What is Ripples of Kindness?

Ripples of Kindness is an interactive kindness experience that seeks to engage and inspire participants in various facets of kindness, from self-kindness to selfless kindness. After existing as a dream for over three years, the installation will debut at Burning Man 2022. The project is being constructed as we speak — and we urgently need support!

The installation will consist of a series of rooms and experiences, each representing a different facet of kindness. It is designed to be fun and accessible while also profound and meaningful. The main installation will be located underneath a large starshade tent with additional experiences in the surrounding areas next to the main tent structure.

Highlights of the experience include interactive boards asking participants about the last act of kindness they received and what kindness means to them. In addition to an interactive puppet theater; a kindness letter-writing station to vulnerable populations in the US and around the world; a kindness booth to say kind things to fellow participants; a one-of-a-kind infinity mirror room to experience the infinite power of self-kindness; a seated station to receive words of kindness; the Garden of Kindness; and the Kindness Lounge, where participants will process, integrate their experience, and commit to doing acts of kindness out in the world.

The concept of ripples of kindness was imagined by its founder, Alyssa Eisenstein, four years ago while listening to a Ram Dass mediation called “Imagine.” During the meditation, Alyssa felt the energy of kindness and imagined/saw a ripple of kindness going out into the universe. She turned the idea into a custom-designed pin with the ripple image she imagined, began doing random acts of kindness, and has since distributed pins to people worldwide. Alyssa has envisioned this kindness installation for years and is thrilled it is becoming a reality at Burning Man, synchronistically aligned with its 2022 theme of “Waking Dreams”!

The installation is currently underway at a farm in Virginia.

Support request: we need your help! (And quick!)

We need financial support to make this dream a physical reality! And we need it fast, as we need to load up the project in just over a week onto a shipping container that will head out to Nevada with the vast bulk of the project materials.

Years ago, the project received modest financial support from Catharsis on the Mall, a Washington, DC Burner-organized event on the National Mall (that event was canceled because of COVID… and this project was put on hold for years). As of now, we’re working off of generous in-kind donations (i.e., wood), a bare-bones budget, and resourced by an incredibly small group of volunteers.

At the moment, we’re exclusively focusing on constructing Ripples of Kindness for Burning Man, hoping that the project will continue to grow and potentially travel to other locations in the future (perhaps even finding a permanent home!) Any support will vastly increase its scope, footprint, and potential impact. The project has the potential to reach hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

Funding will support the final construction of each room and kindness experience, including a hopeful order of hundreds of Ripples of Kindness pins for participants. We have a very talented production designer co-piloting the project who can go far with the design if we enable him the resources to do so :) The more financial support we receive, the more profound and impactful the experience will be.

Any funds raised over our goal will go to future project expenses. There will likely be many unforeseen costs, including a potential rental container that will likely be needed for future installation storage.

Finally, a dedicated team has been working non-stop for weeks, using a significant amount of their personal finances for gas/transportation needs to acquire materials and head back-and-forth to the construction site, food, coffee, use of their personal art/building/construction materials/tools, etc. A minimal amount of funds will help the team with this overhead.

We are so, SO grateful for any and all support you can provide!

It’s clear that the world needs more kindness. Any investment you make will not only help carry the project forward but will continue to pay dividends in making the world a better, more kind place :)

Thanks for your support — and keep rippling!