Our international office in Novato coordinates, trains, and supports an ever-growing community of volunteers who form chapters in cities across the country. Bread for the Journey® chapter volunteers raise money—often in small amounts—from friends, family, and neighbors, and then give small, simple grants, called micro-grants, to people and organizations doing things to make the community a better place to live. Bread for the Journey chapters fund many causes because communities need many things to be healthy. Our grants work to sustain cultural diversity, promote ecological conservation, improve the lives of children, develop the leadership of youth through the arts and civic engagement, and create simple systems to meet basic needs of the most marginalized in their communities.
International Office Activities
To form such chapters, our international office provides 501 (c) 3 nonprofit status, a template for Articles and By-Laws to incorporate in their state, and marketing and communications templates. We provide our name, philosophy, and guidelines for creating a relationship-centered grassroots organization dedicated to generosity and kindness. We teach simple practices for building relationships and trust. We provide on-site board trainings called The Inner and Outer Journey of Generosity, as well as ongoing support and coaching for our chapters in their work. We host an annual Gathering of the Chapters as a time for renewal, reflection, visioning, and peer learning. Lastly, we provide a central website in which the work of our chapters can be made visible to the larger world community.
Local Chapter Activities
Each chapter then offers a unique blend of practical assistance, funding, and encouragement to help people in their local community start valuable new projects quickly and easily. When our chapters give a grant, they don’t require lengthy proposals or waiting periods. Instead they spend time with potential grantees, informally over tea or coffee, and talk to others in the community who know them. The process is respectful and liberating, restoring lost cultural patterns of care, for all involved. Bread for the Journey chapters are able to respond compassionately and quickly to the needs of their communities precisely because they are living in relationship with the people they serve. They constantly have their ears to the ground, listening for where the needs are—and, more importantly, where and through whom the solutions are ready to be born. As a result, programs that arise organically from local people—often also volunteer-run—are being born that heal and nourish our communities in ways that are naturally creative and responsive to local culture.
In short, our structure directly reflects a strong commitment to deeply nourish those volunteers who deeply nourish other volunteers who nourish their own communities. This circle of relationships supports powerful, authentic generosity and spirit in action, at the most necessary, simple and grassroots level.