I believe in mutual aid. I also believe in having enough for myself to be well.
By Bunny McKensie Mack
Over roughly four years, I redistributed nearly $2 million of profit directly to more than 50 people across more than 70 distributions.
I believe deeply in mutual aid. I also believe in having enough for myself to be well.
For a long time, my approach to mutual aid was simple. If someone I knew was in need and I had the money, I gave it. I did not build an application process. I did not ask people to justify their pain. I did not require them to prove they were deserving. I trusted them.
Over time, that approach became one of the most meaningful financial practices of my life.
I came from a blue-collar family with eight kids, then I built a seven-figure business without backing capital or inherited wealth
Iām Bunny McKensie Mack (They/Them), founder of ECON CLUB, the first finance club for the 99%, and 650A, the advisory arm of ECON CLUB.
I built my first business to seven figures without backing capital, angel investment, or inherited wealth. I grew up in a blue-collar family on the South Side of Chicago as the third of eight children, where money was always present in our lives but rarely explained in a clear and practical way. That experience shaped the work I do today.
I created ECON CLUB to make finance and economics understandable, useful, and grounded in real life. Through workshops, digital tools, writing, and public education, I help people understand how money and the economy actually work, from budgeting and pricing to taxes, investing, wealth redistribution, and long-term wealth building.
650A is the financial advisory arm of ECON CLUB. Through 650A, I work with founders, athletes, high-visibility folks, and movement organizations to build financial models, pricing strategies, pitch decks, and long-term plans for sustainable growth.
Today, my work sits at the intersection of finance, economics, and power. Iām currently completing graduate degrees in Finance and Economics, and my long-term goal is to build a wealth management firm that helps people and organizations use money as a tool for stability, collective liberation, and individual well-being.
I built a profitable business first. Then I intentionally redistributed $2 million.
The business was small-scale in the beginning. At the time, I was the executive director of an org that wasnāt doing enough to support trans and nonbinary communities when they needed it the most. I decided to quit that role, then take the operation of my business into sixth gear.
I built the second iteration of my business intentionally as a wealth redistribution vehicle. I chose to direct a substantial portion of my profit toward people and communities I cared about.
Some gifts were as small as $500. Others were as large as $20,000.
Sometimes the money covered rent. Sometimes it paid for groceries or medical costs. Sometimes it helped someone keep their business open, leave an abusive situation, or make it through a life-altering event with a little more breathing room.
When I looked back at the data, I realized something important. The average redistribution was approximately $21,500, while the median amount was closer to $5,000.
That difference mattered. It showed me that while some people needed significant support, many of the most meaningful interventions were relatively modest amounts of money. A few thousand dollars could cover rent, pay for groceries, help someone recover following a mental health challenge.
My mutual aid strategy was rooted in a simple belief: when people are trusted and given resources, they often do remarkable things with them.
Sometimes, the most powerful financial intervention is not complicated. It is simply having enough money to say yes when someone needs help.
My Mutual Wealth Framework
Over time, I have come to believe that people who earn significant amounts of money and want to redistribute wealth need more than generosity. They need a strategy.
You can have the biggest heart in the world and still give in ways that leave you underprepared for retirement, overwhelmed by requests, or carrying more than any one person was meant to carry.
Mutual aid is not the same thing as giving away money impulsively. Like any other part of financial planning, it works best when it is rooted in clarity, boundaries, and a realistic understanding of your own needs.
I think of this as my Mutual Wealth Framework.
The idea is simple: build enough stability to care for yourself across your lifetime, and then redistribute from a place of abundance rather than fear, guilt, or self-erasure. Here are the eight steps that make up my strategy:
1. Put on your financial mask first
2. Calculate your redistribution pool
3. Be thoughtful about the vehicle
4. Build a giving portfolio
5. Understand the tax rules
6. Document non-anonymous gifts
7. Remember that mutual aid is mutual
8. Revisit the framework over time
1. Put on your financial mask first
Before deciding how much to give, itās really important to put on your financial mask first.
