This is a CTP of initiative: Hour Exchange Portland (USA)
Dr. Richard Rockefeller, the great grandson of John D. Rockefeller, was a physician in Maine who practiced and taught medicine in Portland for almost 20 years. He was also a philanthropist and humanitarian who founded, supported and engaged actively in several organizations addressed to improving environmental and social conditions.
He had been Chair of the Coast Heritage Fund, Maine, which worked on local environmental conservation issues. He was also a co-founder of the international relief and humanitarian organization, Medecins-sans-Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) and chaired its US Advisory Board from 1989 until 2010. He became actively involved in operations throughout developing countries, including in Cambodia, Niger and Peru. He also founded and chaired the Health Commons Institute, a non-profit organization aimed at improving the use of computer information systems in patient and doctor support. His philanthropic work was focused around environmental and social issues. He worked internationally, but he also lent considerable support to local initiatives in his home city, state and region (Portland, Maine and New England). As a physician, he had particular interests in health and access to health care.
In a speech he made about his interest in timebanking, he explained that this arose from his work on environmental issues and a sense of emerging frustration with what he felt was a lack of effective action on environmental conservation both by policy makers and by citizens. At a conference in 1995, he heard Edgar Cahn speak about timebanking. Cahn had been delivering speeches as part of his efforts to raise awareness of timebanking and promote interest in it. The speech had a strong impact on Richard Rockefeller. It “really spoke to him.” It led Richard Rockefeller to question whether people who are not even able to take care of each other can take care of the environment.
Although, up to that point, Richard Rockefeller had been involved in several health and medical related issues his philanthropic activities had been focused mostly on environmental issues. The speech contributed to his decision to shift the focus of his philanthropy more toward social issues and interpersonal relations and to use the timebanking mechanism to address these.
He became passionate about the idea of (re-)connecting local people and strengthening local communities and local social capital by using the values and time-based mechanism of service exchange as tools. From a philanthropic perspective Richard Rockefeller also: “wanted to give something back to his local community” of Portland, Maine and its environs. He set up the Hour Exchange Portland (HEP) in 1996 to support these goals. His vision and ambition were nevertheless much grander than only one time bank. His vision was to develop a successful time bank, HEP, in Portand and to use this as a basis for innovation, learning and replication. He envisaged that there would be scale economies and beneficial networking externalities in having several interconnected time banks within the same State and Province, so HEP became used as a role model for wider roll out of new time banks across Maine and New England and it provided support in establishing new time banks.
Following the emergence of HEP in Portland, time banks were established in rapid succession across the state of Maine. At its peak, the State network consisted of more than ten Time Banks offering very diverse sets of services. This was possible because Richard Rockefeller and fellow philanthropists within his networks provided ready, reliable and stable funding. This funding stability, especially in relation to covering core (basic) costs also gave HEP a capacity to experiment and to innovate. Coverage of basic costs meant that HEP and its sister banks could apply for grants for special projects (such as pilots and demonstrations) and use any such funds for innovative work knowing that none had to be diverted to cover general costs of routine operations.
Nevertheless, the sustained supply of funds had some downsides. It reduced the incentive to develop strategies for diversifying income streams and it created a high level of ongoing funding dependence. The sudden, untimely and unexpected passing of Richard Rockefeller in an airplane accident proved a multiple blow to the organisations he had funded. The Maine network of time banks has gone into decline since the death of Richard Rockefeller. Several of the Maine time banks have closed or have seen reduction in programmes and activities. While HEP survives, it is no longer so vibrant and active as before. This is covered in a separate CTP.
The driving force in setting up HEP was Richard Rockefeller. Richard Rockefeller came from a very distinguished, successful and wealthy family. His Uncle, Nelson Rockefeller had been US Vice-President. Richard Rockefeller was committed to lending his name and influence to support good causes, especially the improvement of environmental and societal conditions.
The switch from supporting mostly environmental causes to mostly social causes had several influences. He was influenced by an academic investigation of the prevailing inability of people and policy to actively prevent environmental degradation entitled: “If the GDP is up, why is America down” (Cobb, Halstead, Rowe, 1995).
He was inspired by Edgar Cahn, his speech and his work on the theorization and formalization of time banking. Cahn had become involved in the development of the Members Organized Resource Exchange (MORE) program. In the 1990s, he wrote influential books on the time-based service-exchange approach to self-help via mutual-help. Cahn established a fundable movement around ‘time dollars’, which is the term he used for time as a currency. He established the Time Dollar Institute to undertake research on the time exchange mechanism and to promote time exchange institutions in the US as well as internationally.
When Richard Rockefeller set up HEP in 1996, he established a board whose members were carefully chosen and selected for the roles they were to play. Auta Main remarks: “We had a very strong board of directors that Richard had brought together and the whole time I was there we had the same board of directors, it wasn't like every year it changes. These were people that had money, reputation and influence and were known in their communities and they knew Richard through a variety of different avenues. […] They were people with relevant skills and backgrounds and they came from significant bodies and organizations: One was a doctor, [Richard was a doctor of course]; one was a nurse; […] They knew how to fund-raise, they knew how to raise awareness, they knew how to encourage their bodies to support the Time Bank.”
By virtue of Richard Rockefeller’s status, position and contact network, he was able to implement HEP with support from external parties and raise the profile of timebanking across Maine and New England. The Board contributed tremendously to the success; “they didn't raise millions that way, but they [the Board Members] made other people of influence aware of what timebanking was”.
