Book and Pay

Alternative Pricing

In order to make our classes truly inclusive and accessible to all families, we offer Pay-What-You-Can (PWYC) and Pay-It-Forward (PIF) pricing.

The PWYC program is simple: no one will be turned away from classes* for lack of funds**. 

Determining how much to pay?

We know that there is no right way to think about financial transactions. To help you figure out how much to pay, we’ve created three frameworks below that you can use as a springboard for making a personal decision on your financial situation and contribution. A few things we’d like for you to keep in mind when you’re determining what price will best fit your capabilities…

Foundational Thinking

1. We know that personal finances are determined, as much if not more, by access to generational wealth, debt load, and cost of living more than income alone. So, determining sliding scale brackets is really, really challenging. 
2. We also know that we provide extraordinary value. If you are interested in joining a class, the most important thing we ask in return is that you value the expertise, labor, and passion that we put into every single product we produce.
3. We are a tiny, woman-owned, primary-parent operated company with incredibly high standards for ourselves, our work, and workers-at-large. We are able to provide you with the highest quality education and support, by ensuring that our team is paid a living wage.
4. We’re all humans. Trying our best. If you have thoughts, questions, or concerns please reach out to start a conversation. 

Some suggested payment scenarios:

#1 The Date Night Framework

1. Consider paying full price if you’re able to spend $100+ on semi-regular Date Nights.
2. If you can’t drop $100+ on semi-regular Date Nights, we understand your interest in PWYC pricing. 

#2 The Wealth Bracket Framework 

Pay 100% of listed price + consider paying it forward

if you have disposable income and / or access to generational wealth. 

Pay 75% to 90% of the listed price 

if you are making ends meet and conservatively able to save, without access to generational wealth 

Pay 50% to 75% of the listed price 

if you are living paycheck to paycheck and are not able to save, without access to generational wealth

Pay 25% to 50% of the listed price 

if it is challenging, at this time, to meet your basic needs 

#3 The Alternative Arrangement 

While most people choose to compensate Black Bear Signing for Babies financially, we acknowledge that there are other ways of reciprocating value including barter and trade. If you’d like to propose an alternative “payment” plan, we’re all ears!

Pay It Forward

To ensure we’re continually able to offer PWYC pricing, we ask families with access to disposable income to consider contributing to a community pool at time of payment.

*Our PWYC program applies to all online classes. Due to limited capacity and additional expenses we cannot typically offer PWYC pricing to In-Person classes.

**We have a typical base rate of $10 for our classes. The base rate helps us cover administrative costs and encourages participation since we know people are more likely to commit to a product or service they’ve paid for. However, if this is inaccessible for any reason, please contact us directly.