A couple of weeks ago, I told some friends that I was planning to stop teaching meditation. Financially, it just wasn’t working out, especially with attracting enough people to my online courses. My plan was to significantly cut back on Wildmind and get a regular job. So, I started working on a résumé (the first one since 1993) and looked into job opportunities.
I had mixed feelings about my decision, which was tough to make. I felt sad about giving up something I love and find extremely satisfying. I was nervous about job hunting again but excited about the perks of a steady paycheck and ending financial uncertainty. Overall, I felt a sense of acceptance and relief about letting go of something that just wasn’t financially sustainable.
I even wrote a long blog post explaining my decision but never published it because a few days later, I had a change of heart. I realized that Wildmind’s supporters have always come through, and I thought we could transform Wildmind into a Community-Supported Meditation Initiative.
A few people helped me refine the idea. The key concept was community support. I decided to ask people to sponsor shares to generate enough income to keep Wildmind alive. Instead of seeking donations for my courses (I was never comfortable “selling” meditation courses), we could offer them freely to everyone. As a thank you to my sponsors, I’d develop new courses to enhance their practice.
Two weeks ago, I launched the initiative, asking the Wildmind community to sponsor 1,500 shares at $4 each [2020 Note: Shares are now $8 each].
One reason to sponsor shares is that you’ll feel good knowing you’re supporting a website that’s reached millions of people since it began in November 2000. We expect the site to have over 800,000 unique visitors this year. Moreover, I’ll make the 30 or so courses I’ve already developed freely available. That should give you a warm feeling of satisfaction.
As a sponsor, you’ll also get access to:
We’ll implement these benefits as we progress towards full funding.
Shares are $8 each, and every sponsor gets the same benefits regardless of how many shares they sponsor. So far, if you want to give more support and can afford it, that helps us even more.
Your support is greatly appreciated. I’m already feeling uplifted by the contributions and love that have come in. I’m looking forward to focusing less on making money and more on sharing my practice with you, my community of sponsors, so we can extend the benefits of meditation to more people.