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Try this
Imagine modeling what a truly engaged, sharing, cooperative community could look like, simply in the way you resource your work. Imagine living the reality of Collective Enoughness in everything you do.

Here are a few simple things to try:

Share your knowledge with other organizations
When we see others who care about our issues as “competition,” we hoard knowledge. However, when we consider the aspirations of our community members, we know that none of us can accomplish those results on our own. Sharing our knowledge could be one big first step toward linking arms together as allies in that quest.

Imagine Giving Tuesday as a Knowledge and Idea Summit in your community, bringing together everyone who cares about your issue, simply to share what you have learned and what you are thinking about trying. Imagine what you could all accomplish together after that!

Think about what else you can share
Every organization we have ever encountered has at least something they can share with other organizations and with their community members.

• • A van that sits idle until kids are out of school in the afternoon
  • Computers that sit idle after folks leave the senior center
  • An empty office or garage, or space in your warehouse
  • A volunteer coordinator (and volunteers!)

We have seen ALL these things shared, and then some.

Imagine Giving Tuesday as a day to inventory all your assets – your stuff, your people, your knowledge and experience – and to identify at least one thing you can share. Giving Tuesday could then become the day your local community foundation or other intermediary sends out a list of all the “sharing assets” that are available to help the community!

Have a BYOS sharing party (bring your own stuff!)
In the spirit of Collective Enoughness, gather your list of sharable assets. Invite others to do the same, and next Giving Tuesday, have a swap meet! This is another way your local community foundation, United Way, or nonprofit resource center can support all the organizations in the community. Offer snacks and drinks (it is holiday time, after all!), and next Giving Tuesday, let the sharing begin!

Create a Collective Enoughness Hub in your community
Nonprofit resource centers, social enterprise hubs, libraries – these are perfect places for a database of who has what to share, and who is seeking stuff for their work that you might have to share. The model already exists in groups like Freecycle, an online space where people can offer stuff they have, or seek stuff they want, all for free - a place for sharing. Imagine the power of creating that for the social change groups in your community!

The ripples of sharing via Collective Enoughness could extend far beyond dollars. It could begin to end scarcity thinking in communities. All that sharing energy could light the way towards being the generous, open, engaged communities we want to see. And bottom line, sharing builds community in the very act of resourcing what you and other changemakers need. Sharing builds relationships. It builds strength upon strengths you might not even realize you have.

That is why Creating the Future is not participating in Giving Tuesday this year, and why we never have. It is why we take the opportunity every year to encourage you to GIVE on Giving Tuesday – to your community and to each other.

And it is why Collective Enoughness is such a huge part of the Catalytic Thinking framework. Because together, we really do have everything we need.