AN ECONOMY OF HOURS · 2017-04-03 · AN ECONOMY OF HOURS Unlike conventional time banks, Echo focuses, not solely on a specific community or sector for its participants and beneficiaries,

2016IMPACT REPORT:AN ECONOMY OF HOURS

RELATIONSHIPS ARE THE THREADS THAT STITCH TOGETHER THE RICH FABRIC OF OUR COMMUNITIES.

FOREWORD

OUR OFFER

IMPACT SUMMARY

DEFINING OUR TERMS

OUR PROBLEM AND OUR PROCESS

ECHO AT A GLANCE

MEASURING IMPACT

METHODOLOGY

IMPACT ASSESSMENT: WHAT WE FOUND

RESEARCH QUESTION 1 – BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

RESEARCH QUESTION 2 – SHARING TO BUILD CAPACITY

KEY LEARNINGS AND LOOKING FORWARD

NEXT STEPS

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

CONTENTS03

04

06

11

12

15

18

20

25

34

46

48

49

50

23

Research and analysis by Caitlin Ross.

We're very grateful to have so many talented photographers in our network who have provided the photographs for this report. Thanks to Frank Da Silva, Stuart Duncan, Jemima Yong, Bozhidar Chkorev, Stephen Brockerton and John Greene. Seven of the sector icons on p16 were adapted from designs by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

Design and layout by Tom Driver ([email protected])

FOREWORDRelationships are the threads that stitch together the rich fabric of our communities. They are a key contributor to individual wellbeing and play a crucial role in determining the relative connectedness of a community and therefore its strength and resilience.

We believe there is a growing problem of disconnected communities, particularly in urban areas. The last two decades have borne witness to rapid technological development and dependence; people engaging in wider and lighter social spheres resulting in the decreasing levels of trust

that often characterise the way many of us lead our lives. Alongside this we see an increased pace of life, cost of living and, over a longer period, an increase in population churn with more fragmented social structures. As a result, more and more of our general everyday activities that were traditionally carried out by small familial or social groups are becoming monetised. Monetised relationships are inherently imbalanced and operate as singular transactions rather than helping to grow an ongoing sense of connectedness.

The end result: a lack of connectivity in and between communities that is preventing people from reaching their full potential. Furthermore, due to this lack of connection, our local communities often also lack resilience in times of economic flux and turbulence, leaving them more exposed to further fragmentation – just at the time when community strength and support can offer maximum value.

Echo uses an online platform to stimulate offline activity; fostering connections and fast tracking growth of bridging relationships within communities. This creates prosperity and local economic resilience in a unique and innovative way.

THERE'S A LACK OF CONNECTIVITY IN AND BETWEEN COMMUNITIES THAT IS PREVENTING PEOPLE FROM REACHING THEIR FULL POTENTIAL.

03IMPACT REPORT 2016—

OUR OFFEREcho is a free to use, online platform for the buying and selling of skills, services and resources.

On the face of it, Echo looks very similar to online skills marketplaces like TaskRabbit, Odesk and other commercial ‘online employment’ platforms that have come to the fore in line with the advent of the sharing economy; users buying the time and services of professionals in an ‘on demand’ way, be they graphic designers, handymen or lawyers.

The key difference is that our members trade their professional skills and services using our own time currency, the Echo, rather than pounds and pence. Every hour of service delivered is valued at one Echo.

TIME, AS MONEY

Based on the principles of traditional gift economies such as the Kula Ring, and well known time banking practice, Echo represents both a trading model and a currency where an hour of someone’s time is always worth one Echo, no matter what the exchange. In this way, equality of value is hardwired into the system with everything (and therefore everyone) valued at exactly the same rate. Echo is a dualistic model where people operate simultaneously in the commercial sphere (saving money, making money, building capacity, etc.) and the gift sphere (one hour is delivered in exchange for one hour in return).

Where other platforms and technologies seek to reduce ‘friction’ at every juncture, we seek to increase friction; friendly friction that enables and accelerates the development of connections (relationships) between all types of people and all types of organisations – the type of connections that sovereign currency hinders. The type of connections that help to build stronger, more diverse and sustainable communities.


1 ECHO

1Bronislaw Malinowski, Argonauts of the Pacific (1922), Charles Levi-Straus Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949)

1 HOUR=

AN ECONOMY OF HOURS

Unlike conventional time banks, Echo focuses, not solely on a specific community or sector for its participants and beneficiaries, but rather seeks to connect as many diverse people and organisations as possible.

Echo represents a new local ecosystem, one that blends economic and social values and understands them as inherently interconnected. As such, Echo might be described as the first 360° time bank, and this report is the first investigation into the socioeconomic impact of this type of project.

Funded by Nesta, Friends Provident Foundation and the London Legacy Development Corporation and piloted initially as Hackney Shares, Echo has been well established since 2014, focusing on the East London boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Newham. It is now a flourishing trading community of over 2400 local residents, sole traders, start-ups, charities and SMEs, all the way up to corporates like Balfour Beatty, Google and Cabinet Office – all equal, trading members. So far they’ve traded nearly 9,000 hours with a cumulative value of c. £375k.

Our small team provides ongoing support to our members in identifying and marketing their offers and needs, brokering trades and providing technical assistance. Additionally, we host regular member-led workshops and training sessions and deliver a business accelerator programme.

ECHO++

Though much of the trading in Echo is ‘service’ delivered one-to-one (e.g. web development, book-keeping, copy-editing) we noted early on that a growing number of trades fell into the category of ‘training’, e.g. ‘Social Media for Business’ or ‘Marketing Your Food Start-up’.

In order to maximise these opportunities for members we developed and hosted a peer-to-peer workshop programme which we have now extended into a business accelerator programme, Echo++.

