It Just Emerged
ServiceSpace never tried to create itself. It emerged from a simple intention: to give with no strings attached. Twenty-six years later, widely recognized around the globe as a pioneering movement at the intersection of inner transformation, deep community, and heartful technology. And still: no paid staff or fundraising, just small acts of service.
Three Creative Constraints
These aren't limitations — they're design choices that open up entirely different possibilities. In the previous century we might've been any small group of friends, but in today's networked economy, such decentralized and distributed posses are often in the position to be innovative changemakers.
Be Volunteer-Run
Not as a cost-saving measure, but as a design principle. When everyone is driven by inner transformation rather than paycheck, there's greater self-correction, self-organization, and regenerative energy.
Research shows that mixing intrinsic and extrinsic motivations strips away the regenerative capacity of the intrinsic. We choose to keep the well pure.
Don't Fundraise
Money should be the fertilizer, not the seed. If the seed is transactional, the transformational potential just won't be there. We use money to amplify what is already happening, not to make things happen.
We believe that everyone has a gift to give, in different forms of wealth. As those gifts get engaged, you receive resources organically — never pitched a story to the media, yet first TV appearance was live on CNN.
Focus on Small Acts
Scale spreads more in the vertical dimension (depth) rather than horizontal dimension (breadth). We call this deepcasting versus broadcasting. Each step is the goal, each step is the reward.
There's no threshold of critical mass, no scale at which we "arrive." The tiniest act changes the eyes through which we see the world. We rejoice in doing small acts with great love.
Design Principles
Over 26 years, certain patterns have revealed themselves. These aren't theories we invented — they're observations from the field of practice, each one an invitation to explore deeper.
Laddership
What if the point wasn't to climb the ladder — but to become the ladder for others? The size of the field is inversely related to the size of central egos.
Many-to-Many
From broadcast to narrowcast to deepcast. From Sarnoff's Law to Metcalfe's Law to Reed's Law. The math of networks favors heart-centered connection.
Multiple Forms of Capital
Financial capital is just a seed. Real wealth includes time, attention, compassion, trust, community — and the joy of becoming increasingly "nature-funded."
Me to We to Us
Service that strips identity, empties the "jet fuel" of ego. From individual transformation to relationship to a field of collective emergence.
Pace of Conditions
Moving at the speed of trust, not the speed of money. Supporting what grows here, not deciding what to grow. The infinite game of emergence.
Heart Intelligence
The power of collective heart intelligence versus traditional mind's intelligence. What physicist Fritjof Capra called "the field" at a ServiceSpace retreat.
26 Years of Sacred Mischief
A timeline of emergence — none of it planned, all of it unfolding.
A Pizza Gathering
In the height of the dot-com heyday, a few friends gathered over pizza in Silicon Valley. The meeting was about something radical: giving with no strings attached.
"Let's serve without any strings attached, just for the sake of giving."
Four volunteers went to a homeless shelter. We built them a website. A revolution was born.
Read the 2000 storyFirst Awakin Circle
Weekly gatherings begin in a living room — silence, a reading, and conversation. Rippled to hundreds of locations.
Find a circleSmile Cards Launch
100 cards printed as an experiment. Today, over a million circulate globally in multiple languages.
The ripple effectDailyGood Goes Viral
Almost a decade after its start, social media algorithms carry our good news portal past 100,000+ subscribers.
DG: 455K Facebook followersKarma Kitchen Opens
First pay-it-forward restaurant in Berkeley. "Your meal was a gift from someone who came before you."
Watch it in actionNew Name: ServiceSpace!
CharityFocus evolves into ServiceSpace — reflecting the broader ecosystem that had emerged.
TEDx talk, days laterWalking Pilgrimage
Nipun and Guri walk 1,000km across India — no money, no plans, trusting in kindness. Exposed ServiceSpace values to many.
UPenn Commencement21-Day Challenges Begin
21-day challenges started. After first kindness challenge, Nimo created his first Empty Hands song! Same with second gratitude challenge.
Watch Nimo's music video: GratefulGandhi 3.0 Retreats
First gathering at Gandhi Ashram exploring "many-to-many" social change. Now held internationally.
Hockey assistsPod Platform Launches
Online learning circles scale the model — blending technology and humanity. 2,000+ hosts.
First Pod! As Pandemic StartedAwakin AI Emerges
Weaving the sacred into AI — exploring heart intelligence at the intersection of technology and ancient wisdom.
Read the storyThe Journey Continues
90+ cities with weekly circles. 1.5M+ members. Millions touched. And still — no paid staff, no ads, no fundraising.
Ambassadors
Leaders, thinkers, and practitioners who carry this work into the world — across borders, disciplines, and traditions.
