By Corina Angelescu, coordinator of the Abundance Fellowship.
“As a participant in a traditional culture of gratitude, with a bucket full of berries in my hand, there’s something I’ve never quite understood about human economics, and that is the primacy of scarcity as an organising principle. Capitalist market economies depend on the motive force of scarcity in order to regulate markets with supply and demand. As a person schooled by plants, my fingers stained with berry juice, I’m not willing to give scarcity such a prominent role. Gift economies arise from an understanding of earthly abundance and the gratitude it generates. A perception of abundance, based on the notion that there is enough if we share it, underlies economies of mutual support.”
– Robin Wall Kimmerer,
The Serviceberry – An Economy of Abundance
Let us get our fingers stained with berry juice, and take a moment to consider our relationship with wealth. What makes you feel rich? Is it the amount of money in your account? Thriving relationships? A jar of strawberry jam from your (grand)mother? The recognition you get for your work as a social innovator? The forest you see outside your window? What makes you shout out loud “I AM RICH!”?
If the thought alone of seeing your own richness gives you an unsettling feeling, know that you are not alone. After all, so many of us are conditioned to see the world through capitalist lenses. Scarcity, competition and the commodification of goods and services are at the core, and we are left with a hustling feeling that we are never enough, that we constantly need to strive for more. More resources, more wealth, more power, more status, more recognition, more knowledge, more consumption, more… impact.
As changemakers ourselves, how do we bridge between “I am not enough” and “I am rich”? We need a more holistic approach to our economic systems, one that challenges the underlying assumptions of scarcity, greed and individualism, and embraces the path of abundance, reciprocity and mutual flourishing. Yet opportunities to practically experiment with these radical forms of wellbeing are rare. Where do we start regenerating our relationship with money and economy, alone and together?
Here’s where The Abundance Fellowship comes in.
The first edition of the Abundance Fellowship gathered 17 fellows from 15 countries and 4 continents. Together, we went through an in-depth, 3-month journey, revisiting our assumptions about the world and reclaiming our inner economists towards more abundance and regeneration. We shared decisions, money and power, connected with a plurality of knowledge systems and developed a systemic understanding of our stories with money.
The journey towards abundance
Speaking of systemic understanding, have you ever wondered how the patterns that drive our relationships with money can ripple into other dimensions of our lives? For example, the same patterns of scarcity, accumulation, or extraction can manifest in our professional roles or intimate relationships, in how we make decisions or deal with conflicts, in our food, clothing, or entertainment choices, even in how we learn or collaborate.
This is why we created a holistic journey for our participants, where how we learn is just as important and revealing as what we learn.
“It has truly been a transformative journey, redefining my relationship with money and leaving a lasting imprint on my understanding of its purpose and value.”
(Testimonial from a fellow in the first edition of The Abundance Fellowship)
Here’s a sneak peek at the regenerative elements we focus on:
Just as in nature regeneration starts with the soil, in the Abundance Fellowship it starts with our relationships.
Cultivating a strong sense of trust, connection, and safety is important in order to address such a loaded, complex issue like money. Human connection is at the core of our agenda.
How do we do it? We amplify the voices in the group through the power of storytelling. We collectively craft our journey agreements (and do our best to embody them, alone and together). We encourage participants to drive the agenda through various liberating facilitation formats. We practice reciprocity, by intentionally giving, receiving, and asking for what we need. We encourage the full spectrum of human emotions and hold space for one another. Last but not least, we commit to work on ourselves so that we can show up in integrity in the collective space.
Once the relational soil is nourished, it makes it easier for the seeds of new perspectives to start germinating. Through bi-weekly cohort meet-ups and open masterclasses, we explore a wide range of topics—from the underlying drivers of the mainstream economic system to alternative economic models and systemic connections with ecological, socio-political, or cultural aspects. We also offer a library of more than 150 carefully curated resources and encourage fellows to go deeper according to their own interests.
The journey is filled with opportunities to immerse ourselves in new ways of thinking, being, and doing. For example, fellows co-own the Abundance Fund (3000 EUR), as an invitation to embody a conscious relationship with money and economy.
By the end of the fellowship, we host a dedicated ritual where fellows collaboratively (and fearlessly) decide where the money needs to flow. Besides the Abundance Fund, we also observe our relationship with value and wealth by using a unique virtual currency throughout the journey, and work on our relationships with multiple forms of capital through a powerful Gift Circle.
