Background Information
"Women Empowering Women" is a "Gifting Club" which has recently arrived in our town of Massena, NY. This club originated many years ago, and goes under many different names such as "The Dinner Club", "Womens Empowering Network", etc...
The club is mainly for women; however, men can be involved as supporters. The premise is that women help other women by gifting them money ($5000). This will allow them to be placed on a block of a board. There are 15 blocks on the board. The blocks are placed in the following manner, 8 on top, 4 in the next row, 2 in the next row, and a receiver on the bottom. The people in the top row each gift the receiver $5000. The person on the bottom row receives $40,000. (Actually in most cases, it is $30,000 because the receiver uses 2 of the 8 blocks of the top row. One block to gift and one block to rejoint as a participant). The single person on the bottom row then moves off the board, and the board splits. The person who receives has the option of placing themselves back onto the board, and gifting a friend back onto the board or may choose to take their money and stop.
Now to elaborate further:
1. Each board consists of 15 blocks, 1 in row one, 2 in row two, 4 in row three, 8 in row four.
2. Since the first person in row one receives and places themselves back on the original board twice(one gifted) then then actual number of PAYING($5000) participants per board is 13 people.(Unless a group of people have gottten together to raise $5000, this is how men get involved).
3. After the first round, the number of receivers is 1, the number of paying participants is 13, the number of boards is 1.
4. After the second round, the number of receivers is 3, the number of paying participants is 25, the total number of boards are 3.
5. After the third round, the number of receivers is 7, the number of paying participants is 49, the total number of boards are 7.
6. After the fourth round, the number of receivers is 14, the number of paying participants is 97, the total number of boards are 15. (Now the original person in row one has now received three times. Once originally, once for the second time around, and once for the person she gifted. Remember that she got back on the boards originally).
7. After the Fifth round, the number of receivers is 28, the number of paying participants is 193, the total number of boards are 31.
8. After the Sixth round, the number of receivers is 56, the number of paying participants is 385, the total number of boards are 63.
9. After the Seventh round, the number of receivers is 111, the number of paying participants is 769, the total number of boards is 127. (At this point, the original person who started has collected $30,000 x 3 = $90,000, and has gifted $30,000 x 3 = $90,000).
10. The above requires that all receivers return $5000 to the club for themselves, and gifts someone $5000. If the receivers elect to keep the money, then the way the pyramid evolves is much worse.
11. As you can see the math becomes very complicated, but overall for every 1 person who receives about 6 to 8 people must lose.
The concept sounds very charitable. People are told that by "gifting" they will be helping women in need.
A more simplified explanation is:
Once the receiver has received all their gifts, then the people in the second row move into the receiving position. Twelve to Sixteen new people are recruited and the process repeats itself. As you can see, in order for people to continue receiving a minimum of 6 new people (or possibly 8 new people if the receiver decideds not to gift someone or place themselves back on the board) must be recruited for each person at the receiving position. As long as new people are being recruited, the boards will continue to multiply and the receivers w
