Raising funds the community way (cw$)
Community way is a powerful new tool for charitable fund-raising and community economic development. It is the financing mechanism and starter for community currencies (cc) development.
Any individual or group can readily initiate this fund-raising program, which is designed to recover all start-up costs. It will work best when many local businesses and organizations participate, but it can also finance a single project or cause.
How community way works
businesses donate cw$, not cash or products, to support schools, organizations, and projects of their choice, undertaking to accept cw$ in part payment (usually between 15% and 50%) of a sale.
people finance the projects they want to support by exchanging cash for cw$, which they then use in any participating stores, restaurants, etc.
businesses then spend the earned (redeemed) cw$ with other participating businesses, and so on. The new money continues to circulate within the community thereby creating real wealth.
Good for business, good for community
For business, this is a simple and cash-free way to help the community, secure customer recognition and loyalty, and strengthen the local economy.
Since the cw$ are as good as cash at participating businesses, people can help without losing purchasing power -- by shopping local they vote for the community they want.
For schools and organizations, there is the immediate benefit of cw$ donations that can be spent at participating businesses, thereby saving cash. More importantly, the new money can be used to increase wages, pay staff for extra work, and reward volunteers. As more businesses and organizations join the program, people will readily exchange $ for cw$.
Community way opens substantial new funding sources for the whole community, and eases competition between agencies.
Payment methods
Smart cards are the preferred method for moving cw$ and recording transactions. A smart card is simply a computer chip on a card that stores value and records transactions between cards. Being a computer chip, it can handle numerous cc currencies for many discrete networks and communities.
Businesses can also use ledger forms, voice mail, and email to record transactions through the community currencies accounting services (ccas).
Current material sources, coming soon to this site, include
downloadable documentation in development -- ps / pdf / html / ascii / zips -- from active community way projects in the Comox Valley, BC, Vanouver Island's Westcoast, and Santa Cruz, California.
recent reports from active projects
original outline and design materials for LETSystems and community way
multi-currency smart card equipment -- hardware and software developed by GIS UK Ltd is now available
More general cc resources.
mrs -- multi-registry server development -- the emerging virtual money net.
For more information or to contact us.