Economic Growth United States Project #29425

Help Empower Timebank Communities Around the World

by Time Dollar Institute, Inc. dba TimeBanks.Org

Project Report | Mar 20, 2018
Moving Towards A Sustainable Infrastructure For Timebanks

By Pam de Ocampo | Project Leader

DC TimeBank exchange with Caitlin Jan 2018

Happy first day of Spring!

Coming off our September 2017 Accelerator campaign to bring emergency funds to support TimeBank’s USA’s work building the infrastructure for the timebanking movement, we extended the project and raised the goal from $10,000 to $25,000 to secure funding for the first quarter of 2018. Here we are towards the end of the first quarter!

Here’s an update on the campaign and the impact of your contribution.

We have raised to date $12,367 from members of our timebank community and from supporters who love the idea of timebanking, with an additional $1,064 in matching funds to be given by GlobalGiving. The campaign has helped tremendously in bringing awareness about what goes on behind the scenes and what it takes to support a growing movement that builds strong communities that value EVERY person by using time as currency.

We are using this time with the help of the funds you contributed to put in place a sustainable structure that will ensure that the movement is supported over time, including covering the costs to continue providing Community Weaver timebanking software that makes timebanking easy and accessible. Our Board of Directors made a decision in December 2017 to seek out a reliable source of income to assure the software’s dependability, with community support as an integral part of the solution.

Community Weaver itself was shaped and designed by timebank coordinators who have guided its development with consistent feedback based on experience through the years. It is an exciting time to be moving from Community Weaver’s creation and initial investment and development stage into a community-supported system. As Edgar Cahn, Founder and Board Chair, has said, we are on the path “to assure the sustainability of Community Weaver for individual timebanks and the future of the timebank movement.”

In February, we took the first big step towards that goal by reaching out to our community of timebanks using Community Weaver software.

We sent out a survey to over 500 timebank coordinators to seek their feedback and held three conference calls to open the discussion community-wide. 85 people responded to the survey – some as individual timebank coordinators, and some on behalf of their timebank’s leadership. It has been a pleasure hearing the voices of timebank coordinators in the US and New Zealand as together we have talked through the different options of:

how we can collectively support the infrastructure that timebanks depend on
what it’s worth to use good and easy-to-use timebanking software
how timebanks might contribute to its sustainability now and into the future

The feedback from our timebank community has been so valuable. The TimeBanks USA Sustainability Team is carefully considering all the feedback and will be making a recommendation to our Board.

Thank you so much again for the resources you have given to help the timebank community move forward towards a sustainable future, and for helping timebanks create healthy and happy communities with the practice of the 5 core values of timebanking:

Everyone has something to give
Family, community, and home are real work that counts
Receiving is as powerful as giving: It’s a two-way street!
We are not alone, we have each other, we are a community
True respect builds decency, caring, and a passion for justice

We will keep you posted on our progress!

Sincerely,

The TimeBanks USA Team

Links:

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Dec 19, 2017
Thank you for supporting timebank communities.

By Pam de Ocampo and Carmen Ho | Project Leaders

A heartfelt thank you to you for participating and contributing to our GlobalGiving Accelerator campaign.

We met the $5,000 minimum of GlobalGiving to become a permanent member of the community – which gives us access to GlobalGiving resources, tools, and partner companies. We met the $7,500 milestone to be featured on the GlobalGiving website home page – more people can discover timebanking’s old-fashioned yet transformative power. Watch out for it in January 2018. And together, we have surpassed our Accelerator campaign goal of $10,000. The funds we raised helps TimeBanks USA provide the infrastructure that timebanks rely upon including the maintenance, support, and hosting of Community Weaver, the timebanking software that makes it easy for people to exchange time and connect with each other.

Thank you for hearing our call for support by helping TimeBanks USA continue its operations during this critical time through the end of 2017. Your donation helps us lay the groundwork during this three-month period to assure the sustainability of Community Weaver so that timebanks can continue to expand and create close, resilient communities that transform people’s lives.

Mary from the Crooked River Alliance of TimeBanks in Ohio, one of the most active timebanks in the US, recently shared,

“I am reading Heschel right now and he makes the point that a process just unfolds as it is supposed to, but an EVENT changes the course of history. I see how this is true. The timebank is an event of the first order. It sets into motion the links that never, ever would happen without it.

Where would I have met (timebank friends) DJ or Jag? Why would I ever have met the housecleaner, who then became the mainstay in the life of a wonderful couple suffering from Alzheimer’s? These connections could NOT have been made. I live in the boondocks and my life is circumscribed by the few places I go…...but the timebank created the opportunity for the connections.”

Mary summed it up for us - timebanking is “a true chain of events,” with powerful ripple effects from individual to individual that together become the community.

Thank you again for contributing to our efforts in strengthening the growing communities of timebanks worldwide.

Sincerely,

The TimeBanks USA Team

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