WTC June 2025 Update: Financial Stability, Governance, & Programming

Financial Stability

Thank you to everyone who came to the community conversation about financial stability for Wisdom Tree Collective on June 10th.

We reminded everyone that last year WTC lost 90% of our funding and we have been seeking stability and sustainability since. When bringing this to the Collective's awareness in November, those gathered donated enough to cover three months of expenses. This month we had a candid conversation that our current financial situation is not stable or sustainable.

Folks on the call earlier this month shared different ideas for how we can raise funds for Wisdom Tree Collective. The Leadership Council is seeking out funding opportunities, but we could use help. We have had to make tough decisions like payroll freezes and delaying programs in order to meet our financial needs. This has not been easy for WTC staff and doesn’t align with how we want to do business.

In full transparency here is our current financial situation:

• Monthly Expenses: $5,200 (This is our bare bones budget.)

  Operation Expenses: $660 (Accounting fees, office supplies, bank charges)

  Payroll Expenses: $3,000 (Salaries and payroll taxes)

  Retreat Expenses: $1,000

  Insurance: $100

  Kajabi: $440 (All-in-one tech platform for website, courses, circles, and donations)

• Receive income from a few monthly donors, small family foundations, and program revenue.
• If we received no further revenue we have enough money in the bank to operate through September of this year.

Through our discernment process it seems clear that now is not the time for Wisdom Tree Collective to close its doors. We are in the middle of shifts and new growth and we need to find the income to sustain what we are committed to doing. This is going to take the collective.

If you feel led to engage with Wisdom Tree around our sustainability we invite you to consider the following investments:

• Become a monthly donor. Monthly donors make a huge difference in sustainability. For example, if 9 people gave $50/month that would cover the cost of Kajabi for each month. Donate here: https://www.wisdomtreecollective.com/donations. 
• Make a one time donation. Any investment is appreciated and helpful. Donate here: https://www.wisdomtreecollective.com/donations
• Connect Wisdom Tree Collective with family foundations or other funding opportunities.
• Invite others to be a part of the Wisdom Tree Collective.

You can find Our 2025 Funding Vision here: https://www.wisdomtreecollective.com/2025-wtc-funding-vision This document gives helpful language and messaging about who Wisdom Tree Collective is and what we do (scroll down to read more about "Programming").

Governance

Thank you to everyone who came to the community conversation & discernment about Wisdom Tree Collective's on Governance on June 17th. We sought to bring more transparency and deeper invitation for more shared responsibility. We will share highlights from the conversation here. 

Our Vision

"Every person and every profession tended to through the ancient art of soul care." 

Our vision includes and extends beyond our spiritual direction training, including our Circles, Workshops, Retreats, and beyond.

A New Governance Structure for Wisdom Tree Collective

Purpose:
The Leadership Council serves as the legal Board of Directors and spiritual leadership body, stewarding WTC’s mission, sustainability, and contemplative integrity.

Composition:
Composed of 5–9 members drawn from alumni, faculty, and community stakeholders. Roles are fluid and rotational, with members supported by mentorship and collaborative discernment.

• Steward of Vision & Values (Board Chair)- currently Rev. Dr. Amy Steele
  Ensures alignment with WTC’s mission, values, and contemplative ethos. Facilitates major discernment and serves as the legal Chair of the Board.
  
  
• Guardian of Financial Well-Being (Treasurer)- currently Jill Wright
  Oversees ethical financial stewardship, sustainability strategies, and resource development. Serves as the legal Treasurer.
  
  
• Nurturer of Community Care (Secretary)- currently Abby Buter Oakhart
  Supports relational and spiritual well-being of students, alumni, and faculty. Maintains governance records and serves as the legal Secretary.
  
  
• Facilitator of Offerings
   Oversees program design, spiritual direction training, curriculum, and retreat implementation.
  
  
• Bridge to the Outside World
   Leads outreach, communications, partnerships, and development efforts. Expands WTC’s public presence and builds collaborative networks.
  
  
• Director of the School of Spiritual Direction - currently Kasey Hitt
  Manages curriculum, faculty, and student engagement within the school. Works closely with the Facilitator of Offerings and Steward of Vision & Values.
  
  
• Steward of Governance & Integrity
   Ensures ethical, legal, and policy-aligned functioning of the Council. Oversees onboarding, annual review processes, and governance health.
  
  
• Stewards-of-the-Whole (Members-at-Large) 
  Two Council members serve as generalists, observing the whole system for synergy, gaps, and tensions, providing cross-role support, interim coverage, and anchoring shared discernment practices across the Council.

Student Voice Representatives (Non-Voting)
  Two representatives from current student cohorts serve as conduits of communal wisdom and experience. They:

• Bring student reflections into Council discernment.
• Strengthen community alignment and feedback loops.
  (These roles are non-voting unless otherwise specified.)

-Questions like length of service are more fully explained in our bylaws, but ideally folks serve for three years. But if life events happen and a need arises to shorten your service commitment, there are legitimate ways to acknowledge the need and step down. As you discern what roles you feel called to at this time, reach out to start a conversation with me (Rev. Dr. Amy Steele) or Abby Buter Oakhart and/or about going through the board discernment process.

A Communal Discernment Process: Reframing the Question-Rational Thinking-Imagination-Intuition/Feelings

The reframed question we settled on for the evening: "How might our collaborative model serve as a container for both spiritual maturity and becoming—a structure that honors our wisdom and invites continued growth?"

Our discerned answer given all that was shared: 

Our collaborative model is not merely a structure—it is a living ecosystem, a sacred container for both rootedness and emergence. Like a raised garden bed or a tree by a stream, it thrives through deep foundations, unseen growth, mutual care, and the nourishment of Spirit and community. It holds space for those who are running/leading, resting, tending, and supporting—recognizing that all roles are holy and essential.