You need to understand what it will take to care for yourself now through retirement. That includes your living expenses, debt repayment, taxes, insurance, emergency reserves, and long-term investing.
I encourage people to work with a qualified financial analyst, planner, or advisor to calculate how much they need to save on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis to support the life they want over time.
Then add 25 percent.
That extra margin acknowledges that life is uncertain. Markets change. Health changes. Family needs change.
2. Calculate your redistribution pool
After accounting for bills, taxes, debt, retirement savings, your soft life fund ā money that is just for you to use to care for yourself, go to the movies, get an ice cream cone, enjoy sexual connections, travel ā and your responsibilities to family and community, you can look at what remains.
That remaining amount is your potential redistribution pool. This is the money you can give without compromising your own long-term stability. Redistribution should expand your sense of purpose, not quietly undermine your financial health.
3. Be Thoughtful About the Vehicle
Many high earners assume the most efficient way to give is to place money into a donor-advised fund, or DAF. A donor-advised fund (DAF) is a charitable account where you set aside money for giving.
You deposit cash, stock, or other assets into the account. As soon as the money goes in, you receive a tax deduction because the funds legally become the property of a nonprofit sponsor, such as Fidelity Charitable.
From there, you tell the sponsor which nonprofits you want to support and how much you want each organization to receive. The sponsor then sends the money to those nonprofits on your behalf.
DAFs can provide an immediate tax deduction, allow assets to grow tax-free, and make it easier to organize charitable giving over time.
Sometimes, giving through a DAF makes sense, but it also requires a leap of faith.
Once you contribute assets to a donor-advised fund, the money is no longer legally yours. You retain the ability to recommend grants, but the sponsoring organization has final authority over whether those grants are approved.
In most cases, that works smoothly. The Southern Poverty Law Center controversy in 2026 offered a powerful reminder that this discretion is real.
After the Southern Poverty Law Center was unjustly indicted on federal fraud charges by the Trump administration related to a former program, several large donor-advised fund sponsors, including charitable affiliates of Fidelity Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, and DAFgiving360 (formerly Schwab Charitable), reportedly paused grants to the organization while the case was pending. Donors who wanted to support the SPLC through their DAFs were temporarily unable to do so, even though they had already taken the tax deduction and it is their money being donated.
That moment highlighted an important reality: when you use a donor-advised fund, you are outsourcing part of your giving strategy to another institution. That institution may have its own legal standards, reputational concerns, conservative politics that harm those most marginalized, and risk thresholds that do not perfectly align with your values.
This does not mean donor-advised funds are inherently evil. It means they are one tool among many, and they should be used with a clear understanding of their limitations.
Institutional giving can also become constrained by bureaucracy, risk aversion, and leadership that may be too conservative or cowardly to support communities who need access to resources rapidly today. In moments of political instability, people often need support today, not six months from now and not several years later when the social climate feels less volatile.
That is one reason I believe it is worth considering a blended approach: some giving through institutions that build long-term infrastructure (if you feel drawn to that), and direct giving that allows resources to reach people exactly when they are needed most.
4. Build a Giving Portfolio
I believe it helps to think about giving as a portfolio.
You might choose to split your giving between different vehicles:
- Some of your giving may go to organizations doing important long-term work. Organizations help build infrastructure. One concern I often hear is that too much money given to organizations goes to administration. The reality is more nuanced. Administrative costs are not inherently wasteful. They are part of what allows organizations to function.At the same time, when urgency is high, it can be frustrating to know that funds may take months or in some cases even years to reach the people you want to support. That is one reason a blended approach is so important so you can also skip the bureaucracy and just give directly to folks now. Itās your money after all.
- Some may go directly to individuals who need support right now. Direct giving helps people survive emergencies happening right now.
- Some may be anonymous.
- Some may be public.
- Some may be recurring.
- Some may be responsive to urgent needs.
