help keep the vibe
🥰
help keep the vibe 🥰
HELP US MAINTAIN THE CULTURE
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Friends Club brings people together through small, intimate, deeply cared-for gatherings. We’re building a community-led model that makes room for real connection, creativity, and belonging. Your donation helps us pay the people doing this work, protect the meals, music, art, and shared spaces, and keep Friends Club small, thoughtful, and alive.
Want the full story? Read on
Monetary donations is not obligatory and WILL NEVER IMPACT YOUR PRESENCE/PARTICIPATION IN THE COMMUNITY.
We use Zeffy because it allows 100% of your donation to go to Hi/Ed. At checkout, Zeffy may have asked for an optional contribution to support their platform. That contribution is separate from your donation to Hi/Ed and can always be adjusted by
a vulnerable ask
To preserve what makes Friends Club special, things have to change.
Hearing what Friends Club means to so many of you has had a big impact on us. It has inspired and driven us to go deeper into building a strong and resilient community.
and We need your help to do it
MORE THAN A FESTIVAL
Friends Club is not just an event to us.
It’s a carefully built environment where people can access a more honest version of themselves in the presence of others doing the same. The depth of the experience comes from the way people relate and connect to each other, and from realizing that their unique contributions help shape what the weekend becomes.
COMMUNITY STEWARDSHIP
Friends Club is an expression of the community culture we're building together, and we're really proud of that. Shaping this culture requires our attention year-round, and mostly happens behind the scenes. We see this work as important, but we aren’t paid to do it. To keep giving it the care it deserves, we need to create a sustainable model that places value on community building.
If we want this ecosystem to remain strong and resilient, a place where people feel inspired, supported, challenged, and like they belong, and it needs to be actively cared for
This is the role we want to play. Not as owners of the community, but as stewards of the culture.
we hear you
The most common reflections we heard about this past Friends Club are the same things we love about it. It’s the intimate size, the communal meals, your ability to form deep connections, and that you can feel the care we put into it.
What we all value most about Friends Club are the very things that make the current model difficult to sustain.
THE CHALLENGE
The things that make Friends Club special also don’t allow it to fit into the usual models
most festivals
Grow larger and add sponsors, vendors, and VIP tiers.
Sell alcohol and create more ways to spend on arrival.
Rely on attendees to fund much of the experience.
vs.
FRIENDS CLUB
Small, intimate, and deeply cared for.
Removes decisions and distractions so people can be present.
Is building a community-led model that feels different by design.
Mimicking other event models would fundamentally change what makes Friends Club special.
Let’s build the future we want
Many of us can feel the gap between the world we live in and the one we want to be part of. Society often asks us to move faster and consume more, at the expense of being present and genuinely connected. We want a culture that reflects what’s important to us. Where people feel valued, not sold to.
Hi/Ed is a place where this community’s vision gets put into practice. Over time, that can show up in other parts of our lives
OUR ASK
We are asking you to support us in building a new model for community care.
It’s a model built on many people contributing what they can, so the work can keep serving the people it is meant to serve. Every contribution matters and helps make this vision possible.
Your contribution helps:
Support the year-round work needed to keep building a resilient community that reflects what its members value
Build and properly compensate a skilled Friends Club production team so we can keep dialling in the experience
Maintain the parts of Friends Club that people value most
Create more opportunities for people to bring their ideas to life
We love this work. Come talk to us about it anytime
Donate
If you believe in what Friends Club is becoming, this is one way to support its future.
DONATE TO HI/ED ↘
With love, Paul, Kara, and Hi/Ed
Why it matters
You have told us about the friendships you’ve made here. The conversations that stayed with you. The ways the weekend helped you feel more yourself, more connected, more courageous, or more aware of where your life is asking for change. Hearing your stories makes us believe more than ever that this work matters, and that its impact reaches beyond the weekend itself.
What we’re building doesn’t fit neatly into the societal structures we were taught to follow, and we'd wager that most of you aren't necessarily interested in adhering to those standards either.
Living meaningful lives that aren’t the status quo requires the systems around us to change to meet our needs. Rather than following organizations that serve the interest of a few large contributors, we need a model that relies on many small contributions that serves all of us. This is where our ask of you comes in.
Intimate, ambitious, curated and cared for by everyone who is part of it.
Shared Meals
Meaningful connections
Meticulous curation