Innovative. Timely. Transformative. Together these words describe a new program that expands elder care while aiding local businesses. Before letting you in on how all of these words apply, here are a couple of hints on how innovative it is. The program is a business-to-business trade exchange in the Pioneer Valley that monetizes the civic engagement performed by area individuals. Further, it was created by a non-profit agency right here in the Pioneer Valley. Have you discovered the answer yet? One more clue: 20 UMass students worked for an entire semester to help grow the program. Give up? We’re talking about CitizensMatch!

CitizensMatch was launched in August of 2006 by Highland Valley Elder Services. Upon hearing this, one might ask “why would a non-profit agency create a trade exchange?” The answer lies in the second word: Transformative.

Highland Valley, like many other non-profits, never has enough money to provide services to elders and to sustain the caring individuals who deliver noon-time meals, home care services, protection from abuse, neglect and the like. Rather than rely on fund raising and advocacy alone, Highland Valley looked to creating a partnership with local businesses that would transform how funding is made available and voila: CitizensMatch! Through the Citizen Dollar transactions that businesses make, money is generated to expand elder care. Are you curious as to how corporate citizens support individual citizens?

CitizensMatch works in the following way. Member businesses trade their goods and services via a cashless currency called Citizen Dollars amongst each other, saving cash to fulfill every day business needs. One Citizen Dollar is equivalent to one U.S. dollar for all taxation and accountancy purposes. These transactions generate fees and, when CitizensMatch matches up with others in their community to deliver a noon time meal, visit a homebound neighbor, run an errand and the like, they can earn Citizen Dollars which can be spent at any of the businesses participating in the program.

In addition to added patronage, businesses involved with CitizensMatch enjoy increased marketing and the ability to use Citizen Dollars to purchase advertising in this magazine! In order to grow the program and increase the number of businesses involved to the desired target of 50-100, CitizensMatch enlisted the help of 20 students enrolled in the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, which introduces the word Timely.

In the class, entitled Sales Distribution and Strategies, students devoted an entire semester to enrolling local businesses onto the CitizensMatch trading platform. The class is a part of the newly founded Center for Business in Society that helps students witness first hand the reality of how businesses function today as good corporate citizens. Through the teaching of his class, Professor Doron Goldman offers his students hands on experience in the art of selling a unique business service while also positively impacting the community around them. The Center for Business and Society teaches the new wave of corporate social responsibility and CitizensMatch offers the students a powerful example of businesses making a difference while making a profit. During these recessionary times, this is not only timely in the greening of America’s business environment but also in the non-profit sector’s search for new models of sustainability.

As a whole, the class was involved in branding the CitizensMatch program while accenting its importance in the community. Though only working with the program for a short time, the students helped to increase its community presence through participating in the annual Easthampton Chamber of Commerce Table Top Expo and sponsoring the Annual Push America Race recently held on the UMass campus to benefit individuals with disabilities.

As a way to close the semester, the students hosted the very first CitizensMatch Trade Exposition in which CitizensMatch member businesses showcased their goods and services to other member businesses and Citizen Dollar earners. The students also enrolled four new businesses onto the CitizensMatch Trading Platform. A full list of CitizensMatch member businesses can be found in the back of this magazine.

Robert Gallant, executive director of Highland Valley Elder Services, described the work of the students by saying: “Their passion and skill were the magic ingredients that allowed for the expansion of this program that increases elder care, assists the local economy and provides an incentive for individuals to take charge in their communities.”

All individuals involved in the CitizensMatch program are confident that the lessons learned through this journey will strengthen the program as it enters its third year.

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