Help Empower Timebank Communities Around the World

Here we are at the end of the year.  This year went flying and just like that, winter is approaching in this northern hemisphere.  It’s a good time, we hope, to bring you this update on our progress.

First off, we hope you enjoy these photos from the garden of timebanking founder, Edgar Cahn.  For Edgar, it is so much more than “just a garden”. It is, every year, a story of investment, emergence, flowering, growth, and a gift from him to the community.  

The garden speaks so much of what timebanking is and how the year 2018 has unfolded for the timebank community.

This has been a fruitful year for TimeBanks USA.  We took big steps towards assuring the financial sustainability of the organization, so that the timebank movement would continue to grow and be supported.  

Your contributions helped us establish a new revenue stream to help pay for the costs of Community Weaver timebanking software - a shared resource provided by TimeBanks USA that facilitates the time exchanges and community building - through the new fee structure.

Implementing the New Fee Structure

Since 2015, we have provided timebanks with Community Weaver timebanking software at no charge -- and moving over to being fee-based in 2018 has been a significant change.  We implemented the new fee structure over the summer when we last wrote to you, and the show of support from timebanks has been uplifting. Here’s one of many supportive messages that came with payments:  "WITH LOVE! (Sent a check so you don't have to pay PayPal fees)", wrote Stacey, a longtime timebank leader.

As of today, 66 timebanks have sent $14,450 to help cover software costs for the last six months of 2018.  We are now preparing to send invoices for the next 6 months, continuing to move towards sustainability, and want to thank you for your support in making this possible.

Together, Building Caring Economies

The support coming from our timebank community through their payments is integral to keeping the infrastructure that timebanks rely upon to continue building local caring economies where everyone - across differences in income, race, religion, age, gender, or ideology - is valued.

We want to share with you an example of this great work, which comes from the West Seattle Timebank. When anti-semitism reared up in the community, timebank members stepped up in the true spirit of the core values of timebanking to organize a local community demonstration of unity, followed by scrubbing clean the defacing anti-semitic spray-painted messages.  Click on the link at the bottom of this email to read more.

THANK YOU TO ALL

To you our donor, thank you for making this work possible.  And to our timebank communities, a big thanks for making your CW payments and helping support the software.   If you are among the coordinators who made additional donations on your own, we are adding an extra thank you.  We appreciate the work you do every day, nurturing your communities like a garden.

From the home of timebanking, it is amazing to hear the stories of individual lives transformed, watch your timebanks grow, and see your communities bloom.

To quote TBUSA leader, Christine Gray, "What a great metaphor for Timebanking.  So often, so hard to predict. So often, so amazingly magical and transformative. It takes leadership. It takes work. It takes vision. But if the investment is true, the results are amazing."

Sincerely,

The TimeBanks USA Team

Links:

• The Garden Says It All.
• West Seattle Timebank stands with neighbors.
• A new timebanking workshop for community leaders!