What is it?
Who is it for?
What are the benefits?
What exists already?
What more is needed?
How do we build it?
What is the volunteer credit economy? It's an economy based on volunteer hours or service hours, to take care of the nonprofit sector. Such an economy provides new accountability to donors and funding agencies, so that funds may be spent more efficiently. Besides that, having an economy opens up new avenues of improvement for individuals and community.
Volunteer hours are recorded already. Now we want to treat them as bank accounts. In some cases the credits can be cashed in for support or services. In Time Dollars systems the hours are banked as a form of social security, help in time of need.
To turn these activities into an economy, we make volunteer credits transferable. Then we encourage mobility of credits. Volunteers may invest their saved credits in projects and organizations they wish to support, thereby providing grassroots feedback to funding agencies and attracting matching funds.
Clients are expected to work, and volunteers may need help some day. The nonprofits administer the credit system, and find that it does more with less resources. The funding bodies drive the system by insisting on the accountability and information that a volunteer credit system provides. They too get more results for their money.
We can group 1 and 2 together, as people who can occupy both roles. And 3 and 4 go together, as seeking to do more with available resources.
Funding bodies can be individual donors, private trusts and foundations, or government agencies. The scope covers social welfare and community improvement.
For donors and funding agencies, there are twin benefits of cost savings and improved results. Government agencies are anxious to reduce their social welfare costs, while private donors and agencies may be more motivated by achieving their particular goals. This motivation carries through to workers in the nonprofits and some government agencies, faced with the challenge of serving their clients with reduced budget.
The cost savings are found in reduced management as well as more efficient end-use of resources. The volunteer credit economy will relieve the stress of understaffing following cutbacks.
For clients there are greater resources in times of need, while frauds drop out of the system. The volunteer credit economy also involves clients in an economy and community to improve their lives.
For volunteers there is recognition, social security, and a way to support and influence a variety of nonprofit projects. They are also eligible for many of the services available in the volunteer credit economy.
Time Dollars is the closest thing to a volunteer credit economy already. Volunteers bank their credits, get monthly statements, and can spend their credits on services. What's missing is transferable credits that would tie Time Dollars programs into an economy.
Some food banks require volunteer credits earned elsewhere in the community, in exchange for food. This means they have to validate the credits, keeping a list of acceptable issuers.
Courts require community service hours and must validate both the organization and the job in relation to the offender.
The new welfare regime requires community service hours or job training time in exchange for support. This is hard to administer for large numbers. The welfare agencies could use the job creation and validation functions of a volunteer credit economy.
Most of the work falls to the individual nonprofit organizations, who need to:
The Volunteer Credit
Economy -- A fuller description.
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