How to Practice Money Piles

Conditions that support money piles:

– Enough of a level of psychological and material safety for the people participating to share their stories and needs with vulnerability and honesty 
– A container/space which supports listening, awareness, and trust
– Enough time and capacity for the process to reach completion
– Enough confidence and comfortability of the person bringing/holding the Money Pile 
– Some willingness of at least some of the participants to listen deeply, and hold awareness and acknowledgement of the differences in power, rank and privilege within the group
Think about who needs to be there for the process to fulfil its purpose. If it’s a house-share, ideally everyone is present. If it’s a gathering or larger group, there can also be representatives for other individuals/groups. You can for example put an empty chair and a name of the pot/group that you might be redistributing money towards. 
The process will look very different depending on how many people/pots you have. Fewer people means deeper, more people means more time and shorter time for individual sharing. 
**What you need: **

– Chairs/seats for everyone to sit comfortably in the shape of a circle (as much as possible, you can make several rows if needed)
– A paper in the middle of the circle with the number you are collectively taking responsibility for/redistributing
– Deciding the different “pots” and who the people with “skin in the game” are: the people or groups/pots who are receiving/taking responsibility for money. This should be for example the people who have done work during/towards the gathering, or who’ve contributed in other ways (e.g. paying back to the source/reparations). 
– Pieces of paper for each person/pot of money to update during each round
– Someone writing down final numbers after each round, doing calculations and feeding back to the group (it’s all about transparency)
First round (if willingness/time/capacity)

Either the “main actors” or everyone participating gets to share something about their relationship to money and their current needs/feeling of security and safety.
– Make sure you take enough breaks and time so that everyone can share and be listened to. 

• You might want to give space for clarifying questions after each person has shared.

If you are a group below 10 people, and would like this to become a regular/deep practice: It’s also a good idea to do a separate pre-meeting where you can focus on everyone sharing their relationships with money (without trying to make decisions). Otherwise, it can also be done in the very first round.
After the first round
Give everyone time to write down on their piece of paper how much they need/would like to receive or are willing/able to give. Then do a round of everyone sharing their numbers with the group.

– e.g. I need £800 to support the work I have put in)
or
– I would like to take responsibility for paying £400 worth of rent/ I want to contribute £400 towards the pot for Marginalised Voices)
→ Take notes and recalculate the number in the middle accordingly.

Second round – introduce supportive questions/information
Give everyone time to feel into their numbers again and adjust if needed.

Each person shares their current figure (needs/experience of safety/security or willingness to give).

• After each person shares the rest of the group is invited to ask supportive questions “does that mean you won’t be able to buy the x you really need?” “would you have enough money to cover for x then?”

Give time for people to adjust their numbers as needed.
→ update the number in the middle and the pieces of paper for different people & pots accordingly.
Third round – moving money around according to needs/possibilities
_Everyone shares whether their number has changed, or how they are feeling about their current number. _
Introduce two new rules:
– You can take responsibility for someone else’s costs by taking on that cost yourself
– You can take responsibility for someone else’s cost by putting that money back into the collective (the middle) urging someone else to take responsibility for it (if you think someone is paying too much or receiving too little)
**Final round(s) **
The final round(s) continue until:
– All the collective money (in the middle, and in the pots) is redistributed/taken responsibility for – if not, another solution is needed

– Everyone feels fully satisfied with the number they are paying/receiving
End with a round of check-outs. Make sure there’s some resources (human/time etc.) to debrief and support each other afterwards.

Well done, you’ve started practicing Financial Co-responsibility!

**Further reading: **my other blog post “Money Piles: Finances are Relational”