the gift economy approach, alternative economic systems, sharing Nonviolent Communication (NVC), who are inspired by or have benefited from our work and would like to support us. This support could include regular financial contributions or other types of ongoing support (including some of those mentioned above).
We stay in contact with this group through a quarterly email newsletter (separate from our Peace Talks Reflections) sharing about our experiences with the Gift Economy.
If you feel moved to join us, we would be so excited to welcome you into our Peace Talks Circle of Support. This group is in its early stages - it is collaborative and emerging - but for now, an interest, enthusiasm and a longing to contribute to our vision are the only prerequisites. Please sign up if you are inspired to hear more.
Join the Peace Talks Circle of Support