About Us
Common Good® is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit non-bank financial institution for community empowerment, regulated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Departments of Public Charities, Corporations, and Revenue, by the Internal Revenue Service, and by the United States Treasury Department.
Vision
We envision a society in which we gather locally to decide for ourselves what our funding priorities should be, to advance a Common Good Economy — with plenty of money to fund those decisions. Our chosen priorities might include, for example:
- sustainable agriculture and energy systems.
- local self-reliance.
- ensuring everyone has healthy food, a home, healthcare, satisfying work, and a livable world.
- helping people elsewhere.
Mission
Our mission is to design and establish the framework for that new economy by integrating a fast-growing mutual credit system with traditional bank accounts, to shift power from big business and big government back to communities, where we know and care more. This hybrid system gives today’s participants the experience of local economic sovereignty central to our vision of a Common Good Economy.
Strategy
To that end, we launched Common Good in Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 2013. The Common Good system is:
- Toolkit. A democratic economics toolkit for communities and organizers.
- Economic system. A card-based payment and accounting system with software for financial analysis and credit that circulates so it acts like money.
- Decision system. A democratic system for deciding as a community how much of the Community Fund to use and what to fund with it. We provide the tools you need for sound decisions, but each participating community is autonomous — the decisions are up to you.
Values
As an organization and as a movement we value:
- Love, happiness, fulfillment, and fun. We aim to create a world where everyone is guaranteed a living, so they can contribute to their community and to the world in whatever way they choose, following their passion and sense of calling. We support our staff and volunteers in doing work for Common Good Finance that brings them joy.
- Economic justice. We aim to create a world where everyone has access to the resources they need, to live a happy and productive life. Meanwhile, we pay our staff a living wage and avoid compensating anyone excessively.
- Democracy / self-determination. We welcome input from anyone and actively seek input from a wide range of stakeholders because everyone has a part of the truth.
- Community. We gather people together locally, to develop a sense of working together and being part of something important.
- Security. We take extraordinary measures to ensure that no one will suffer from identity theft or loss of money through their use of Common Good or their involvement with the Common Good organization.
- Access to information. The operations of our organization, as well as of the Common Good system, are as transparent as we can make them. Our software, policies, finances, plans, and publicity materials are all open source.
We hope you will join us!