Trainers/attendees of Echo++ are paid/pay for the 6 week and 3 month programme in Echoes, with attendees able to earn these Echoes back by delivering their services to the wider network, developing social capital and refining their offer in the process. At the same time, trainers are supported by the Echo team to turn their expertise into interactive workshops, which are theirs to deliver commercially thereafter.

The overwhelming success of the programme (in both uptake and outcomes, with 70+ businesses graduating from the programme since its launch in September 2015) has led us to focus on this premium service as the long-term sustainability model for Echo itself.


HOURS TRADED TO DATE, WITH A CUMULATIVE VALUE OF C.£375,000

9,000

IMPACT SUMMARYAlongside this growth and further exploration of the uses of time currency, we have become central to the conversation surrounding the sharing economy in the UK, visiting 10 Downing Street to present the successes and challenges we’ve faced.

We have featured in all the broadsheet press and hold a seat alongside AirBnB and LoveHomeSwap on the governing board of Sharing Economy UK. It feels timely to undertake this impact study now – which represents our first step towards really understanding and measuring the effects we’re having, both for our own Echo members and also the East London communities in which we operate.

To inform this impact assessment, we identified two specific research questions:

Our research programme took place over an eight-month period and consisted of amassing and analysing existing Echo datasets, survey, focus group and interview results to gather a breadth and depth of quantitative and qualitative evidence of activity and outcomes for our East London members.

The results are positive and more pronounced than we hoped they might be.

INSIGHTS

Echo has attracted a wide membership, with many members joining from far beyond East London. So we have global data, which gives a useful overall picture of activity2. However, we’re most interested in the activity and experience of our East London membership, where we focus all of our resources and so this group is the main focus of our report.


Does Echo, with the hard-wired equality of its currency, foster local and social relationships, facilitating trust, community connectivity and prosperity?

Can Echo, with the hard-wired equality of its currency, help to create social and economic benefits for communities by providing them with a mechanism to share possibly untapped knowledge, skills and resources to build capacity?

2See infographic, page 15

Testing the impact of our currency itself, we established that 67% of our members feel that their time is valued equally to that of other Echo members and the same percentage said that Echo had changed their perception of the value of their time and skills. This is an important step – we have ensured that the hardwired equality of the Echo is both recognised and effective.

We found that ‘joining intention’ was key to understanding the patterns in our members’ activity and experience, and indicating where we might support our membership better.

We discovered that, of those who joined because they liked the idea and ethos of Echo, 82% actually went on to trade. Although a relatively high percentage, when we contrasted this with those who joined in order to engage in a local East London project, we discovered significantly stronger results: 100% had completed a trade and felt more connected to their community, 88% made a new professional connection, 75% said that Echo had helped them to save money and 100% reported gaining access to a service or resource that they wouldn’t have been able to afford without Echo3.

Others joined in order to access our membership, and grow their networks both personally and professionally. 85% of this group had traded, 81% said that they had made a new professional connection, 70% made a new social connection, 78% reported feeling more connected to their community, 78% reported being able to save money, and a quarter said that Echo helped them to win commercial work. Those who join to leverage our network really see results.

We’re pleased to be a useful and valuable tool for our members and it appears that the ‘local’ driver is a strong motivation to trade, which is informing our onward strategy.

There was more rich learning to be had from other groups, such as those who joined as a good way to give back or volunteer. Only 50% of this group had completed an Echo trade. However, of those who had traded, 100% felt more


WE FOUND THAT ‘JOINING INTENTION’ WAS KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE PATTERNS IN OUR MEMBERS’ ACTIVITY AND EXPERIENCE.

3See page 50 for full breakdown

MEMBERS TEND TO GO ON TO HAVE A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE FAR BEYOND THEIR INITIAL GOALS.

connected to their community, 100% felt that they had saved money, 100% felt that they had gained access to something that they couldn’t otherwise afford, and 100% felt that their time was equal to that of other members’ time. This data suggests that this group may find it hard getting started and it might be wise to provide more ‘on boarding’ support to them, as members tend to go on to have a positive experience far beyond their initial goal.


“I would put Echo members in the same trust category as friends of friends, likeminded people...[with] more social and human attitudes towards business as opposed to just earning money.”

Echo Individual, member since 2013

“I get to meet people that I wouldn’t normally meet... you really get to become part of the fabric of East London.”

Echo Individual, member since 2015

“It’s a sense of freedom… you can play around with ideas and test something out... you bring your personality to it a it more, it’s more relaxed, feels more kind. Kind is important, there’s a lot of aggression with money.”

Echo Business, member since 2015

“Without a doubt, I have gained both personal and professional development under the Echo ethos and umbrella and have actively encouraged a few business peers to join.”

Yejide Adeyoye, Echo Business, see more in her full case study

TAKEAWAYS

A key takeaway for us is that the trust structures created within Echo play a big part in enabling these new connections to form, with members speaking of Echo creating an environment where they are able to view other Echo members as “friends of friends”. As we hoped, Echo is effectively acting as a relationship accelerant, speeding up the development of relationships with a rich trust component.

We have also learned that our members value Echo’s ability to bring people and businesses together who would not normally meet, and that our events and workshops are an ideal way for local members to explore and discover new places in their own neighbourhoods and in so doing, feel more connected to their local community. And because access is free and the offer is broad, this diverse network cultivates a unique, healthy mix of different individuals and businesses – the likes of which is not often easily found or accessed within local communities.

Real economic value is created by members saving money, increasing capacity and winning commercial work through Echo. This is important not only as part of building personal and professional confidence but also because it stimulates local economic activity, strengthening the web of money flows which often lead to tangible socioeconomic benefits in an area – otherwise known as the Local Multiplier Effect.4

And we have found that Echo helps increase confidence and wellbeing at an individual and collective level, providing a mechanism to try new things for both personal and professional development.


