NEWS RELEASE about ArtsCooperativesFoodHealthIdeas posted on July 12, 2012 by jordanbober
Seedstock Community Currency Project Announces First Non-Profit Beneficiaries
[Vancouver, BC, 7/09/2012] – On Sunday, the Seedstock Community Currency Project, Vancouver’s first community currency, officially announced its initial list of non-profit beneficiary partners. The initial non-profit beneficiary partners are: Fresh Roots Urban Farm Society, Potluck Café’s DTES Kitchen Tables Project, Village Vancouver, the Lazarus Health Project, and RainCity Housing.
Seedstock organisers anticipate adding more non-profits to the project as beneficiaries in the coming weeks and project to officially launch the community currency in late summer with a list of ten non-profit beneficiaries. Ultimately, organisers of Seedstock hope to build enough capacity to support hundreds of local with new sources of funding for their activities. You can learn more about Seedstock’s non-profit beneficiary partners at http://seedstock.ca/who/non-profit-beneficiaries.
Jordan Bober, one of the co-initiators of the Seedstock Community Currency Project, claims that, “Seedstock will attract additional resources for community-based non-profits working to promote local food and food security, local arts, health & wellness and a culture of collaboration in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.” When asked about the importance of non-profits ability to secure sustainable funding Bober believes that, “Non-profits are finding themselves squeezed from all directions these days, and yet the work that many of them do is essential if we are to have a livable, sustainable, and socially just future in this city. Seedstock will help close the gap between what these groups need to fulfill their missions and the resources available to them by tapping into the underutilised human and material wealth that already exists within our communities.”
Seedstock is a community currency that is backed by local businesses in the Lower Mainland. Businesses who agree to accept Seedstock as full or partial payment become the issuers of a certain amount of Seedstock that they can donate to any eligible local non-profit.
Non-profits who receive Seedstock donations can either spend it at participating businesses, use it to reward their volunteers, or exchange it with the public for Canadian Dollars as a fundraiser. In doing so, non-profits kickstart the circulation of Seedstock in the economy by getting it into the hands of the wider public. The organisers project being able to help local non-profits raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in this way within the first few months of Seedstock’s launch, planned for mid-August 2012.
Local business owners that issue and accept Seedstock will also benefit by generating new business either directly from the beneficiary non-profits or customers who have obtained Seedstock through local community organizations. Seedstock is designed to be spent alongside traditional cash, and unlike discount coupons, businesses can also spend the Seedstock that they earn. This encourages businesses to seek out local suppliers who will also accept Seedstock whenever possible.
“It’s the only kind of money that comes back to the businesses that issue it, and that keeps going around in the community once its spent. By buying Seedstock from non-profits and spending it at local businesses, people not only get to support great causes without losing spending power, but they are helping to build a stronger and more resilient local economy as well,” says Bober.
Seedstock will be launching in Vancouver this summer, and is making a call for submissions (deadline July 20) to its “Art as Money as Art” event to be held in early August, where designs for the currency will be selected. To learn more about Seedstock, please visit their website, www.seedstock.ca.
For other instances of media coverage of the Seedstock Project, please see http://seedstock.ca/now/seedstock-in-the-news.
Jordan Bober
Co-initiator, Seedstock Community Currency Project
(778) 866-4451
The site for the Vancouver local of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.