2/19/2023 0 Comments Hourworld timebank![]() ![]() Well, we do struggle sometimes.īut consider the fact that SkillShare had only 50 members when Octavia left and five or six years later we had grown to 230 members, mainly thanks to the hard work of board member, Laura Denman McCall, who recruited and organized (and designed our two-hands logo and the green and orange color scheme), and the tireless dedication of board member, treasurer, and prime coordinator Howard Lambert, who handled the recording of every exchange, managed the finances, resolved disputes between members, and so much more. With no money to pay a staff, you would be forgiven for thinking we have a struggling TimeBank. We have no paid staff and all the work to run the organization is done by members donating their time in exchange for TimeDollars. ![]() So SkillShare has been funded by its members’ annual contributions. What this meant is that contributions were not tax deductible. As far as we can tell, SkillShare is the only (c)(4) TimeBank in existence. But the IRS agent said, “not to worry, SkillShare can be a 501(c)(4) nonprofit.” A (c)(4) would lump us in with political organizations, but as the agent explained, it’s either a (c)(4) or a for-profit corporation that will have to file an annual tax return and pay back taxes on all past income. Sadly, we didn’t realize that 501(c)(3) was only for charities, which are defined as a staff providing services for a particular group. As the five year deadline for obtaining our own 501(c)(3) approached, we applied but were denied because we defined SkillShare as a circle of members helping each other. Sadly, it became apparent after it was too late to reverse course that, in order to access their (c)(3) designation, SkillShare should have been absorbed into TEN, not the other way around. So, SkillShare’s Board of Directors filed the paperwork necessary to absorb TEN into SkillShare and accepted about 20 of their members. They proposed that SkillShare accept their members and take over their (c)(3) designation. Around 2007, TEN, which had 120 members, a $20,000 yearly budget, and a 501(c)(3) status designated to their work serving the elderly, decided they couldn’t continue because they couldn’t obtain any more grants. The Board refused to abandon ship and decided to continue on without her. It appeared that SkillShare could not continue without her, so she suggested that SkillShare fold and its members join another local TimeBank called the Time Exchange Network or TEN. Around 2005, things speeded up when SkillShare began using the new internet-based software program, provided by TimeBanksUSA, to manage all the TimeBanking business online.Īfter about three years of tireless effort, Octavia felt that she was doing most of the work and not getting the support she needed from the members and the Board of Directors. In 2003, TimeBanking was done on the phone via Octavia, “the matchmaker,” and the results were called in or mailed to her. What she didn’t do was apply for an IRS nonprofit 501(c)(3) designation. Octavia recruited a Board of Directors and a Kitchen Cabinet, obtained a nonprofit designation in Colorado, drafted bylaws and other documents, and the organization moved ahead. Within a couple of months she had over 100 members, a bank account, and tremendous enthusiasm for the task ahead. At that time, we were called “SkillShare.” In January 2003, our founder, Octavia Allis, stood in the lobby of the Boulder Food Co-op asking all who entered, “Would you like to learn about TimeBanking?” She explained that TimeBanking members help each other in exchange for time and took their initial contribution right on the spot.
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