4New Economics Foundation, Plugging the Leaks: A Different Approach. Online at http://www.pluggingtheleaks.org/about/index.htm (accessed 02/10/2015)

SAID THAT BEING PART OF ECHO ENABLED THEM TO WIN COMMERCIAL WORK

24%

“I gained a sense of community in East London that I didn’t feel before... it’s a sense of wellbeing, meeting new people and having a better connection to the community.”


SAID THAT THEY MADE A NEW PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIP THROUGH ECHO

85%

“I’ve been able to use these skills all the time, and they have absolutely turned into something that I can monetize. I could have learned these skills elsewhere but the same course would cost me around £300, Echo saved me a fortune.”


ECHO REPRESENTS A NEW LOCAL ECOSYSTEM THAT BLENDS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL VALUES AND UNDERSTANDS THEM AS INHERENTLY INTERCONNECTED

DEFINING OUR TERMSWe value robust, thorough research, but we also want to make the information presented in this report as accessible as possible.

We have put considerable effort into making sure that this piece of research is light on jargon, but we still want to be as transparent as possible in sharing our findings. To do this, we define precisely what we mean when we use certain terms:


Active member: A member who has completed a minimum of one Echo trade.

Capacity building: Here we will borrow the definition of Community Capacity Building used widely in the community development sphere, which is: ‘Activities, resources and support that strengthen the skills, abilities and confidence of people and community groups to take effective action and leading roles in the development of communities’.

Collaborative currency: A means of exchange that encourages usage rather than a storage of wealth, with characteristics that not only facilitate, but actively foster greater collaboration, adding transactional, interpersonal qualities not present in sovereign currency trading.

Commercial work: Work completed for profit or payment in cash currency.

Community: Here at Echo, community for us means a couple of things. The first of which is:

1.The networks that we help to create in our neighbourhood of East London, and the extent to which being a part of Echo makes our members feel more connected to the local area.

2.Our Echo membership as a community, and the extent to which our members feel that they are a part of a community just by being a part of Echo.

We are interested in both of these, so when we asked our membership about whether or not Echo makes them feel more connected to their community, we purposefully did not specify which community we meant. By not leading our members in any specific direction, we were able to gain valuable insight as to what Echo and its association with community means for them.

Community connectivity: We draw on RSA’s definition of ‘community capital’ for this one; community connectivity represents relationships within a community that have the possibility to generate positive ‘dividends’ or social and economic benefits. We seek to prove that we are both facilitating community connectivity, and that this connectivity is yielding positive social impact.

Equity: The quality of being fair and impartial.

New project: Any new activity commenced, regardless of whether or not it is income-generating.

Professional relationship: Any relationship formed and developed in a work context.

Prosperity: A successful, flourishing and thriving position. For us, this is both in financial terms and in terms of general wellbeing.

Social capital: Connections among individuals – social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them (Robert Putnam definition).

Social impact: We like Social Enterprise UK’s definition for this one; “Social impact is the effect of an activity on the social fabric of the community and well-being of individuals and families”.

Social relationship: Any relationship formed outside of work. Can also include new social media contacts (excluding LinkedIn, which falls under professional).

Theory of Change: according to the New Economics Foundation, is “...a description of how your work makes a difference. It breaks down the main components of what you do and tells the story of how these lead to meaningful outcomes, or change”. This approach has been growing in popularity over the past decade in the non-profit, public and private sectors because it is “a powerful tool that helps organisations and initiatives plan how they will create change, assess their effectiveness and communicate to stakeholders”.

Wellbeing: The state of being comfortable, healthy or happy.

ACTIVE MEMBER CAPACITY BUILDING COLLABORATIVE CURRENCY COMMERCIAL WORK COMMUNITY COMMUNITY CONNECTIVITY EQUITY NEW PROJECT PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIP PROSPERITY SOCIAL CAPITAL SOCIAL IMPACT SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP THEORY OF CHANGE WELLBEING

OUR PROBLEM AND OUR PROCESSWe think there is a distinct lack of genuine connectivity in our society.

With exceptions, we have little connection with our neighbours as well as the organisations and other institutions that together should make up the fabric of our communities.

Much of this is down to the increasing pace of life, technological dependence, people engaging in wider and lighter social spheres and decreasing levels of trust that often characterise the way many of us lead our lives. The end result is a lack of connectivity in and between communities that is preventing them from reaching their full potential. Furthermore, due to this lack of connection, our local communities often also lack resilience in times of economic flux and turbulence, leaving them more exposed to damage and fragmentation – just at the time when community strength and support can offer maximum value.

Recent independent research by the RSA (Community Capital: The Value of Connected Communities, 2015) speaks to exactly this point when it highlights:

“There is strong evidence that investing in interventions which build social relationships can improve employability, improve health (which has significant positive economic impacts) and create savings in public health and welfare expenditure”.

This research describes community connectivity as a contributor to something it calls “community capital”, or

“The sum of assets including relationships in a community and the value that accrues from these”.

This type of community capital is exactly what Echo aims to generate. As supported by the recent RSA research (and others, most notably Robert Putnam in his 2001 publication, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community), we believe there is significant and sustained socioeconomic value to be accrued from these positive “dividends” or social benefits, including:

Greater wellbeing and empowermentEnhanced opportunities for employment and trainingSavings for public service expenditureGreater agency or influence needed to bring about local outcomes that are key to wellbeing

It is important to note, however, that community capital is unevenly distributed, with 60% of the participants in the RSA’s research indicating that they did not know anyone who could influence others or change things locally.5

5RSA Action and Research Centre. Community Capital: The Value of Connected Communities, published 28 October 2015


From this, we can extrapolate some of the most prominent risks for communities lacking in connectivity and therefore by default, low in community capital:

Disconnected communities lack access to real opportunities including access to jobs, finance, education and informal support structures.

