Generosity Without Burnout: Sliding Scales and Sustainable Giving in Business

When Iris reached out, her email stopped me mid-scroll:

"When I was watching [your workshop], I was 3 months into having told my boss I planned to leave her practice by the end of the year, after 5 years of a great time working together, reasons being that I'm burnt out and I don't know why."

She had watched my free workshop on How to Price Your Services and, in her words, finally felt validated. She realized that her burnout wasn’t random. It was the result of trying to stay generous while working inside a system that devalues care work. She was caught in a trap so many service providers know well: when generosity becomes a requirement instead of a gift, something starts to fracture.

But she didn’t stop there.

Inspired by the workshop, Iris proposed a new pricing model to her boss—one that would include a tiered payment option and a weekly community acupuncture clinic. The goal? Offer more access without devaluing the labor. Her boss said yes. Iris stayed on. And a generous, sustainable future became imaginable again.

This story is one of many. Whether you’re a coach, a therapist, an artist, or a practitioner of any kind, the question comes up again and again:

How do I build generosity into my business without burning myself out?

Let’s talk about it.

Why Generosity Matters in Business

In a capitalist system that rewards extraction, hoarding, and competition, choosing generosity is radical.

Generosity says: I believe we can all get what we need.

It pushes against the zero-sum mentality of "if I give, I lose." Instead, it imagines an interdependent economy: one where pricing, accessibility, and care can all co-exist. For those of us who come from working-class or marginalized communities, this isn’t a new idea. It’s rooted in practices like mutual aid, bartering, and community care. But for some of us coming from "middle-class", white, affluent families, this can feel like totally foreign territory—and that's ok! 

But when we bring generosity into our businesses—especially when we rely on our businesses for survival—things get complicated. We want to be accessible, but we also need to eat. We want to offer sliding scales, but not slide into resentment.

So let’s get clear about one of the most common tools in the generous business toolbox: the sliding scale.

The Sliding Scale: What It Is and What It’s Not

A sliding scale is a pricing model that allows people to pay different rates based on their access to resources. At its best, it redistributes money from those with more to those with less. It’s rooted in trust and collective care.

But it’s also often misunderstood.

A sliding scale is not:

• A marketing gimmick

• A vague "pay whatever you want"

• An automatic race to the bottom

Instead, it works best when it has:

• Clear tiers (often 3 to 5)

• Guidelines to help people choose the rate that fits

• Boundaries to make it sustainable for the provider

Here's a sample breakdown:

• Supporter Rate: You have access to savings, own property, or take vacations. You help subsidize others.

• Sustainer Rate: You can meet your basic needs and pay for services like this.

• Community Rate: You struggle to meet basic needs, are supporting others, or have limited income.

When I work with clients inside my program Made 4 More, I help them design a model that reflects both their values and their real-life expenses. Because...

Generosity is not a loophole for capitalism to underpay you.

Your work has value. And your worth? It's beyond financial metrics.

Building a Sliding Scale That Doesn’t Exploit You

To offer a sliding scale without depleting yourself, you need more than good intentions. You need math. You need boundaries. And you need trust.

Here’s how I help folks build one:

1. Know your true baseline

   • Not what you wish you could charge, but what you need to charge to meet your needs—your real, lived, monthly needs. That includes your rent or mortgage, food, childcare, utilities, insurance, debt payments, and yes, even savings and rest. You are allowed to factor in joy, time off, and future planning.

Not sure what that number is? Take this free to low cost class ASAP 👉 Liberatory Finance.

2. Define your floor

   • What’s the absolute minimum you can charge without resenting the work? This is your floor—the number below which you start to feel frustration, burnout, or even dread. It’s not about being dramatic; it’s about being honest. If you charge less than this, you might show up with less energy, lose enthusiasm for the work, or feel like you're giving more than you're getting. And that resentment? It shows up in subtle ways—rushed emails, tight shoulders, avoidance. Your floor is where sustainability begins. Knowing it and honoring it means you’re protecting the long-term vitality of your business—and yourself.

3. Anchor your tiers in transparency

   • Use respectful, clear language that encourages self-assessment. For example, you might include statements like, "If you own property, have access to savings, or travel recreationally, consider paying the full rate," or, "If you are supporting others financially or struggling to meet basic needs, the lower tiers may be more accessible to you." This helps people situate themselves without shame or invasive questions, while still honoring the purpose of sliding scale pricing.

4. Cap your low-fee spots

   • For example: 2 out of every 10 clients at the community rate. That means you might decide to reserve 20% of your total client load for folks paying at the lowest tier—an amount that feels meaningful but manageable. You’re not trying to solve economic injustice single-handedly; you’re building in a consistent, sustainable way to share access. You could track this monthly, quarterly, or even annually. You could even rotate these spots to new clients every few months. The important thing is: it’s a boundary you set based on your own capacity, not guilt or pressure.

