The Re-evaluation Foundation
The following is an update of the Re-evaluation Foundation’s goals, governance, operations, program, and finances.
GOALS
Our three key goals remain unchanged:
1. To fund the teaching of Co-Counseling to groups of people who would otherwise have difficulty acquiring RC information and training, especially low-income and Indigenous and Global Majority people
2. To develop Re-evaluation Counseling leaders and teachers in low-income and Indigenous and Global Majority populations
3. To bring the ideas and tools of RC to social change activists who are working on critical issues (for example, the climate crisis, ending racism, women’s liberation, ending anti-Jewish oppression)
We are committed to equity, especially to ending economic inequity.
GOVERNANCE
We have made our governance more professional by doing the following:
1. Purchasing directors’ and officers’ insurance
2. Establishing standing and ad hoc committees
3. Establishing term-limit policies for Board members and officers (for example, Board members now serve a maximum of two consecutive four-year terms)
4. Amending the Foundation’s bylaws (for the first time in over thirty years) to incorporate term-limit policies and other improved Foundation governance practices
We are planning to add members to the Foundation Board and are looking for committed RC leaders who have experience with technology, fundraising, nonprofit governance, and/or marketing and communications.
OPERATIONS
We have launched a new website. It has a refreshed look, makes the donation process easier, and highlights certain projects. Please visit it!
In addition, we’ve replaced our accountant and become compliant with U.S. licensing requirements for fundraising.
PROGRAM
Our philosophy has been that no meritorious need should go unmet. This includes actively identifying unarticulated needs and taking action to meet them. We have initiated the following:
1. A COVID-19 Relief Fund. This is to help workshop organizers and participants recover from “sunk costs” due to the pandemic. [A sunk cost is money that has already been spent and cannot be recovered.]
2. Foundation Zoom accounts. We have purchased fifteen Zoom accounts for the RC Communities. Some are dedicated to particular Regions or projects. Others are available as needed.
3. A full-time staff person to support Sustaining All Life projects. Sustaining All Life continues to be an important project of the Re-evaluation Foundation, and we intend to add additional staff as needed.
4. Wi-Fi data packages. The pandemic has made clear the severity of the global “digital divide.” Many RC Community members do not have Wi-Fi access. The Foundation has purchased Wi-Fi data packages to allow hundreds of people worldwide to participate in RC activities.
5. A Technology Assistance Fund. This fund will give leaders and Zoom hosts the technology tools they need to do their jobs. It has an initial allocation of $200,000.
FINANCES
From 2017 to 2020, the Foundation allocated over $2,000,000 to over a hundred Re-evaluation Counseling projects. In 2018 and 2019, the Foundation operated “in the red” (with a deficit), because grants exceeded contributions. (In 2019 alone we made grants of over $700,000.) In 2020 and 2021, contributions exceeded grant making, due to the absence of in-person workshops during the pandemic.
The Foundation’s operating costs are kept to a minimum (they were about $30,000 in each of 2020 and 2021). They are primarily for accounting, bookkeeping, and general office expenses. Volunteer Board members, and other volunteers, do most of the work of the Foundation. The current Board members are MaryRuth Gross, Rudy Nickens, Cynthia Phinney, Ellie Putnam, and me.
Please contact me if you have questions or would like to work with us.
mjmarkovits@gmail.com
(Present Time 209, October 2022)