Poorly connected communities lack the ability to self-organise to better provide for their

needs.

Communities that aren’t

connected are often vulnerable,

and lack the capacity to respond to and recover

from shocks, such as economic crises.

Communities that lack

connectivity are also often segmented and lack

vital forms of diversity (age, racial, cultural, religious, social, economic and educational backgrounds).

Communities that are poorly

connected experience growing inequality and a lack of trust between their members.

These serve as barriers to the creation of positive social dividends made possible through building relationships and community capital. What Echo

offers is a fast track system to support relationship building and trust networks locally – which are key to unlocking individual and collective wellbeing, enabling strengthened positive social structures and community resilience as highlighted above.

Based on what is known as time banking, Echo provides a trading network where skills and resources are exchanged for time rather than money. Everyone’s time is equal and worth the same, no matter what the exchange. Therefore, in Echo, two hours of gardening, legal advice, yoga, tuition or web design are remunerated equally with two Echoes. In this way everything (and therefore everyone) is valued at exactly the same rate.

What makes Echo unique and sets it apart from all other time bank projects is that, rather than focusing upon one community or sector, Echo is a 360˚ marketplace, an Economy of Hours. Our members are local residents, sole traders, start-ups and SMEs, all the way up to corporates like Balfour Beatty, Google and the Cabinet Office. We currently have over 2400 businesses and residents on our books who are trading upwards of 600 hours per month. Whilst other projects engage organisations in order

WHAT ECHO OFFERS IS A FAST TRACK SYSTEM TO SUPPORT RELATIONSHIP BUILDING AND TRUST NETWORKS LOCALLY.



to access donations of rewards (e.g. theatre tickets or gym passes) as a mutual credit system, Echo’s hardwired reciprocity means that every member is an equal trading partner. Echo enables a smooth and relevant trade to take place across a peer-to-peer platform. And crucially, we level that platform by opening up access for a local person to engage with a multinational corporate (and vice versa) on a completely equal footing.

Whereas other platforms and technologies seek to reduce ‘friction’ at every juncture, we seek to increase friction; friendly friction that enables and accelerates the development of connections (relationships) between all types of people and all types of organisations – the type of connections that sovereign currency hinders or discourages, at best. The type of connections that help to build stronger, more diverse, democratic and sustainable communities.

ECHO AT A GLANCEAs of December 2015, this is what our entire membership looked like:

OF OUR MEMBERS SAID THAT THEY WOULD RECOMMEND ECHO TO A FRIEND OR COLLEAGUE87% BUSINESSES SUPPORTED

THROUGH OUR ACCELERATOR PROGRAMME, ECHO++70+

Our businesses and freelancers work in:TECH CREATIVE INDUSTRIES PHYSICAL & MENTAL HEALTHCARE ACCOUNTING LAW CHILDCARE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONAL & LIFE COACHING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FOOD & MORE...

MEMBERS IN TOTAL2,405

1,557 213

424285 123

16INDIVIDUALS

FREELANCERS OR SOLE TRADERS

MULTI-PERSON BUSINESSES, INCLUDING

MICROBUSINESSES SMEsLARGE ORG.s

211ORG.s THAT WORK ACROSS THE PUBLIC, SOCIAL BUSINESS AND CHARITY SPACES, INCLUDING

16PUBLIC SECTOR ORG.s

168NOT-FOR-PROFITS

29ARTS ORG.s


...plus many, many more trades in:LANGUAGE SKILLS CATERING EVENT SUPPORT THEATRE TICKETS SPORTS ACTIVITIES

31%

10%

MEMBERS2,405OF THESE

ARE ACTIVE (TRADED AT LEAST ONCE)

31%

INDUSTRY AVERAGE (ACTIVE USERSHIP RATE ACROSS MOST ONLINE COMMUNITIES6)

10%

6Nielsen Norman Group: Law of 90-9-1

Those who have traded have accessed:

HOURS8,718

WORTH£375,188

OF SKILLS, SERVICES AND RESOURCES SINCE MARCH 2013 THROUGH

50+WORKSHOPS AND HUNDREDS OF1-1TRADES

INCLUDING


1,692hrs of GENERAL BUSINESS SUPPORTIncluding coaching, user testing of products, event marketing, pitching and presentation, online marketing, business model workshops, CRM consultancy and HR support worth over £60,000

1,516hrs of CREATIVE SERVICESIncluding filming and photography services, advertising, graphic design, brand consultancy, podcasting training and social media workshops worth over £190,000

1,056hrs of DESK SPACE ACCESSWorth over £5,000

508hrs of DIGITAL AND TECH RELATED TRADESIncluding WordPress training, Google Analytics workshops, website design and SEO support worth over £17,000

470hrs of ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORTIncluding data entry and space management worth over £5,000

418hrs of MEETING AND EVENT SPACE ACCESSWorth over £17,000

174hrs of HEALTH AND WELLBEING SERVICESIncluding massage, Pilates, personal training, yoga, cognitive behavioural therapy and Reiki worth over £5,000

68hrs of LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORTIncluding accountancy, payroll, QuickBooks training and project management advice worth over £4,000

MEASURING IMPACTDespite our conviction about the role that Echo has to play in strengthening the socioeconomic composition of our communities, the ability to scrutinise and assess our social impact is crucial.

To make sure our organisation contributes to positive social change, we need to systematically collect evidence that helps determine whether or not we are achieving our social objectives, and to help us learn and adjust our practices along the way.