5. Understand the Tax Rules
Another practical consideration is understanding the tax rules that apply when you give money directly to individuals.
In the United States, the federal annual gift tax exclusion for 2026 is $19,000 per recipient. That means you can give up to $19,000 to any one person during the year without needing to file a federal gift tax return. If you are married and elect to split gifts with your spouse, that amount increases to $38,000 per recipient.
If you give more than that amount, you may need to file IRS Form 709. In many cases, filing the form does not mean you owe gift tax. It simply reduces a portion of your lifetime gift and estate tax exemption.
If you live outside the United States, I strongly encourage you to review the tax laws in your own country before making significant gifts.
6. Document non-anonymous gifts
A non-anonymous gift is a donation made directly to a person or organization where the recipient knows the donorās identity, rather than receiving the gift anonymously through an intermediary such as a donor-advised fund or another nonprofit.
For non-anonymous gifts, it can be helpful to have the recipient sign a short acknowledgment stating that the funds are being received as a gift, that they are not compensation for services rendered, that the giver has no ongoing financial obligation to the recipient, and that the recipient is responsible for consulting their own tax advisor and complying with any applicable tax laws. I would work with a trusted lawyer to do this.
My contract is only a paragraph long and we send them via Docusign. Once all parties have signed, we typically then transfer the funds via Zelle. I like this approach because it gives the recipient more autonomy and agency. It makes clear that they are responsible for determining how the gift should be treated on their own tax return, if any reporting is required.
At the same time, it provides an additional layer of protection for the person making the gift. We still live under capitalism, and that means we need to protect ourselves not only financially, but legally as well from those who have been conditioned to take kindness as a weakness and to respond with extractive or punitive behavior.
7. Remember that mutual aid is mutual
Perhaps the most important part of this framework is remembering that mutual aid includes the word mutual on purpose. It is not intended to be a one-way street.
Before giving, I think it is worth asking: Where do I rely on community for aid? What support do I receive emotionally, practically, professionally, or financially? How am I allowing others to care for me?
One-way streets of giving are often paved with legacies of white supremacy and saviorism. When we begin to see ourselves primarily as the rescuer, we can unintentionally damage our own moral courage and health.
We may over-identify with being needed. We may struggle to set boundaries. We may become resentful when others do not respond the way we hoped. And we may begin to believe that our value comes from how much we can carry. That is too heavy a burden for any one person.
8. Revisit the framework over time
As your income changes, your redistribution strategy should evolve. The amount you give, how you give, and where you give should all be revisited periodically.The goal is not perfection.
The goal is to build a practice of generosity that is sustainable enough to last.
Right now, I am on a brief hiatus from direct mutual aid
That pause is not because I stopped believing in redistribution. If anything, the experience strengthened my belief that moving money directly to people can be one of the most effective and humane ways to engage in movement work focused on our shared liberation.
I also learned that when you move that much money in close relationship with others, you gather more than stories. You gather data. I am now working with a monitoring and evaluation expert to study the data from these redistributions in a more rigorous way.
I want to better understand the impact of the funds. I want to know what changed in peopleās lives and what lessons can be carried forward.I want the next chapter of this work to be informed by evidence, thoughtful boundaries, and a clearer understanding of what creates the greatest impact.
Because the most sustainable form of mutual aid is one that leaves everyone, including the giver, with enough to also be well.
I still believe deeply in redistributing wealth.
I still believe that moving money directly to people can create extraordinary shifts in safety, stability, and possibility.
I still believe that relatively modest amounts of money can change the trajectory of someoneās life.
And I still believe that wealth is most meaningful when it is used to expand freedom, dignity, and collective well-being.
But I no longer believe that caring for others requires abandoning myself.
I believe in mutual aid. I also believe in having enough for myself to be well.
A seven-figure entrepreneur reflects on what it meant to redistribute nearly $2 million directly to people, and what they learned about generosity, guilt, boundaries, and sustainability along the way.