Davis Dollars - Davis Wiki

Phone

(530) 213-3312

Website

http://www.davisdollars.org

Contact

<nick AT davisdollars DOT org>

Established

Founded 2008; currency and website launched 2010

Founder

Nicholas Barry

Davis Dollars is a

community currency that encourages people to spend locally and get to know each other. It can be spent at some businesses (see the list below), and can also be used to buy or sell goods and services from individuals.

They are spent just like US Dollars, except that you know that when you spend Davis Dollars, they'll keep on circulating within Davis, benefiting Davisites and Davis businesses.

Davis Dollars is a program run by the Davis Empowerment & Community Organization, or Davis ECO.

Businesses Accepting Davis Dollars
How to get Davis Dollars
How to spend Davis Dollars
How Businesses can use Davis Dollars
Internships
Media

Businesses Accepting Davis Dollars

Below you will find the businesses that accept Davis Dollars.

How to get Davis Dollars

Nicholas Barry tabling at the Davis Farmers Market

There are two ways to get Davis Dollars:

Earn Davis Dollars - for example, by listing services or goods you can provide on the Davis Dollars website
Buy Davis Dollars (at $1.00 per Davis Dollar):

Visit the Davis Dollars team at the Farmers Market (they're there every Saturday from 8am to 2pm), or on campus (they meet in the Coho, near Swirlz, on Wednesdays from 9am - 5pm).
On the Davis Dollars website.
From a business that accepts Davis Dollars, some of which also sell Davis Dollars

Earning Davis Dollars contributes quite a bit to the community by providing more services or goods to other people. But buying Davis Dollars can help the Davis Dollars economy if there aren't enough circulating already - and, of course, if there aren't enough circulating around, you may find it easier to buy Davis Dollars than to earn them.

How to spend Davis Dollars

You can spend Davis Dollars on services and goods offered by other Davisites - for example, those listed on the Services page of the website, or on the bulletin board the DD folks display when they're at the farmers market or on campus.

You can also spend Davis Dollars at some local businesses that accept Davis Dollars (see the list above).

Spending Davis Dollars at a business also makes it easier for businesses to accept Davis Dollars (since businesses can get $0.95 per Davis Dollars. Furthermore, they get $0.97 per DD if they exchange 250 DDs or more, or $1.00 per DD if they exchange 500 DDs or more.). So your purchase can encourage businesses to continue to support the community by accepting Davis Dollars.

How Businesses can use Davis Dollars

Businesses that accept Davis Dollars can use their Davis Dollars in several ways:

Spend them on services the business needs (e.g. website work)
For a sole proprietorship, the owner can use the Davis Dollars for personal purposes
Sell Davis Dollars to people who want to buy them
Exchange the Davis Dollars back to the Davis Dollars organization for $0.95 per Davis Dollar. Furthermore, they get $0.97 per DD if they exchange 250 DDs or more, or $1.00 per DD if they exchange 500 DDs or more.

Internships

Davis Dollars offers internships in a variety of fields (contact the Davis Dollars organization for more information):

Davis Dollars Board of Directors: Help develop the direction the Davis Dollars organization should move in
Business outreach and development: convincing businesses to accept Davis Dollars, improving on the Davis Dollars business plan, reaching out to banks and credit unions to encourage them to exchange Davis Dollars, etc.
Community outreach: talking to community members at the farmers market, working with existing communities to help them exchange services, etc.
Website design: Learn how to use Wordpress (a website/blog creation tool), and help develop the Davis Dollars website
Graphic design and illustration: Design fliers, posters, T-shirts, etc.

Davis Dollars has offered internships to over 65 interns since 2009.

Media

Comments:

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How does this relate to Davis Community Currency?

2010-08-13 22:58:00 Davis Community Currency was someone's proposal that, to my knowledge, was never really pursued. I speak to a lot of people around town who mention various attempts at different times to start community currencies - it's obviously an idea that's in the air. Good to know lots of people are thinking about it! —NaBarry (See my current profile here: NicholasBarry; in order to meet wikispot's Full Name policy, I no longer use NaBarry, though the account still exists for the sake of recordkeeping.)

2009-07-19 16:28:54 Here's the tax implications http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc420.html —JohnHumperdinkle

Thanks, John! —NaBarry (See my current profile here: NicholasBarry; in order to meet wikispot's Full Name policy, I no longer use NaBarry, though the account still exists for the sake of recordkeeping.)

2010-11-02 21:36:14 The problem with Davis dollars is the exchange rate. Let's say I buy 10 Davis Dollars. As a consumer, I pay $9.50 according to their pricing. I go to my downtown business and buy 10.00 worth of goods (we'll pretend these are non-taxable items at a local grocers) and I go on my merry way. Now the grocer, who obviously needs the actual cash to pay for the goods and not Davis Dollars goes to exchange them for cold hard American currency. Guess what, there is a 1.00 exchange rate fee. So now, the grocer is actually LOSING $1.00 on each 10.00 transaction. Does not work for the businesses, no matter how good it is for the consumer and for the community and will fail because of this.

It has to be profitable. It is not. End of story. —Wes-P

Actually, Berkshares (the biggest community currency in the country, with the equivalent of over $2 million in circulation) uses this same model. You're absolutely right that for a business with a low margin, accepting Davis Dollars won't make sense. Hibbert Lumber, for example, has expressed some interest, except that they have a very low margin on their products (way below 10%), so it doesn't make sense for them. Despite this, some of our early supporters do sell goods (Redwood Barn Nursery, Apex Cycles, Watermelon Music). Davis Dollars also makes sense for businesses that provide services, and therefore have very high margins, as long as Davis Dollars brings in new customers or new business from existing customers. —NaBarry, 2010-11-19 (See my current profile here: NicholasBarry; in order to meet wikispot's Full Name policy, I no longer use NaBarry, though the account still exists for the sake of recordkeeping.)

* One Davis Dollar is worth One Dollar, so long as it is kept in circulation and spent within the community, as opposed to cashing it in for USD. In the example above, if the grocer can transact with another local business for goods or services that he needs, the money is worth exactly the same for him as the goods he gave for it. The trick is to have enough local businesses accepting them to make it possible to get what you need. The whole point of a community currency (as I understand it) is to keep the money circulating with the community. Turning it in for USD takes it out of circulation. It is (of course) necessary to have USDs to pay vendors and deposit into your bank, but the goal is to keep spending within Davis. JeffSimons