Story

Origins

SixSeeds began with one family wrestling with the question: “How does a family connect its material prosperity to its values of service and generosity?”

SixSeeds began with one family wrestling with the question: “How does a family connect its material prosperity to its values of service and generosity?” In the Boston area, John and Jean Kingston had for years pondered the implications of the fact that they and their children now enjoyed more material abundance than either of them had experienced growing up. John serves as an Executive Vice President of Affiliated Managers Group (a publicly traded asset management company) and has through the years partnered with various local leaders, supporting them in their service to the community. Jean has been writing for adolescent girls about how values get shaped around family, identity, and service. They wanted their family to be grounded in some of their most cherished values; but amidst the typical competing demands of work, ballet practices, little league games, church functions, and others, they knew some sort of structure was required. In the spirit of “we don’t know exactly what we’re doing, but let’s give it a go!” — an attitude almost universally recognized by their friends as a Kingston family trait — SixSeeds (representing the number of family members) was formed in 2006 as a first gesture toward the idea of family based service and giving.

On the Mexico Service trip, John and Curtis frequently conferred about… the pitching prospects on their fantasy baseball team.

As they communicated to others — sometimes only in passing — about their own family’s initiative, they were surprised at how many of their friends resonated with their motivating concerns and hopes. In a span of months, other families across the country began loosely attaching themselves to the concept.

In particular, the Basnage Family, friends from college living in the San Francisco Bay Area, jumped on board and helped fill out the concept in its earliest stages. Mark Basnage was especially instrumental in creating some of the first public materials for the fledgling organization and lending much needed initial momentum.

The bicoastal dimensions of SixSeeds grew as Curtis and Jody Chang out in Silicon Valley began to discuss with the Kingstons about the idea of a national family based movement. Their ties to the Kingstons ran deep as long time friends, as godparents to one of the Kingston children, and for Curtis as a co-owner with John of a fantasy baseball team (a bond some would say runs thicker than blood). Curtis had led a number of organizations (including most recently an innovative church in San Jose) that were committed to service and was looking for a challenge that might build on his experience.

Accomplishments So Far

To date, Six Seeds has achieved significant progress in our three part focus on Giving, Serving, and Learning.

Giving. We have mobilized $1.25M in financial contributions to organizations serving those in need: approximately $750,000 in grants directly from Six Seeds, and $500,000 from outside sources. When combined with a federal grant to relief work in Afghanistan catalyzed by our gifts, our partnership has facilitated the deployment of over $4 million in needy communities domestically and abroad.

Serving. Six Seeds families have already pioneered several family service projects in places ranging from Boston and the Bay Area to Nepal and Iraq. Some have grown rapidly and even achieved national recognition. We're poised for growth in this area as even more projects are in the pipeline.

Learning: On our site, we have begun to develop various examples of thought leadership, including original curriculum, cultural analysis, and study projects. And we have devoted significant resources to increasing that pace of learning and sharing of insight to families more broadly.

Our Name

Why Seeds?

For almost every culture in human history, the seed serves as a physical expression of three important kinds of sharing:
Sharing traits between generations,
Sharing best practices between families;
Sharing resources between those with resources and those with need.

SixSeeds exists to inspire and equip the sharing of service and generosity in each of those relationships.

Between Generations: In plants, the seed conveys the most important traits to transfer from one generation to the next. We believe that the human traits of service and generosity are some of the most important ones that parents can pass on to their children – and indeed can be cultivated most vibrantly in that family relationship.

Between Families: In traditional farming societies organized around family plots, the sharing of seeds between families was an important practice. Regular cross pollination from each others’ stock – accompanied by sharing hard won advice -- resulted in the best and hardiest varieties for all. We believe that family based service and giving would similarly benefit from sharing best practices, contributing to everyone’s resistance to the corrosive elements of our materialist culture and enlivening our common commitments.

Between Resources and Need: The giving of seeds to the needy has been one of the most empowering and sustainable forms of assistance. Indeed, the “green revolution” of the 1960’s which lifted Grain in a farmers hand much of Asia out of famine risk grew out of a philanthropic initiative (headed by the Ford Foundation) in creating a new strain of rice seed. While we harbor no illusions of such grandeur, we believe there is great untapped potential in families pooling their resources to make a strategic difference for those in need. Indeed, as in the famous parable of Jesus, the seed represents the ability for small acts of faithfulness to make a big impact.