85 Percent

Friday the 13th seems like an ominous day to have my first meeting with my Foundation Group mentor, but it is also World Kindness Day!  The world could use a little kindness these days.

The conversation was enlightening, it got me back to those pieces I still need to put in place. A big one is process guides.  A written pathway into becoming a part of the Community House.  It will help people orient and get us all on the same page.  I better have some of those ready for our first meeting on November 23rd.

Also we talked about finances.  Uugh.  A tough subject for me, as I have had my own personal battles with money.  I have often equated money with greed, and so it is a big shift for me to start to realize money can just as easily be associated with generosity, kindness and even personal empowerment.

One thing I learned was that if you are an operating foundation you must spend at least 85% of your donated funds towards operations.  Well, I don't think that will be a problem.  I am sure we will use 100% and then some.  I was wondering what else you might do with donations than use them for the project? The big non-operating foundations apparently can hold onto their money, they only need to distribute 5%, which seems awfully low.  Or maybe I heard him wrong.  Anyway, I am not a big non-operating foundation, I am a small operating foundation.  And so 85% it is.