Community Supported Financial Assistance

If paying for a CACP class or camp in full creates too much of a financial burden for your household, we offer a couple of options.

Para leer sobre nuestras opciones de asistencia financiera en español, por favor haga clic aquí.

Payment Plans – If you cannot pay the full amount up front, you are welcome to email us to set up a payment plan. Payment plans require a credit card. (Debit cards will not work.) Once you make the first payment, additional payments will automatically be deducted once a month. There are no added fees to do a payment plan; however, if any of the charges are declined, there will be a $50 charge to cover the administrative costs of fixing the error. To set up a payment plan, please email Lisa at lisa@compassarts.org.

Financial Assistance – The Community Supported Financial Assistance Fund is provided by our community, for our community. Each year we hold a fundraiser to support folks who are experiencing financial difficulties and cannot afford to pay full price for our programs. We encourage you to apply for Community Supported Financial Assistance if meeting your basic needs is a financial challenge; you have little or no disposable income; and paying the standard price would create hardship.

Our application asks you to name the price you can afford, as well as briefly explain the circumstances that make it difficult for you to pay in full. We may follow up if we have questions. Once your application is approved, you will pay the price you named using a discount code we provide.

Here is the link to our COMMUNITY FUNDED FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE APPLICATION FORM.

It’s ok to be unsure whether you should ask for help. We live in a society where we rarely talk honestly about money, financial privilege, or the true cost of services. To help you figure out where you fall on the scale, we have borrowed the Green Bottle Graphic from herbalist Alexis J. Cunningfolk, who has written extensively and thoughtfully about the use of sliding-scale assistance.

The “green bottle” graphic gives helpful suggestions to put your income in context of how much you can afford to pay. If you identify most with the statements in the left bottle, we recommend that you pay full price. If you identify most with the statements in the middle bottle, we recommend that you apply for partial assistance. If you identify most with the statements in the right bottle, we recommend that you apply for partial or full assistance.

Here is the text for ease of readability (and again, all credit to Alexis J. Cunningfolk for this concept):

Top of the Scale (left bottle):

  • I am comfortably able to meet all of my basic* needs
  • I may have some debt but it does not prohibit attainment of basic needs
  • I own my home or property OR I rent a higher-end property
  • I own or lease a car
  • I am employed or do not need to work to meet my needs
  • I have regular access to health care
  • I have access to financial savings
  • I have an expendable** income
  • I can always buy new items
  • I can afford an annual vacation or take time off
  • If this describes you, we recommend that you pay full price.


Middle of the Scale (middle bottle):

  • I may stress about meeting my basic needs but still regularly achieve them
  • I may have some debt but it does not prohibit attainment of basic needs
  • I own or lease a car
  • I am employed
  • I have access to health care
  • I might have access to financial savings
  • I have some expendable income
  • I am able to buy some new items & I thrift others
  • I can take a vacation annually or every few years without financial burden.
  • If this describes you, we recommend that you pay full price or ask for a partial discount.


Bottom of the Scale (right bottle):

  • I frequently stress about meeting basic needs & don’t always achieve them
  • I have debt and it sometimes prohibits me from meeting my basic needs
  • I rent lower-end properties or have unstable housing
  • I do not have a car and/or have limited access to a car but I am not always able to afford gas
  • I am unemployed or underemployed
  • I qualify for government assistance including food stamps & health care
  • I have no access to savings
  • I have no or very limited expendable income
  • I rarely buy new items because I am unable to afford them
  • I cannot afford a vacation or have the ability to take time off without financial burden
  • If this describes you, we recommend that you ask for the full price of the class.

 

* Basic Needs include food, housing, health care, and transportation.
** Expendable Income might mean you are able to buy coffee or tea at a shop, go to the movies or a concert, buy new clothes, books, and similar items each month, etc.

Part of our mission at CACP is to create more equitable communities. Offering financial support to families who could not otherwise afford our programs is one way we’re able to do that. We believe that the resources and connections offered by these programs should not be limited to those with disposable income, and that inviting students from different backgrounds benefits everyone who participates.

The amount we charge for classes reflects the actual cost of our classes. This includes not only fair pay for teachers, but rent, insurance, administrative costs, and the other associated expenses that enable us to hold classes. Some of these expenses are legally required of us as a nonprofit. By paying the full class rate, you are supporting our mission at Compass Arts and the labor that goes into making our programming possible. However, we know that not everyone can afford to pay full price.

You are not! The funds raised for sliding-scale assistance are designated ONLY for that purpose. If sliding-scale assistance enables you to take a class you wouldn’t otherwise be able to take, you’re actually helping us.

However, please keep in mind that if you ask for financial assistance when you can afford to pay full price, you are taking funds away from people who need the gift of financial flexibility. If you’re not sure about applying, please see the suggestions above to help put your financial situation in perspective.

As much as we were able to raise during our annual fundraiser. That amount is divided into quarters to provide assistance for a year of programming. If we do not spend the full amount in a given quarter, that money rolls over into the remaining quarters. We will continue to make financial assistance available all year until the fund is depleted

We have a fundraiser once a year to refill this fund (usually in the spring), so keep your eye on our newsletter and social media posts! You can also contribute any time by visiting compassarts.org/donate and noting “Community supported financial assistance” on your donation, or by selecting the “pay it forward” option when registering for a class.