Contribute to this mission (Ticket Pricing)

Labor, finance, emotional labor

We are starting the work of building new local economies by trying to create a fairer, hyper-local economy within the event itself. I suspect that we’ve all looked at a sliding scale and wondered what is the appropriate amount for us to pay or even how little we can pay. While what we are doing sounds similar to sliding scale, we are working to find ways to create a level playing field so that nobody’s participation will be distracted or even limited because of finances. We even hope to raise funds for child care or lost wages where needed. We are doing this with a three-pronged approach.

First of all, we have a generous partner in this event: Trinity Church Wall Street is providing one-third of the needed funding, infusing catalytic capital to make sure this event thrives. For the second third, we are working with a variety of local and national organizations that are deeply engaged in the work in each of these eight areas. Finally, we are asking for the participants to fund the remaining third with registration fees.

When we started SOCAP (the original founders and producers of SOCAP are also producing this event), we used a very traditional event ticket pricing model, early bird specials in which the first people to sign up were given the very best prices. Essentially you had to be an insider with extra funds in your pocket to buy early and get the discount. People who were late to the game paid full price. 

As we think about it, we see that our model highlighted so much of what is wrong in our economy. We want to do this event in a different way. When you accept this invitation, you will see that we are asking for you to indicate what you CAN pay. And if that is nothing at all, that is okay. We are also trying to raise funds to help participants for whom costs are prohibitive to pay for flights and lodging and hopefully even funding as best we can for lost wages.

We need EVERYONE, regardless of – and perhaps even BECAUSE of – their (in)ability to pay to be fully engaged in this work, and we hope that those of you who CAN afford to pay more, or whose organizations can pay more, will do so. We will give you a report on how this new economic model for determining ticket prices has worked during the event.

We are building Neighborhood Economics to be a year-round utility for the public good that is going to travel the nation with attendees also supporting the work through paying a fair share of the cost of the event. In old-fashioned community terms, this might be thought of as a barn-raising, or for us today, maybe a glimpse of a new economy where we attempt to model at this event what we are trying to build in our neighborhoods, an equitable way of sharing the labor – physical, financial and emotional – among all of us as we have ability. 

We are asking those who can contribute to this work financially to strongly consider selecting the top dollar amount we suggest as $3000.

You will have the opportunity to put in whatever amount you believe is right for your situation, but there are also some suggested levels from which you can choose:

• If you are coming from an organization that has financial means, such as a foundation, bank, or large, well-funded congregation, or if you are an individual with personal means, please choose to pay the full price.
• If your organization can actually pay more, please reach out to discuss the potential to support this work with scholarships for people who cannot pay.
• If you are coming from an organization that has similar strong financial means, such as a foundation, bank, or large, well-funded congregation, or if you are an individual with personal means, but your budget for this event is constrained, you may also opt to pay $2000. 
• If you are coming from an organization that has financial means, but this is a new kind of endeavor for your organization and you are being sent as an experiment, or if you are wondering how deep your organization can afford to go, then feel free to select the $1500 option.
• If you are an individual coming from a non-profit that is not so well-funded, or if you are coming as an individual and you do not have deep pockets, please try to pay $1000 for your ticket. 
• If you are an individual who is working in this space as someone who benefits from the results of this work, we suggest that you pay $500 for your ticket.
• For those who cannot afford any of these options, full financial support for tickets is available, as well. If you would like to apply for this funding, please select that option at the end of the registration form, and you will be directed to the financial assistance section. You will receive notification about your financial assistance application within a week of applying.