Jayesh Patel
Gandhi Ashram Trustee
Maki Kawamura
Chair, Goi Peace Foundation
Bonnie Rose
Author, Minister
Marie Ringler
CEO, Ashoka Europe
Sister Lucy
Founder, Maher (Africa)
Anshu Gupta
Founder, Goonj
Jacqueline Novogratz
Founder & CEO, Acumen
Gitanjali Babbar
Founder, Kat Katha
David Bonbright
Author, Board Member of Ashoka
Smita Navare
Founder, Drishti Foundation
Sister Marilyn Lacey
Founder, Mercy Beyond Borders
Vineet Saraiwala
Founder, Atypical Advantage
Martin Kirchner
Founder, Pioneers of Change
Claudia Garuti
Founder, Better Way Foundation
Mahi Klosterhalfen
President, Albert Schweitzer Foundation
Adhik Kadam
Chair, Borderless World Foundation
Tom Cledwyn
Founder, Drop Dead Generous
Shaheen Mistri
Founder, Teach for India
Greg Tehven
Youth Leader
Prof. Veena Howard
Director, Gandhi Center @ CSU Fresno
Parag Shah
Founder, Fountainhead School
Abby Falik
Founder, Flight School
Jin Chuan, Jin Wei
Monks, DRBU
Mark Foley
President, Jhamtse International
Michael Penn
Baha'i Elder, Professor, Author
Rebecca Henderson
Harvard Business School Professor
Dr. Karlheinz Valtl
Educator, Mindfulness Researcher
Zoe Weil
President, Institute of Humane Education
Shively Smith
Professor, BU School of Theology
Lisi Ha Vinh
Co-Founder, Eurasia Learning Institute
Kekul Vikas
Founder, Millennium School
Andrew Matheka
Educator (Kenya)
Michelle Culver
Founder, Rithm Project
Johannes Narbeshuber
Managing Partner, Trigon
Gary Zukav
World-Renowned Author
Nimo Patel
Hip-Hop Artist, Empty Hands Music
Rachelle Jeanty
Soulful Singer (Haiti)
Radhika Sood Nayak
Sufi Vocalist
Rick Archer
Founder, BatGap
Rohan Bhansali
Founder, Gozoop Media
Reggie Guillaume
YouTube Influencer
Christina Zappella-Kindel
Media Entrepreneur, OOOM
Stephanie Nash
Hollywood Actress, Meditation Teacher
Bettina Ludwig
Anthropologist, Author
Alma Gall
Laughter Expert, Performing Artist
Victor Koo
Founder, Youku (China)
Cindy Vuu
Chair, Bitis (Vietnam)
Ravi Venkatesan
Former Chair, Microsoft India
Anar Patel
Founder, Craftroots
Manish Ghelot
Head, Infosys North America
Tracey Woon
Board Director, UOB (Singapore)
Vallabh Bhanshali
Founder, ENAM; Chair, Global Vipassana
Georg Kopetz
CEO, TT Tech (Austria)
Simon Hampel
Managing Partner, Leaders' Quest
Ryu Muramatsu
Director, GMO VenturePartners
Larry Lunt
Venture Capital
Raj Sisodia
Author, Conscious Capitalism
Moriz Piffl
Founder, Vollepension (Austria)
Mekin M.
Social Entrepreneur (ex-Flipkart)
Evan Sharp
Co-Founder, Pinterest
Dacher Keltner
Researcher, Founder GGSC
Srinija Srinivasan
Board Chair, Stanford HAI
Scott Carlin
Former Head of HBO
VR Ferose
Founder, SAP Engineering Academy
Wakanyi Hoffman
African Storyteller
Richard Davidson
Neuroscientist, Well-Being Research
Osama Manzar
Founder, Digital Empowerment Foundation
Tapan Parikh
Cornell Faculty, MIT Humanitarian
Rev. Heng Sure
Buddhist Monk, Board Chair DRBA
Masami Saionji
Global Spiritual Leader
Rabbi Ariel Burger
Founder, Witness Institute
Gundl Kutschera
Founder, Kutschera Institute
Bhante Buddharakkhita
Monk, Community Leader (Uganda)
Rev. Charles Gibbs
Founder, United Religions Initiative
Kotaro Aoki
Founder, Kotowari (Japan)
Claudia Welss
Board Chair, IONS
Orland Bishop
Peace Activist, Shaman
Cortland Dahl
Executive Director, Tergar
Yuka Saionji
Deputy Chair, Byakko Shinko Kai
Richard Lang
Lineage Holder, Headless Way
Angie Thurston
Founder, Sacred Design Lab
Motoko Kimura
Space Holder, Healing Connections
Peter Wayne
Director, Osher Center (Harvard)
Pam Grout
Author, 20 Books
Hang Mai
Permaculture Visionary (Vietnam)
Join the Movement
ServiceSpace isn't an organization to join — it's a way of being to embody. Start where you are, with what you have.
"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
— Howard Thurman