Money with a purpose

Community currencies can be employed to achieve a range of outcomes; here we provide an overview of their most common objectives.

From the complex history of and present-day experimentation with currency design that informs what is thought of today as money, we have begun to define community currencies as a specific category. They are distinct from other types of complementary currencies in two main ways:

Often devised in response to the shortcomings of the monetary system – for example, the lack of credit available for small businesses, or funding cuts to public services – community currency projects set out in different ways to link up the spare capacity of some of their members with the unmet needs of others. Such currencies are broadly united by the aim of improving how money addresses the complex needs of societies.

Starting from an idea of the positive impact a project would ideally have, well-designed currencies can address a wide number of different aims. Taking an outcomes-led approach is key to community currency design, ensuring that models are not created as ends in themselves, but instead as tools aiming to bring about a particular change.

Grouping examples of community currencies in terms of their intended impact is a useful starting point to compare how different approaches can be taken to address different issues. The following four areas broadly cover the social, economic and environmental objectives that inform the range of community currency projects operating across the world today:

Each currency model is in practice unique, tending to address several of the above objectives rather than sitting neatly under one category. To demonstrate the range and combination of existing currency models’ aims, these four symbols occur throughout the book next to relevant currency examples.