Introduction

   The Beanstalk Foundation is a public foundation set up to help promote generosity in local communities in a unique way.

Mission

   To promote acts of generosity within our communities by supporting every day heroes, called Gardeners, with funding, education and administrative support.

Beliefs

   Deep caring for others - for those we know and those we don't know, for those like us and those distant from us - is the source of what is best in life.  It is the fundamental antidote to the unnecessary suffering of the world, both for those with too much and those with too little.  Selfishness and searching for personal happiness by chasing objects of enjoyment is the root of unhappiness for ourselves and others.

   The wish to benefit others is the lever that makes giving powerful.  The actual scale of what one gives is less important than the caring and personal connection that it leads to.  The mutual personal empathy, appreciation, and dignity in the generosity equation - the giver, the gift, the gardener, and the recipient - is the key to its power and depth of benefit.

   Acknowledging our interrelatedness and interdependence leads to health and community that extends beyond the gift itself.  The resources we call ours came from an infinite web of relationship - from the efforts of others in the past and present that we have never met, all around the world.  When we acknowledge this, we see that it is appropriate that those resources not become "stuck" with us, but are circulated back to the greater world.  We don't really "own" our resources - rather we are caretakers during our short lives, after which they will inevitably disperse.  Because we have these resources, we are on the spot: who we are - our intelligence, creativity and caring - is an essential part of continuing the cycle of generosity.  Somehow, giving money without our personal participation and caring does not fully close the magical circuit of giving that leads to the greatest benefit, both for us and who we give to.  When we give personally, we open our hearts to all those who supported us, and to all we are connected to by giving.  This is the source of real joy, the "ecosystem of generosity."

Because we see the power of interrelationshipo, we can collaborate with gardeners, people close to the ground, who can help our caring reach the "root hairs" of need with tremendous precision.  Our giving is still highly personal, but by working with others it now can reach people that we would never have been able to connect with.

In generosity, everyone benefits: there is immediate material support for those who can use it to go forward in their lives; there is the lessening of fear and anxiety, both for the recipient, who feels they can better address the challenges of their lives and families, and for the giver, who is relieved of the burden of having too much money and too little relationto where it came from and where it be applied to help; and finally, there is the wisdom of knowing first hand that caring for others is the basis of a life worth living.  In this kind of hands-on generosity, everyone gives and everyone receives - everone is a donor, and everyone is a recipient.

The Beanstalk Foundation does not aspire to amass funds from rich people and become an institutional "giver" that chooses who is helped and insulates the giver  from the receiver and vice versa.  THat would rob the vast benefits of personal generosity from both the givers and receivers.  our role at Beanstalk is to make it easy to give personally by empowering gardeners as our personal collaborators in the process of giving, and by taking care of the administrative, legal, and regulatory aspects of giving as much as possible.  Finally we will provide the tools to make communications with everyone involved within the ecosystem of generosity as easy as possible.

An act of generosity, especially with deep motivation crates effects that last beyond the act.  It is not limited by amount or time.  It is our real legacy.