Regeneration can’t be forced or rushed. Yet, we do our best as facilitators to create the conditions for the deeper transformation and healing of our relationships with money.
In full honesty, this spiritual side of our journey can go by as an invisible dimension. It is only when we can be present in the here and now that we can witness those precious moments of serendipity. That’s when the healing breeze fills the room and all we can do is breathe and remember our sense of belonging to this beautiful world. In the end, everything is connected. Even our spiritual selves and money. (On that note, here’s an interesting chicken-or-egg dilemma: What came first: the financial crisis or the spiritual disconnect?)
Now that you have an idea of how the Abundance Fellowship works, you might wonder how the harvesting season looks like in our garden. Here’s what some of our first fellows shared about what they took away from this journey:
“Being aware of the interconnectedness of wealth and how it transcends monetary boundaries.”
“Breaking down mental barriers around money as a taboo topic, and fostering empathy across diverse perspectives.”
“Appreciating abundance in its broader sense, feeling richer in experiences, relationships, and personal growth.”
“Incorporating new approaches (e.g., gift economy) into our everyday lives and work.”
“Learning how to identify genuine needs and distribute resources based on equity rather than mere equality.”
In 2024, the Abundance Fellowship is evolving into a stand-alone, community-led initiative. Guided by an intention to deepen our work and support each other as we continue to experiment with various regenerative practices, we are now a self-organising collective of 9 members, including Corina Angelescu as a Steward and 8 abundance fellows from the first generation: Ako Eyo Oku, Amélie Mariage, Cemre Ceren Asarli, Elena Samsonova, Esther Mwangi, Njeke Joshua Egbe, Sumit Arora and Tímea Szöke. Together we co-create and co-organise the second edition of the fellowship, deepen our practices with conscious economy, and foster a larger playground from which more such offerings can emerge.
An invitation to travel from separation to interconnectedness
What makes the Abundance Fellowship equally enriching and uncomfortable is its positioning at the confluence of two rivers. One river holds each of our individual journeys: our upbringing and cultural roots, our personal relationship with money, our needs and challenges, our way of making a living, our beliefs around work, value and growth, etc. The other river holds our collective journey: the larger economic systems we have designed and adopted as humans, the socio-political and cultural elements that influence economy and livelihoods, ecological and technological implications, etc.
The fellowship emerges from this confluence. And while it is not always comfortable to swim against the currents, there is a huge scope for individual and collective transformation if we choose to swim together.
“The process of reevaluating and challenging my preconceived notions, though ultimately rewarding, initially stirred feelings of vulnerability and uncertainty. It’s not always easy to confront long-standing beliefs and habits, especially when they are deeply rooted in societal expectations and personal experiences. This discomfort served as a reminder of the resistance that often accompanies personal growth and transformation.“
– (Testimonial from a fellow in the first edition of The Abundance Fellowship)
Unfortunately, internalised scarcity leads to a sense of separation, where individuals are expected to cope and respond alone to issues which are deeply collective. By opening our journey to people from a diversity of cultures and backgrounds, we foster a sense of interconnectedness and solidarity among our fellows. As Toko-pa Turner frames it, “there is a genius that can only be found in our coming together, and it’s our combined abilities that elevate and strengthen us”. (Circular Leadership)
Come dip your toes in the water
“Money is just like water – it flows through every life. It doesn’t belong to any of us. It belongs to all of us, or none of us. I want you to know that this money that’s like water is a carrier. That’s why we call it a currency – it’s a current. As it flows through my life, I know it’s my job to pass it on where it will do the most good for the most folks.”
– An excerpt from Lynne Twist’s TED Talk
on “Freedom from the money culture”)
If you’ve read this far, we hope to have one intention in common: to cultivate a more liberating relationship with money and economy, rooted in reciprocity and abundance.
Here are 2 ways in which you can connect with the Abundance Fellowship and our collective:
- Explore our carefully curated Resources Corner and choose from more than 150 resources on money and economy. You can search based on tags, formats or applications.
- Apply for the Abundance Fellowship 2024 and experience the journey yourself! The applications are open until August 15th, 2024, only for members of ChangemakerXchange and the Bosch Alumni Network.
And remember: “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” (Mahatma Gandhi)