Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Re: Compassionate Care Fund

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

Note: This email list does not support HTML and since I have move almost all
my email correspondence to an HTML reader my responses will be few and much
delayed since I can not reply from my main email source.

Mac and Sandy Thomsom asked a couple more questions about the Sharingwood
Compassionate Care fund.

Are there set guidelines to determine under what circumstances a loan or
grant should be awarded or is it determined on a purely subjective, case by
case basis?

I do not know of any guidelines that the team has, the team has full
authority to decide on a case by case basis. This is a privately run
organization within the community answerable only to the donors. I am a
donor but I have never asked for any information about criteria. Nor do I
care to do so.

Does this mean that the three administrators don't know who's applying for
the grant or loan?  Is that kind of anonymity possible in a small, close
knit community?  I would think people would know each other's personal
circumstances well enough to preclude anonymity.  This would also require
that all applications are only in writing (no discussions, interviews),
right?

No, by anonymous I meant that no other community member knows who has
applied for money. For example, If I had need, I would apply to one of the
team members and no other community member except those on this team would
know I had applied for or received funds. Again, the team would give out
information about how much money was disbursed to any of the donors, but not
the names of who got the funds.

It is therefore entirely possible to be in serious financial need and have
no one but the compassionate care fund team know about it. So far, at least
as far as I know, these people have not disclosed anything. Apparently even
to their spouses. But truth is, I have not really pried into this at all.

Also one final note: This fund is a voluntary charity, run completely
outside of any community budget structure, and thus it is NOT a community
assessment funded project, it is a privately funded project for the
community. It is my opinion that this is the ONLY way this particular
community would ever do this, since there are too many people who would
object to using any community assessment money for such a purpose and with
such confidentiality. I personally donate money to this fund but have never
asked for any information for how it has been used. Since I know the team
members well, I absolutely trust that the caretakers of this money are
acting in the best interests of those that need it.

Trust is the foundation of many community processes, including consensus. I
have the lucky experience to live in a place with a high trust level, and
those whom are not trustworthy are well known, so it is easy to apply
scrutiny where it is required.

Rob Sandelin
South Snohomish County at the headwaters of Ricci Creek
Sky Valley Environments  <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous [at] msn.com


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