In order to inform this, we undertook a Theory of Change process in 2015 to examine what Echo’s social impact should be, what evidence of this we need and how we could get it.

OUR THEORY OF CHANGE


Problem definition: what is the issue that Echo is trying to solve?

Challenging assumptions: why do we think our business can help to solve this problem?

Social impact objectives: what do we think the positive social implications of solving this problem are?

Evidence: what do we need to know to determine if we’re on track to achieving our social impact objectives?

Collection and analysis: how do we gather this evidence and learn from it?

Incorporate learnings: how

do we make sure we incorporate what

we have learned into our business practice, and keep track of the effects

of the changes we have made?

As Echo is grounded by principles of equity and co-production, a shared endeavour with our members, it felt only right to involve members from the outset in shaping our social impact analysis and sharing the outcomes.

We asked members to help us to set short, medium and long-term goals for ourselves framed around the creation of economic and community wellbeing. From this, we then undertook a visioning exercise on what an ideal Echo community might look like, imagining; What is the environment like? What are members able to do?


What opportunities do they have access to? What is their quality of life like? What is their community like and what is their relationship to it?

From this discussion, we determined four key elements of Echo which directly support real socioeconomic impact by contributing to community connectivity:

1. Equality is hard-wired in our currency. Everyone’s time is considered equal no matter what, and members can access the skills, resources and knowledge they need by sharing their own skills, resources and knowledge, whatever they may be.

We distilled this analysis into two specific research questions:

These research questions helped develop a series of indicators and metrics to assess whether we’re achieving the socioeconomic impact that we’d like to have. We used existing Echo data, surveys, focus groups and interviews to gather a breadth of quantitative and qualitative evidence.

The following section provides more information on our research and data collection methodology.



2. Our currency is digital, and our marketplace is online, but it is also inherently social and generates offline activity. Trading in Echoes provides members with the opportunity, and often the stimulus needed, to connect with each other through trading.

3. Our diverse community of businesses and individuals, who operate in many fields across the private sector, public sector and the third sector, create a network of peer-driven support for businesses and individuals through tapping into existing resources and providing the infrastructure to connect them.

4. Our platform and currency are tools for new communities to facilitate and fast-track increased connectivity and participate in the collaborative economy.

METHODOLOGYBeing both a trading platform and a living, breathing community, we have access to lots of live, interesting membership data.

We conducted research between April and December of 2015, using existing data and new data collected from surveys, interviews and focus groups to create our data set. Through our platform, feedback forms from workshops and our customer relationship management (CRM) database, we had access to:


This data offers a good picture of members’ engagement with Echo, as well as highlighting aspects that work well and those that don’t in terms of our service delivery. However, we needed to layer this data with a more granular understanding of any real, tangible benefits that members were gaining from Echo membership, and what we could do differently to ensure we maximise our positive social impact.

We distilled our two research questions into a series of quick and easy survey questions that were distributed to our entire membership (2,405 members). We used quantitative data from the surveys coupled with qualitative data from follow up phone calls, focus groups and case studies to gain the information presented within this report.

An anonymous survey was sent out through email, distributed at workshops and social events and featured on our website. As of December 31st 2015, we had 290 respondents, which represents 12% of our total membership. This is in line with survey sample size best practice.7

7Population: 2405, Confidence rate: 90%, margin of error: 5% = industry standard sample size of 242 members, calculated with the assistance of Survey Monkey’s Sample Size Calculator

Trading data (who has

traded what and when)

Member type (individual or organisation)

Type of member

organisation in terms of size (freelancer, sole

trader, microbusiness, SME, or large organisation) and

sector (private, not for profit, public sector, arts,

legal organisation, for example)

Membership length

Member offers and requests

Contact we’ve had with each

member through emails and phone

calls

Member feedback from

previous workshops

The survey responses were then followed up with:

15 one-to-one interviews to get more context and detail on members’ answers to the survey questions.

We also conducted 4 focus groups with 22 participants in order to provide a friendly, small group environment for members to share their experiences, meet each other and make sure that their voices were heard.

Analysis of multiple informal conversations with members at socials, workshops and trades, where members shared details of their Echo experiences with staff and other members.

A NOTE ON MEMBERSHIP

Though our membership has now become worldwide, we allocate 100% of our time and resources to recruiting and cultivating our East London-based membership.

We started our journey in Hackney back in 2012, and have since received funding from the London Legacy Development Corporation to help bring about positive socioeconomic impact in the four boroughs surrounding Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park: Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Waltham Forest and Newham.

East London is our neighbourhood and we are committed to facilitating and nurturing local relationships that strengthen our local community. We are thrilled that our membership has spread far and wide, but as we are looking to track the impact of the ways in which we decided to spend our time and resources, we will be predominantly analysing the data collected from our active East London membership.

While our wider membership is 31% active, we learned from our survey results and our trading data that this number is slightly higher for our East London-based membership, at 37% active.8

Our total active East London survey respondents represent 12% of this active population. By keeping in line with industry standards for statistically significant research sample sizes, we are confident that the information we’ve gained through our data collection is an accurate representation of Echo members’ experiences.

For the global responses to our survey (i.e. responses from everyone, regardless of where they live), see Appendix A of this document. We’ve referenced this data in the report only where we feel there are specific valuable learnings to be gained from it.


