Goodnikels are an entirely new way of funding social impact projects - rather than relying on volunteers, your organization can hire web developers, graphic designers, marketing professionals and others at market rate without spending a dime. And if you help a nonprofit or social enterprise, you can earn goodnikels that you can use to hire people to work on your for-profit startup. Sign up below to be notified when we launch goodnikels, or apply to be a part of the private beta at Goodnik.org.
2. The Problem
• Social impact organizations (and other entrepreneurs) find it
difficult to identify and engage affordable, skilled, reliable help
without paying market rate
• Early stage companies often don’t have enough money to pay
market rate for professional services, but they do have time
• Professionals and entrepreneurs want to be able to use their skills
to help others, but want to be valued and recognized for their
contribution
• Companies that support volunteerism don’t have an easy way to
encourage their employees to find volunteer opportunities, and
lack the capacity to track and recognize those efforts
4. What is a Goodnikel?
• A goodnikel is a time-based unit of alternative currency that can
be exchanged for professional services.
• One goodnikel is equivalent to 1/10th of an hour of professional
services, or roughly between $5 and $10 US dollars. Think of it as
5 minutes of time, or about the price of a beer.
5. Minting Goodnikels
• Impact organizations receive a grant or a loan for goodnikels when
posting requests for services on the Goodnikels.com website
• Requests are framed as projects requiring professional services from
1-20 hours, i.e.;
• Website development
• Design
• Marketing
• Public Relations
• Accounting
• Legal
• Entrepreneurs, freelancers or other businesses may also take out
loans in goodnikels to post requests for services
• As the system expands, nonprofit organizations borrow rather than
receiving grants, and are encouraged to offer goods/services to raise
goodnikels for future projects
6. Earning Goodnikels
• To earn goodnikels, anyone with a professional skill can visit the
website and identify projects that they are interested in based on;
• Skill needed
• Mission of organization
• Community membership
• Professionals apply to complete the project
• Once the application is accepted, the professional then works to
complete the task before the deadline
• Once the organization agrees the project is complete, the
appropriate number of goodnikels are transferred to the
professional, and removed from the account balance of the
organization
7. Spending Goodnikels
• Once a professional has accumulated enough goodnikels, they can post
projects to request other professional services of any kind for help on
their own projects or clients
• Other professionals work on projects for each other, and goodnikels
trade hands many times, helping everyone fund the services they need
• In the future, businesses may offer to accept goodnikels as payment for
goods or services, such as;
• Events/meetups
• Classes
• Coworking spaces
• Beer
• Goodnikels can be donated back to impact organizations to fund more
projects
9. Corporate Goodnikels
• Companies that support employee volunteer contributions can
use the Goodnikels platform to encourage employee participation
• Employees who earn goodnikels remit them to the company for
rewards
• Using goodnikels, the company can accurately track overall
employee volunteer activities
• The company may donate goodnikels back to the “bank” or use
them to fund large projects of their own
10. Get Started
• Visit http://www.goodnikels.com to sign up for the beta
• Apply for a service grant of up to 20 hours (20 hours) at
http://www.goodnik.org/application
• Learn more at http://www.goodnik.org/goodnikels
