Last week at a meditation gathering we had a group member who shared a bit about Gandhiji's approach to money and fundraising.  This is something that hasn't really gotten much publicity: money was needed to help get things done in the movement, but that process is rarely discussed.  

 

Clearly Gandhiji had something that attracted money and attention towards him.  Apparently, in the early days that 'fundraising' was actually channeled towards an endowment.  The idea was to use the funds to fuel activities towards swaraj.  However, this was quickly dissolved as Gandhiji started diving deeper into the concept of money, debt and interest.  What started as an endowment plan became a simple 1 year statement: whatever was donated was used by the end of the year.  The lessons of having zero carry-over are quite deep. First, one must earn ones keep anew constantly while balancing truth such that values are not compromised.  Second, one is consciously minimizing the use of financial capital as fuel while simultaneously building other sources of communal wealth.  Third, one is reducing the disconnection in the system such that funds are not 'invested/lended' or 'spent' in projects that are counter to the mission.  It is a movement towards holism.  

 

I'd love to learn more about where funds came from if that is possible - to what extent were there 'wealthy patrons' behind the scenes vs 'everyday heroes' in terms of total amounts given.  Regardless, it seems that there was no 'fundraising strategy' with targets to cultivate, which is something I see a lot of in my world!