TimeBank Program

Our TimeBank Program helps neighbors help neighbors and allow them to

Turn time into money
Help themselves and others
Meet new friends
Rebuild community

About the TimeBank program

TimeBank is a program that empowers people to convert their personal time into purchasing power by helping others and by rebuilding family, neighborhood and community.

Time Banking is built on four core values:

Assets: Everyone has strengths and assets
Work: Raising children and building a community is valuable work
Reciprocity: Mutual support is more powerful and empowering than one-way helping.
Social Capital: Trust is the basis for our community.

It works like this -- I help you, and you help another--and someone else helps me. The recipients of help become the providers of help. Through the TimeBank program, an hour helping another earns one Time Dollar.

Examples of services people give and receive:

Music Lessons
Auto repair
Home repair
Transportation
Snow removal
Sewing
Haircuts
Companionship

How can Time Dollars be used?

You can use the Time Dollars you earn helping others to receive services or help from someone else. When you spend your Time Dollars, someone else earns them. You can:

Exchange the Time Dollars you earn for services you need
Save them for a rainy day
Give them to someone else—a family member, friend, or neighbor who needs help
Donate to others in need
Use them for social events such as a monthly pot-luck
Use them for special discounts from businesses that support the goals of a Time Dollar program

Are Time Dollars a form of barter?

Barter almost always involves bargaining between two individuals to establish the worth of a good or a service. There is no bargaining with Time Dollars. An hour is an hour is an hour. All contributions are valued equally. So Time Dollars are something different from barter. The IRS has ruled that barter currencies are taxable, but that Time Dollars are not.

Who can earn Time Dollars?

Anyone can. Anyone from children to seniors, single parents, business people, teenagers, those living on a limited income or with limited mobility. There are no barriers to joining Des Moines TimeBank. Everyone is welcome. Everyone has a valuable gift to contribute

Can people who can't earn Time Dollars still get help?

Yes, they can use Time Dollars credits donated by other volunteers or earned on their behalf by their family and friends.

Can I give my Time Dollar credits away?

Yes you can. In this way, you can help a person twice. First, when you provide a service - secondly, when you pass on your credits.

Is it really volunteering if I get something in return?

This is the question often raised about Time Dollar. It is important to remember that the word "volunteer" actually refers to something done from the heart, rather than strictly without reward. The most important thing Time Dollar does is structure of reciprocity by re-building a sense of neighborliness and turning worthy sentiments into real social and economic forces.

Historically, volunteers have been the wealthy who do good works for the poor and needy. This implicitly divides the world into the givers and takers - or "charity", and many people do not like the idea of relying on this. Time Dollar removes the stigma of charity. When people sign up to receive assistance through a Time Dollar project, they are signing up to help someone else in some way. Time Dollar believes that we can all be contributors.

For more information, please contact Suzanne Holmes, 309-4795.