Buy Nothing. Share Everything.
Local Connections. Global Impact.
Your Support Powers Buy Nothing
The Buy Nothing Academy: Lesson 1
Buy Nothing Project Mission Statement, Community Commitment, and Community Agreement
Our Buy Nothing Project Mission Statement:

We offer people a way to give and receive, share, lend, and express gratitude through a worldwide network of hyper-local gift economies in which the true wealth is the web of connections formed between people who are real-life neighbors.
Principles:
  • We believe hyper-local gift economies strengthen the social fabric of their communities, and ensure the health and vitality of each participant.
  • We come from a place of abundance ~ not scarcity.
  • We believe in abundance, we give, we ask, we share, we lend and we express gratitude.
  • We are a gift economy, not a charity. We see no difference between want and need, waste and treasure.
  • We measure wealth by the personal connections made and trust between people.
  • We value people and their stories and narratives above the ‘stuff.’
  • We are inclusive at our core.
  • We value honesty and integrity in all our interactions.
  • We view all gifts as equal; the human connection is the value.
  • We believe every community has the same wealth of generosity and abundance.
The Community Agreement, written by the Buy Nothing Equity Team, is the guiding contract for all participants in a Buy Nothing Facebook group and we hope you click through to read it fully. (We are not reprinting the entire Agreement here for brevity’s sake.)
The Buy Nothing Community Commitment is our binding agreement that each of us commit to when participating in the BuyNothing app and on our website:

  • Participate at your own risk. You are responsible for all of your interactions online and in person, and must do your own research and make your own choices in order to keep yourself safe.
  • Keep Everything Legal. You must respect all laws and regulations in force everywhere you participate in the BuyNothing community.
  • All people who are 18 years of age and older are welcome here.
  • No hate speech, threats or harassment. No gifts that glorify hate groups or call upon others to join in active hate. We define hate speech as words or images that demean or dehumanize another person or group of people on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar historically marginalized metric.
  • Give freely, receive freely, and share freely. No selling, buying, renting, trading, bartering, or otherwise engaging in this-for-that interactions. No marketing or advertising. All gifts offered and requested must be freely-given without expectation of any reward or reimbursement. Remember that all gifts have the same value in Buy Nothing: Priceless.
  • Give, Ask, and Share without limit. You may offer as much as you’d like to give. You may request as much as you’d like to receive. You may not find homes for all of your gifts and you may not receive everything you ask for, but you are encouraged to offer and ask without limit on how much, how often, market value, etc.
  • Build Trust. Be honest in your communication and strive to build trust through genuine interactions.
  • Be accountable for yourself and your impact on the Buy Nothing community. You are always in charge of your own posts and can edit or remove things as you desire. You may block anyone you don’t want to connect with.
  • Show your humanity. Remember that each person you meet here is a real person. None of us are perfect, sometimes we get things right and sometimes we get things wrong. Speak your truth without fear, listen with compassion, build the sort of community you want to live in, and allow people the time and space to learn better so they can do better.
  • Be open to creativity. Experiment to find new ways and new gifts to give, request, and share. Find ways to use your Gives, Asks, Gratitude and Shares to build a more equitable, joyful, inclusive, sustainable, and compassionate community.
  • Real Humans Only – Participate as yourself. No bots, no spam, no accounts for fraudulent purposes, no troll accounts.
  • Adhere to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy



Activity 1
Go to your BuyNothing community, whether it’s in your BuyNothing app or in a Facebook group or other platform and introduce yourself! Examples of things to include are:
  • Your name and pronouns
  • How you heard about Buy Nothing
  • Why you’re here and want to participate in a gift economy
  • What you want to accomplish in your community
I’ll go first and introduce myself to you –

Hello! I’m Jennifer Lansdowne. My pronouns are she/her. I’m a native of Austin, TX. I discovered the Buy Nothing Project in Dec of 2014, although I can’t remember how. I created a Buy Nothing Facebook group when there wasn’t one for my area yet. I’ve volunteered with the Project ever since then and it’s become a huge facet of my life. I want to empower people to connect with their neighbors and use less new stuff.

Next, have a listen to our Podcast. We include empowering stories there that give you a window into what's possible in a Buy Nothing gift economy. We also want to celebrate the Community Builders and Admins of Buy Nothing communities and the exceptional stories that have come out of their experiences. You'll surely have similar experiences, too, and if you'd be willing to share them, we'd love to include them in the podcast, too.

Proceed to Lesson 2