8Nielson, Jakob. The 90-9-1 Rule in Participation Inequality for Social Media and Online Communities, 9 October 2006. Online at https://www.nngroup.com/articles/participation-inequality/ (accessed 15 December 2015)

ACTIVE MEMBERS IN EAST LONDON

37%ACTIVE MEMBERS31%

OF ACTIVE EAST LONDON MEMBERSHIP REPRESENTED IN SURVEY

12%

Whilst our resources have been 100% concentrated in the East London boroughs of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest, our membership has grown to the wider London area, to other areas in the UK, and even internationally. Outside of East London, our membership looks like this:

MEMBERS* FROM THE GREATER LONDON AREA

600

*All numbers are approximate


MEMBERS* FROM THE GREATER UK AREA

180

MEMBERS* FROM OUTSIDE THE UK

100Including European countries, and from far flung locations such as the US, Singapore and Mozambique

IMPACT ASSESSMENT: WHAT WE FOUND

EQUALITY AS A FOUNDATION

The hard-wired equality of our currency underpins everything that we do at Echo. Everyone’s hour is worth the same, no matter what.

We think that our currency acts as a facilitator and catalyst in our capacity to enable members to connect with each other, and to access resources and skills that they might not be able to otherwise. Our research has confirmed this, and we will elaborate more on the effect of our equal currency in the next two sections of this report.

However, we first needed to ask our members directly if they recognised the egalitarian nature of our currency. To do this, we asked our membership two questions:

Do you feel like your time is equal to other members’ time?

Has trading in Echoes changed the way you perceive the value of your time and skills?

SAID THAT THEY FEEL THEIR TIME IS EQUAL TO THE TIME OF OTHER ECHO MEMBERS

67%SAID THAT ECHO HAS CHANGED THE WAY THAT THEY PERCEIVE THE VALUE OF THEIR OWN TIME AND SKILLS

67%

Through our one-to-one interviews and focus groups, we asked members to elaborate on their experience of our currency, finding out how important it is to their Echo experience and how they felt about one hour being worth one Echo, no matter what the skill, service or resource.

‘(Echo) has definitely changed the way I perceive the value of my time and skills in a good way, I start thinking about what I can offer which changes the idea of my time and skills in a good way, I always recommend it to my friends’.

– Echo Business, member since 2015


We were pleased to learn that two thirds of our trading East London members felt the effects of our currency, and that this experience was predominantly positive. In fact, when we analysed our data by members’ motivation for joining (Appendix B) we found 82% of those who joined because of the equitable ethos of Echo went on to trade, indicating that the hard-wired principle of equality resonates strongly with members and encourages not just initial membership but also active participation.

What is it that makes equality important? Our research suggests that the “equalising effect” of Echo enables increased access to different people and opportunities that previously may not have been possible, developing a valuable and unusually diverse community.

We know9 that diverse communities have a wider skills base and can be more stable and better equipped to deal with change or challenge. This is true of business communities as well as residential ones, and so we have a strong indication of success in our aim of utilising the Echo currency, not just to engender richer trading relationships and a more diverse community but also by default, a stronger more resilient one.


OF THOSE WHO JOINED BECAUSE OF THE EQUITABLE ETHOS OF ECHO WENT ON TO TRADE

82%

9Charity Commission. Guidance on Charitable Purposes, published 16 September 2013. Online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charitable-purposes/charitable-purposes (accessed 15 January 2016)

RESEARCH QUESTION 1 – BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS Echo is a currency and a trading platform, but we are working to build a local community where people can connect, share with each other and build relationships that make the community stronger.

In order to test whether Echo, and the hard-wired equality of its currency, fosters local and social relationships, building trust, community connectivity and prosperity, we asked our members a series of questions about the extent to which they have been able to connect through Echo.

Key trigger questions explored with members:


Have you made a new professional

connection through Echo?

Have you made a new social connection

through Echo?

Does being a part of Echo

make you feel more connected to your

community? Does being a part of Echo feel like

a community?

Is building

relationships through Echo a

priority for you as a member? Why or

why not?

What aspects of Echo do you think

allowed you to make connections? What have

been the primary barriers to you making

connections to Echo?

Do you think that the

connections that you’ve made through

Echo are helpful to you? In what way?

How does it feel to

connect through Echo? What does

connecting through Echo enable you

to do?

What kinds of people have you

been able to meet through Echo? How

do you feel about them?

WE ASKED OUR MEMBERS A SERIES OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE EXTENT TO WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN ABLE TO CONNECT THROUGH ECHO.

WHAT OUR MEMBERS TOLD US: COMMUNITY THROUGH CONNECTIONS

SAID THAT THEY MADE A NEW PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIP THROUGH ECHO

85%SAID THAT THEY MADE A NEW SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP THROUGH ECHO

75%SAID THAT BEING A PART OF ECHO MADE THEM FEEL MORE CONNECTED TO THEIR COMUNITY

67%

‘I get to meet people that I wouldn’t normally meet (through Echo). It operates within a small radius so you really get to become a part of the fabric of East London. It’s really important for a freelancer to have those connections and feel connected in a community way.’

– Echo Individual, member since 2015

‘I’ve been meeting businesses that I didn’t know existed, and going into corners of East London that I’ve never been to before, it’s great for socialising and building a network. I’ve been in East London for a long time, and going to Echo things helps me explore new parts of East London, helps me to see a spectrum of organisations in East London not just big corporates like those in Canary Wharf. Echo events got me on the overground for the first time!’


I gained a sense of community in East London that I didn’t feel before, plus I got a business card made, access to art workshops, a haircut and potentially a website! But in a bigger way, it’s a sense of wellbeing, meeting new people and having a better connection to the community’


“Running your own business is different from being a freelancer, but it’s still lonely, and this programme felt like a group of classmates and not just a group of professionals to network with, which I like. I also like the opportunity to make friends who are in the same boat, which I think has been a unique opportunity through Echo++”



‘I met Lee through Echo, which made for a good social and professional situation to start a working relationship. I needed a logo and user interface for my company, WeGym, which Lee was able to design for me. I really liked his work, and having him do this work for Echoes really helped my cash flow, since I wasn’t able to front the money for this service at the time.

