Why an hour is an hour: the thinking behind Golden Hint Credits

When we designed the Exchange, the first question was how to keep it fair. If a charity gives three hours of help, what should it get back?

We looked at the obvious answer, pricing each skill the way the market does, and decided against it. On Golden Hint, one hour of expert help earns one credit, and one credit buys one hour of help from anyone else.

Every charity's expertise counts the same

Markets price a lawyer's hour above a designer's, and a designer's above a volunteer coordinator's. But a small charity that can't recruit volunteers is in just as much trouble as one that can't read a contract. The help that saves you is the help you were missing, whatever it would cost on the open market.

Pricing by time also keeps the conversation simple. Nobody has to haggle, and nobody has to feel that their skills are worth less than someone else's. That matters to us, because the people who most need Golden Hint are often the ones who already feel the nonprofit world wasn't built for them.

When an hour isn't the right measure

Some help doesn't fit neatly into hours. A document review might take one person forty minutes and another two hours. So for fixed tasks, the two charities can agree a number of credits before the work starts, anywhere from half a credit to twenty. Once both sides accept, the credits are held, and they only move when both confirm the work is done.

Credits are not money

We want to be completely clear about this. Credits have no cash value. They can't be bought, sold, or turned into money. They aren't wages, payment for services or a donation. They're a record of what each charity has given to the community, and a way to ask for help in return.

That line matters legally as well as culturally. Any system that looks like payment between charities can raise questions about tax, private benefit and employment, so the Foundation's legal and tax advisers are reviewing the credit rules before membership opens. We've built the rules as settings rather than code, so they can be adjusted without rebuilding anything.

Getting started without having given anything

A new charity shouldn't have to give before it can ask. Every verified charity will start with a welcome grant of five credits, and founders still forming their charity will start with ten, because at first they'll mostly be receiving help. Balances can also dip a little below zero, so nobody has to wait.

You can read the full draft rules in our credit rules, or see how credits move between three example charities on the credits page.