In the case of HEP a succession of highly motivated Directors and Coordinators helped HEP to become a flagship time bank in the US with a very active innovation programme.
Several related events contributed to the creation of HEP and to its emergence as a flagship Time Bank in terms of experimentation and innovation.
The historical emergence of time exchange approaches in the US at the Grace Hill community is relevant, since this marked the start of timebanking in the USA. In turn, the roots of the Grace Hill Settlement and the specific context there can be traced back almost 150 years. The informal time-based service exchange model of the women pioneers of timebanking at Grace Hill was taken up formally in a project between 1979-1981 to prepare for diminishing governmental support for low-income communities. From 1981 the activities were extended to become a de facto program. In 1983 this de facto program was retroactively given the name ‘Members Organized Resource Exchange’ (MORE) program.
The MORE approach at Grace Hill was widely studied for its replication potential. Through his writings, Edgar Cahn helped create a fundable movement around timebanking. Through different communications channels, Cahn reached various audiences. Through a conference presentation in 1995 he reached Richard Rockefeller who was in the audience. Richard Rockefeller was inspired to re-focus some of his philanthropic effort toward supporting time banks.
The same year, 1995, the article entitled “If the GDP is up, Why is America down?” (Cobb, Halstead, Rowe, 1995) was published and this also influenced Richard Rockefeller’s understanding and ambitions. The article focused on the role of the economic system in social and environmental problems, the role of policy failures, and the need for active citizenship to address environmental degradation. The authors argue that because it is difficult to quantify and assign money values to environmental capital and because of the trend toward marketization of all dimensions of human life, people have become blind to environmental assets. Rockefeller concluded that: “the same problem existed for social wellbeing, our social capital. And the language I came to understand best was that, because we were blind to social and environmental capital, our economic world began to cannibalize those things that were invisible to us”.
The creation of HEP by Richard Rockefeller was not contested.
While the emergence of timebanking at Grace Hill was not anticipated, its wider use at Grace Hill was foreseen by administrators trying to stave off the effects of cuts in welfare budgets to be a potential response to the ending of the War on Poverty.
Edgar Cahn became involved in the MORE program and forged a fundable movement around the timebanking concept. He developed his Time Dollar Institute. He raised awareness of timebanking and he actively promoted the establishment of time banks.
The connection between Edgar Cahn and Richard Rockefeller opened further opportunities to develop timebanking in the US and in other world regions. Edgar Cahn and Richard Rockefeller co-created TBUSA intentionally to provide support services to US time banks and so that the US movement could act together with membership organisations and timebanking movements emerging in other countries.
Auta Main says that the ambition and motivation of Richard Rockefeller was “to give something back to his own community.” He began to share his vision of a complementary economy of mutual help. He created HEP, which intentionally became a flagship Time Bank in the US and this was established intentionally to be the hub of State- and Region- wide networks of time banks.
There was a clear aim to give local communities the opportunity to rebuild their community and interpersonal relations and to give autonomy back to the citizens, particularly in times of economic constraints.
The early successful establishment of HEP and the growth of the State- and Regional networks of time banks were both intentional developments. Nevertheless, the expansion of the networks occurred more rapidly than had been anticipated. Richard Rockefeller, as founder and funder, enabled development of the Time Banks by covering core costs. Efforts were focused on inaugurating new time banks and innovating with uses of timebanking.
However, the challenges of sustaining time banks were underestimated. HEP and its network of local time banks relied very heavily upon the financial and moral support they received from Richard Rockefeller and the Board he had established.
Although, the HEP had a stable source of funding due in large part to the support from Richard Rockefeller, the time banks within the regional network did not manage to develop business models capable of enabling them to sustain long term.
One of the key lessons learned was the importance of local coordinators or brokers of time banks. Coordinators play roles inter alia in recruiting members to time banks, establishing initial activities among members, and maintaining timebanking activity levels. Energized and active coordinators play decisive roles in facilitating community building. Furthermore, it was found that a paid coordination position is the most effective model and that even the most enthusiastic coordinators and organizers will ‘burn out’ over time. Brokerage incurs some recurrent financial cost. In turn this implies that, in order to sustain, time banks need to develop business models that enable them to move off the early reliance on philanthropic grants.
Auta Main points out that it was never Richard Rockefeller’s intention that he should support HEP and the New England region time banks indefinitely:
“[Richard Rockefellers] original vision was ‘let’s get a really successful model in Portland’ - which we did. And then let’s try to replicate this. At one point we had 10 or 12 Time Banks in Maine and then again we helped one in Massachusetts. We spent a lot of time with them. We helped a couple in New Hampshire and one in Newburyport, so we were all working together. First we were Maine Time Dollars, then we were Maine TBs and then we were New England Time Banks and Hour Exchange Portland[…]. Richard had said ‘I'm going to fund this for maybe another 3 or 4 years but beyond that...’ And he never thought he would be funding it forever, […] he thought that there would be a way to make them sustainable and that was always part of our goal and in our minds. This was probably very naïve of us, but we thought that the members could do it.”
The reality that emerged was that the Maine Time Banks did not manage to develop business models and that played against them in the aftermath of the sudden, unexpected passing of Richard Rockefeller. Despite his expectations to only provide start-up funding many of the Maine time banks were still relying on Richard Rockefeller’s philanthropic funding at the time of his passing. Ultimately, many of the Maine time banks closed down after a few years of operation. HEP has survived, but is less vibrant than it was when at its peak.
Stay informed. Subscribe for project updates by e-mail.