5. Adjust as you go

   • Sliding scales aren’t static. Track how it feels. Adjust based on data, not guilt. There may be times in your life or business when you have the capacity to be more generous—maybe you have fewer personal expenses, more community support, or a financial cushion. And there may be seasons where you need to keep more of the money coming in, where your baseline is higher because your needs are greater. That’s not selfish. That’s responsive. It’s okay for your capacity for generosity to shift over time. It’s okay for your model to evolve. What matters is that you check in regularly, stay honest with yourself, and make choices from a place of care—for your clients and for you.

If you want to see an example, check out the pricing note on my coaching sales page. I walk through how I landed on $3,500 as my base rate—and how I work with folks experiencing financial hardship.

Other Generous Models That Aren’t Sliding Scales

Sliding scales aren’t the only tool. In fact, generosity can look like a lot of different things:

1. Pay-What-You-Can (PWYC)

I offer pay-what-you-can coaching calls with this prompt:

Pay what feels generous but not painful.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised. People show up with integrity. The amounts they contribute are often generous and always thoughtful. Trust works.

Another great example is People's Hub, a nonprofit that offers sliding scale and PWYC workshops rooted in movement-building and community resilience, a values-based business that occasionally offers PWYC community workshops. They emphasize trust, autonomy, and reciprocity in how they structure pricing.

2. Pay-It-Forward

Invite those who can to cover part of someone else’s cost. It creates a quiet network of care. This can be as simple as adding a checkbox during checkout: “Would you like to contribute $10 to help someone else attend?”

Open Source Wellness, a nonprofit that uses a pay-it-forward model for their group-based behavioral health programs uses this model beautifully, allowing clients to donate toward the cost of future services for others in need.

3. Scholarships & Mutual Aid

Offer funded spots by setting aside money from each full-rate client. Be transparent. Call it what it is.

Brooklyn Packers, a Black-led worker-owned food distribution cooperative, builds mutual aid directly into their business model. They collaborate with local organizations to provide free or subsidized food boxes to neighbors, funded in part by paying customers and donations. This kind of built-in redistribution offers a concrete model for business-supported community care that doesn’t rely on overextending individual workers.

4. Community Supported Services

Think of it like a CSA, but for coaching or healing. Small monthly contributions from a network of supporters who want to sustain your work for the long haul.

Decolonizing Therapy often incorporates this model through membership-based offerings and collective healing circles funded by participants with varying capacities to pay.

5. Barter & Trade

Exchange services with clear agreements. Make sure it’s a win-win. And remember: boundaries are generous too.

Free Spirit Media ran a barter project that honored community contributions with goods, skills, or time. You don’t need a big program—just a clear invitation and boundaries for what you’re open to.

6. Process-Based Generosity

Not everything has to be about price. You can be generous with:

• Flexibility (like sliding scale late fees or generous reschedule policies)

• Consent-based practices (like trauma-informed intake processes)

• Clear and accessible communication (plain language, multiple formats)

• Offering rest and buffer time between calls

Inclusive Therapists models this well: therapists can offer identity-affirming, culturally responsive, and flexible care structures even when full-fee.

You don’t need to give discounts to be generous. You just need to care deeply—and act accordingly. Generosity isn’t about optics. It’s about commitment.

 

The Cost of Unchecked Generosity

Let’s be real: generosity without boundaries is martyrdom.

When you give beyond your capacity, you start to resent the work. You make desperate decisions. You might even lose the spark that made you want to do this in the first place.

You’re not broken. You’re burnt out.

This is what Iris was feeling before she watched my workshop. It’s what countless others have told me they feel too. That creeping sense that in trying to be kind, you ended up being extractive—to yourself.

Care includes you.

As Audre Lorde said, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation."

You can’t build a new economy by sacrificing yourself to the old one.

Living Into Interdependence, Not Martyrdom

Generosity doesn’t mean "saving" everyone.

It means co-creating systems where everyone gets more of what they need. It’s rooted in interdependence—not charity, not pity, not performance.

Ask yourself:

• What am I resourced to give?

• What do I need to receive in return?

• Where am I confusing depletion with generosity?

You don’t need to suffer to be in solidarity.

Generosity as a Practice, Not a Performance

You won’t get it perfect. You’ll overgive sometimes. You’ll undercharge and learn. You’ll grow. That’s okay.

Generosity isn’t a branding strategy. It’s a practice. And like any practice, it asks you to return to it again and again.

If you’re curious about building a more just and generous business, I invite you to start here:

🎥 Watch my free workshop: How to Price Your Services

Inside, we’ll walk through sustainable pricing models, sliding scales, and how to name your financial needs without shame.

And if you’re in Vermont? You might even be able to work with me for free through the VSAC Advancement Grant.

Because yes, generosity is possible. And yes, so is sustainability.

We need both.

Let’s build them together.