You are invited to participate in our celebration by joining our tribe and dropping your own butterfly.

Email: contact@butterflyeffectbethechange.com

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The Gift of 10%

“No problem can be solved with the same consciousness that caused it.”

                                                                         --Albert Einstein

My parents passed on a gift to me that I’ve kept my entire life. It offered me a unique vantage point to the world and helped broaden my thinking. The gift? The concept of 10%. When my brothers and I earned money by doing extra chores, or if we received a gift of money at a holiday or special occasion, Dad would act as the bank and hold it for us. If we had earned a dollar, the bank kept 25% to put in savings and put an additional 10% in a giving fund. Once the giving fund reached a reasonable amount, Dad would offer us options for sharing the sum with a person or a cause. Even as a young child, I understood that it was not all mine to be spent as I pleased.

Then came the teenage years, and the “dad bank” had lost its allure. But a funny thing happened by the time I was settled in college. The 10% practice had become so ingrained in me that it came naturally for me to give. I really didn’t’t even think of that 10% as my own. If I was lucky enough to be able to earn money, then it was my responsibility—and also my joy—to be able to share the 10% with someone who needed it more than I did. And, because I had been taught to look for that need in the world around me, I noticed it wherever I went. As one of my mentors teaches, “Often we only notice what we are told to notice.”

Richard Rhor has said, “We don’t think our way into a new way of living, but we live ourselves into a new way of thinking.” That’s why I’m sharing this concept, so I can live what I’m learning, which is this: As a global citizen who feels compelled to help eleveate suffering, I'm inspired to use my resources to lessen the suffering of the world. As a co-creator in the universe during my lifetime, how can I listen to what makes my heart sing, then turn that into action to help others.

Turning passion into action

My husband and I have taught our three boys the practice of 10%, but I’m always wondering how I can magnify the message. That’s why I started this micro-philanthropy movement called the Butterfly Effect, named after the idea that a single occurrence, no matter how small, can change the course of the universe forever.

The Butterfly Effect actively involves others in the act of giving, and the very action changes us by opening our eyes to what our unique experience has burdened our  hearts for. I ask each participant in our program:

What makes you come alive?

What breaks your heart?

 This helps narrow down where they’ll direct the donation.

Then we go deeper.

“If you had 10 cookies and I asked you to give one cookie to someone who doesn't have any cookies, would you do it?”

Of course you would. You might even give away three or four of your cookies.

What if we are talking about $10? Would you give away $1 to someone who doesn’t’t have any?

Sure.

But, what if we are taking about larger amounts of money?

If your paycheck is $1,000, would you give away $100 to someone who needs it more than you do?

Yes, of course you’ll think about it. It’s only natural. That’s a lot of money!

But it’s a lot of money that can do quite a bit of good for someone else. Each individual comes to his or her own understanding about how to make a difference. It could be choosing to give 10% of a birthday gift or 10% of one paycheck. Maybe it’s money raised at a lemonade stand. Maybe it’s a totally original, deeply meaningful idea about how to share from the heart. We are each uniquely and wonderfully made and all have different causes we want to support. As we actively give to those unique callings, our hearts grow bigger. Our story becomes less about who we are and more about whom we might help. When we share, we expand our hearts. That in turn, tells a story about our communities.

Our new initiative

As our two-year anniversary of the Butterfly Effect has approached, I've looked back in gratitude for all the artists, volunteers and tribe members who have helped to grow and expand our movement.

Upon reflection we’ve come up with a new layer to our movement.

• We will continue our weekly drops and donations all over the world , but on the back of each butterfly will now be an invitation to the finder asking them to create their own butterfly drop, so that we create more ripples that will result in greater change.

• We will supply the butterfly and the instructions, but we’ll ask the “Dropper” to make a donation in any amount to their finder’s choice. This could be $25 raised by kids at a car wash, $100 given by a college student who wants to share some of their graduation money, or $250 given by a family as part of their desire to pay it forward.

• We hope to encourage the act of giving and participating in a larger movement of change. The Butterfly Effect team invites you to be the change you want to see in the world. By noticing the needs that abound in our communities and rising to meet those needs, you will join a growing network of philanthropists acknowledging that small changes in our atmosphere will bring lasting change.

What will you change?

In deepest gratitude,

Tasha