It is a singing bowl, resonant with the wisdom of each person’s contribution. It is a house with a foundation, stable enough to shelter yet open to ongoing construction. It is a fire, transforming and refining. A nest, lovingly built with unexpected pieces, creating a home for new life.

We are weary yet passionate, grounded yet unfolding. There is peace in our direction, and hope in the growth that lies ahead—even if we sometimes feel like we’re holding it together with duct tape. Our journey is not about perfection, but about becoming—together.

Our governance model invites us to:

• Honor wisdom through deep listening, grounded presence, and trust in each other's gifts.

• Invite becoming through openness, imagination, shared vulnerability, and a willingness to grow even when it's messy.

• Create belonging by making room for the whole—the visible and invisible work, the joy and the exhaustion, the rooted and the new.

Ultimately, it is not speed that matters, but faithful unfolding. As we carry this tree into good soil together, we trust that healthy, sustainable growth will come.

Programming

Thank you to everyone who came to the community conversation about WTC's programming on June 24th. Here are the notes from Tuesday's discernment & Wednesday's Spiritual Formation Architecture Team Meeting:

Shifts & Changes:

• While we will continue with those going into Year Two in the School of Spiritual Direction, we are pausing our fall cohort to focus on sustainability and build a new Spiritual Formation Track. Dr. Emily Askew, Rev. Dr. Amy Steele, Dr. Russell West, Katie Rea, Ron McClelland, Sr. Mary Rose Bumpus, PhD, Abby Buter Oakhart, Amy-Lyles Wilson, and Kasey Hitt are taking our present Year One material and making it accessible for those seeking deep formation without committing to spiritual direction training (yet or ever). A pathway to Year Two's training and supervision in spiritual direction leading to certification is also part of the planning.
• Alumni Wisdom's Way Companions: WTC soon-to-be alumna, Wendy Brown, and Director of the School of Spiritual Direction, Kasey Hitt, will be putting together training for alumni to become companions for all in-coming students in the spiritual formation and spiritual direction training programs. Current seasoned mentors will focus on being available during Year Two of the SD training for conversations according to topics of integrative projects.  
• We’re exploring new cohort models—by life stage (50+), creatives, and even local in-person gatherings—and are in conversation with seminaries about how our spiritual formation and spiritual direction programs meet their real needs.
• Questions emerged on Tuesday as to how expansive we want to be and how hitching ourselves to seminaries could limit us. These concerns were relayed to the Spiritual Formation Architecture team for their discernment.

Meanwhile, themes emerged as folks sat with their longings, desires, and experiences with WTC allowing the shaping of potential focuses for programming beyond our training programs.

A desire for workshops/seminars/retreats that include:

• Creative expression: Emphasis on poetry, story, and visual art.
• Deeply personal and communal in nature: A space for processing life experiences—grief, lament, exhaustion—together.
• Spaciousness over lectures: People are seeking reflection, not content-heavy teaching. They want meaningful, spacious dialogue.
• Masculine transformation: Voiced from a man in WTC who desires to see more men move from patriarchy to humility and service, as experienced through a more feminine/divine wisdom lens.

Kasey, needing rest, is stepping back in a number of areas. It is time for shared leadership and collective wisdom to rise.
Wendy Brown mentioned AA's model of "rotation of service" when it comes to sustainable programming and leadership. The Centering Prayer Circle has already been engaging this since the beginning of June. WTC Mentor, Jess Hansen, mentioned that they may now be in a season where their gifts of teaching and "coming alongside" for formation may be utilized in a workshop/class. Wendy Shafer mentioned her background in sales & bookkeeping being of service to WTC. Darrell Arnett also mentioned his passion to serve WTC in whatever way is the best fit. Others present are already involved or taking time to discern.

In regard to the 3 discernment questions posed: "What is it too late for? What is it too soon for? What is it now time for?":
What is it too late for?

• Continuing to function as we have (especially given our continued struggle with last year's significant loss of funding).
• Operating from burnout or scarcity.
• Returning to old models.

What is it too soon for?

• Perhaps coupling formally with seminaries without deeper clarity.
• Filling our calendar with programming without a plan.
• Expecting immediate results with large grants since they can take up to 2-years to come to fruition.

What is it now time for?

• Delegation, generosity, courage and vulnerability to wager an answer/propose tangible ideas for sustainability that aligns with our vision.
• Naming and accepting that the first-year training program offers an already proven transformative, conversion experience with potential to be offered on a larger/broader scale beyond training in spiritual direction.
• Inviting others to step into leadership and responsibility.
• Exploring nonviolence, reconciliation, and holy listening as well as offering spaciousness and connection in programming.
• Shifting language and mindset of paying for programs from “fee” language to “investment”.

And questions everyone wanted to continue to play and pray with:

• What do we mean by "collective"? Who do we have in mind when we refer to "collective"?
• What are the obstacles people face with online engagement (i.e. Is our tech platform the best match for us)? How can we support folks who follow along, encouraging them to actively participate when able?
• What does our community need most right now?
• What are the strengths already within our collective? How can we invite more people to name their strengths and gifts, to step forward and actively be part of the collective in some way (with the exception of those in their first year of training who need to focus solely on the training!)?
• How might you be called into this next season with WTC?

Contact Leadership Council members, Rev. Dr. Amy Steele or Abby Buter Oakhart with questions, ideas, and desires to be part— whether programming, governance, &/or financial sustainability. 

Monthly Coffee Hours for the Community along with the Sunrise and Centering Prayer Circles will resume in August. Life Lectio is planned for August 3rd.