‘I was able to get a logo and some initial UI pages, which helped the speed with which I was able to get going with WeGym. It’s been a great, trustworthy working relationship which I wouldn’t have got without Echo’


CASE STUDY: JOSH UWADIAE, WEGYM

What is WeGym?

A mobile app which allows users to find and connect with workout partners in order to increase impact and stay motivated.

How Joshua came to use Echo

Before joining Echo++ and starting WeGym, Josh was an IT apprentice and manager. He applied for the Echo++ programme after it was featured in the Hackney Business Network, which he considers to be a trusted resource. He’s received 18 hours’ worth of business support courses, and has been offering IT support and videography to earn Echoes.

In Joshua’s words:

CASE STUDY: MARION BIGNONE, ZEST

FOR LIFE STUDIO

What is Zest for Life Studio?

Zest for Life Studio is a new zumba studio run by Marion Bignone, promoting wellbeing, positive energy and a passion for movement and dance.

How Marion came to use Echo

Marion Bignone first joined Echo in 2015 after reading about us in a Tower Hamlets newsletter, and thought it was a great opportunity to learn new skills and explore new opportunities. She first started earning Echoes by helping us at workshops, attending focus groups and offering marketing strategy advice to other Echo members. She has received 12 hours of creative coaching from Anna Sexton, and has since enrolled on our accelerator programme, Echo++, to launch her own business.

Marion Bignone met Anna Sexton through Echo when Anna offered her creative coaching services on the platform. Anna’s coaching has been instrumental in helping Marion start her dance studio, Zest for Life Studio.

In Marion’s words:

‘After my sessions with Anna, my project of opening Zest For Life Studio suddenly made total sense. It was the right journey to pursue after 10 years of marketing and being a mum of two young kids.

This studio would be my way to spread my positive energy, my passion for movement and dance, and to focus on well-being, harmony, sharing and doing good.

The Echo marketplace enables me to meet very talented peers without the pressure of money. Without Echo I would not have been able to believe in my instinct, step outside my comfort zone and make the steps needed to build this next chapter of my life’.

Both Marion and Josh have been able to utilise Echo’s equal currency to kickstart their enterprises; they were able to trade their own time and skills to access the resources they needed to get going, which would have been more difficult to access had they needed to pay for them in pounds and pence. We look forward to offering them our continued support as they launch their businesses.

CONNECTING ACROSS SECTORS: AN ECHO++ CASE STUDY

Through her enrolment in the Echo++ accelerator program, Orla Butler was able to connect with new people in working in different industries, many of whom she would not have met otherwise.

One of these connections was Mrudula Dasika, a Financial Analysis Manager with a multinational infrastructure company, who has provided mentorship and support for her small business.


CASE STUDY: ORLA BUTLER – IMMERSE

About Orla

Orla launched Immerse in 2003 as a response to a lack of personal and mindful adult swim programmes. She now leads a team of 10, with pools in the City and West End. Orla discovered Echo when she moved to East Village, Stratford and began offering triathlon training to her neighbours. She used the Echoes she earned to pay for her place on Echo++ in order take Immerse to the next level. As well as the core programme, she’s benefited from website and back end development, copywriting, UX testing and brand visioning.

Orla on Mrudula:

“The consultancy was incredible. She asked brilliantly challenging questions, highlighted what we were doing well, gave guidance as to what we could be doing differently or better, outlined a practical growth strategy for the next few years and motivated me to go and do it! An inspired piece of mentoring right at the moment we needed it. Without Echo we would not have had access to any mentoring and certainly not the quality of mentoring that we received. “

“The entire programme was so well organised. It’s really commendable what you guys are doing and a great way for people like me to get involved and utilise some of my skills in a non-corporate context. I am sure Orla is on her way to making Immerse a million dollar company soon.”

Mrudula Dasika, a Financial Analysis Manager with Balfour Beatty on her experience of supporting Echo++ participant Orla Butler:

“[The programme was] super organised, really interesting businesses and I’ve already had some light bulb moments! Who would have thought that an architect firm and a swim business would be similar? While (fellow Echo++ participant) Roman designs houses and we design swimming both are service businesses built on education and trust!

The expertise and enthusiasm in the community is amazing. I can already see possible collaboration with (fellow Echo++ participants) Francesca and Elliott.

I came away buzzing with ideas not just for the new website but the business in general and am even more excited (if that’s possible) about the whole Echo concept.”

Orla on Echo++:


Payment in Echoes has had a big impact on the way participants have responded to the programme, and the equality of the currency has allowed young businesses to work alongside corporates on an equal footing. It imbues trust and respect amongst the cohort, workshop leaders and Echo team, which continually comes up in feedback as being highly valued by all.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUST

“Trust” was a word that came up multiple times through the research. What is it about Echo that makes members and potential members think we are a good place to make valuable and trustworthy connections? Our global survey results indicate that this is in part linked to trust in Echo as an organisation:

Through our survey results from the global membership, we learned that 86% of respondents felt that they could trust Echo as an organisation (the remaining 14% indicated that they didn’t know), and three quarters of the membership felt that they could trust Echo members, regardless of whether or not they had completed an Echo trade.

Their responses indicate that this trust comes in part from relationships built with members and with Echo staff:

FELT THAT THEY COULD TRUST ECHO AS AN ORGANISATION

86%

Responses also indicate that this trust comes from the ethos of our offer (notably the in-built equity within Echo) and positive assumptions made about the type of person that would want to be a part of this kind of thinking.

‘I’ve met a few people because I went to workshops and everyone is friendly and professional. Echo’s not only a platform but you also organise stuff where people can meet, take an active role in it and it’s possible to meet the staff. Personal contact with Echo staff means there’s more trust.’


