Fund Connection in a Disconnected World

Hi there! We're The Gathering School, a new educational and consulting company devoted to helping you cultivate connection in your life.

Help fund connection by donating to our campaign to raise essential startup capital. Learn more below about who we are and why our work is so important in our current moment.

Starting Where We Are...

“As I finish my tenure as Surgeon General, this is my parting prescription, my final wish for all of us: Choose community.” - Dr. Vivek Murthy (former U.S. Surgeon General)

In a country diagnosed with a loneliness epidemic, an overwhelm of isolating and all-consuming tech, and a culture of deep polarization, ‘choosing community,’ can often feel nearly impossible.

At The Gathering School we get it. Community is hard; relationships are messy; being human is just too much sometimes. But even when all of that is true, we believe there’s a way out. We believe we already have the tools we need to return to one another, and to ourselves. We simply need to get them in our hands and practice using them.

To Create a New Kind of Community...

The Gathering School is a community for people who believe the division, distraction, and disconnection we are experiencing in modern life are not the be-all-end-all. We know that gatherings of all shapes and sizes, be they around a conference table, dinner table, or dance floor, are the places we learn who we are and how to relate to one another. It’s a place to be messy, to change your mind, and to practice courage in the face of uncertainty – together.

So how can we help YOU cultivate connection?

Through in-person events, interactive workshops, and an online community hub you can learn how to do things like:

Why YOU are essential to making this happen...

We are ready to go - we've conducted workshop beta tests, created robust curriculum and event designs, and know what we want to teach on our online hub. We even have people ready to sign up for our first workshops this fall. We just need the funding to make it all come to life!

It feels beautifully ironic that a company devoted to community needs community to make it a reality. So, if you're worried about the state of the world, or feeling hopeless about your relational life, what if you used your resources to fund hope and connection instead of despair and division? We know those things are possible, we just need each other to make them happen. Will you join us?

Where your donations will go, by the numbers!

Your contribution will directly support our first six months of launch. See our spending categories below if we reach our $25,000 goal:

OPERATIONAL (payroll, insurance, equipment, admin subscriptions, legal/registration fees): 45% (~$11,000)

MARKETING (advertising, launch, business cards, printed collateral): 5% (~$1,200)

EVENTS & WORKSHOPS (space rentals, food and bev, learning materials): 25% (~$6,250)

LEARNING HUB DEVELOPMENT (video and animation production, curriculum development and writing consulting, licensing): 21% (~ $5,250)

CONTINGENCY & SCHOLARSHIPS (financial safety net for unplanned needs, seed fund for student financial accessibility): 4% (~$1,000)

Stretch Goals (If we raise over our funding goal of $25,000)

LEARNING HUB DEVELOPMENT: The numbers above are for a baseline need, but we can use more funds to provide an even more robust and ready set of curriculum for our learners

ONGOING OPERATIONS/STAFF SUPPORT: Fair compensation for the founding director to ensure sustainable leadership and continuity beyond the first four months, and towards hiring local contract help for events and eventual more permanent contract positions.

A PERMANENT HOME: A space The Gathering School can call home permanently, in either a rental or purchased capacity, to host events, seminars, workshops, office space, and event rentals for local gatherers.

Follow us @thegatheringschool

Learn more on our website .