‘There is a trust in Echo to sort out issues with Echo members, and a trust in members because they’re part of Echo. Echo staff and other people I’ve met through Echo have been really nice, and it makes it easy and kind of smooth’


‘I trust (Echo members) more anyway because there’s something about being in a time bank and in that sort of system that just suggests a different kind of person’


‘Something about the Echo community might actually make people behave better within it than they do outside of it…taking money out of the equation makes people behave a little nicer’


‘I would put Echo members in the same trust category as friends of friends, and you trust friends of friends to do work for you more than someone you’d find on Google, people who are on the platform are more or less likeminded people...more social and human attitudes toward business as opposed to just earning money’



RESEARCH QUESTION 1 – WHAT WE’VE LEARNED:

We are pleased that two thirds of our East London respondents indicated that being part of Echo made them feel more connected to their local community. Even more expressed how Echo has helped them build new social and professional contacts.

This feedback confirms that Echo helps establish new connections and build useful local and business networks. Members indicated that Echo (through socials, workshops and trades) works as a good entry route into more follow-on contact. The findings also highlight the importance of people’s motivation for joining Echo, as this directly influences the sort of connections they go on to make. Some members spoke of purposefully joining Echo with the explicit intention of growing their networks (this was more prevalent with, but not exclusive to, professional members). For more detailed analysis of our research data cross-cut by member motivation see Appendix B.

Our ethos and values of; support, trust, connectivity and equality come across strongly, and these attract members who want to connect with the kind of people who share these values. This speaks in part to the importance and successes of the Echo brand and our need for continual effective communication as well as face-to-face opportunities. We want to build on this as much as possible to maximize the potential increase in skills, capacity and prosperity that our members indicate they are building thanks to new connections made through Echo.

The hour for an hour principle does increase confidence, access to opportunities and creates liquidity within the Echo system – which means more trades, stronger networks and increased activity and trust.

The case study from Joshua Uwadiae resonates with other member comments that also highlighted the importance of the combined social and professional nature of the Echo network. There is often an implicit assumption that new connections made through Echo are good connections to make. Many members, like Joshua, referenced the trustworthy relationships formed and the fact they wouldn’t have had access to these without Echo.

Trust is a major factor in enabling new relationships (social and professional) to form through Echo. The general acceptance among members that trust exists within and between Echo members often seems to lead to faster and stronger relationships being made. In effect we have found that Echo acts like a relationship accelerant. Due to the inherent trust that’s felt between members and the ease of using the online platform, Echo provides a fast-track mechanism for making new connections.

THE HOUR FOR AN HOUR PRINCIPLE DOES INCREASE CONFIDENCE, ACCESS TO OPPORTUNITIES AND CREATES LIQUIDITY WITHIN THE ECHO SYSTEM – WHICH MEANS MORE TRADES, STRONGER NETWORKS AND INCREASED ACTIVITIY AND TRUST.


We’ve learned that our members’ trust is built through:

The equality ethos and removal of money within the Echo system

The brand strength that Echo projects

Personal contact with staff and other members

The confidence that Echo staff would help resolve any issues should they arise

These findings align directly with established theories on Tiers of Trust, in that the first layer of trust is with an idea, then an organisation or brand, then other users or adopters and finally institutional trust (like the legal system) which acts as a safety net or backstop when interacting with strangers.

Trust is a key building block socially and economically. Economists have long argued that trust is an important factor in business and trade because it lowers the formal costs of doing business – in simple terms, higher trust means lower risks, transaction costs and contract fees for lawyers.10

Lowering costs of doing business and contributing to the wellbeing of communities are key parts of what Echo is striving for. Our member feedback supports our theory that trust enables people to do more together and incentivises them to hold each other to account, therefore ensuring quality goods and services and a positive cycle of time exchange.

We have also learned that our members value Echo’s ability to bring people and businesses together who would not normally meet, and that our events and workshops are an ideal way for local members to explore and discover new places in their own neighbourhoods and in so doing, feel more connected to their local community. Due to the fact that our membership is free, this diverse network is accessible to anyone who wants to connect by sharing their time and skills. This in itself cultivates a unique, healthy mix of different individuals and businesses – the likes of which is not often easily found or accessed within local communities.

Some members quite reasonably suggested that more face-to-face contact opportunities would strengthen the feeling of community connectivity.

10British Council. Trust Pays. Online at: https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/trust-pays-report-v2.pdf (accessed 10 October 2015)

‘I feel more connected to other Echo members, and since everything has been in East London, I feel more connected to East London as well as to the Echo community. However, the three points of contact I’ve had through workshops and trades are not quite enough to feel super connected, though it does make me feel like the East London and Echo community share the values of collaboration’

–Echo Individual, member since 2014

To help members feel more connected to their local community, and for Echo to feel like a community in and of itself, we need to make sure members can see more of each other. We have begun experimenting with offering more local workshops in short course format and planning more socials so members can meet face-to-face with some regularity, thus allowing those crucial relationships to form, which members have confirmed are so important in making them feel connected and truly a part of a community.

WHAT WE’VE DONE IN RESPONSE

We launched several workshops (on WordPress, Adobe, Photography etc) in a 3 to 4-week format, so members could get to know each other over the course of a few sessions and learn a new skill in more depth.

In 2015, we held more socials, often coupled with panel discussions on relevant topics, across East London in well-known venues such as Google Campus, and also in local pubs, cafes and community spaces.

We launched our Breakfast Sessions, early morning talks on everything from branding to artificial intelligence, to offer members a chance explore new topics and meet others over the first coffee of the day.

We launched our accelerator programme, Echo++, to continue to build our peer network with a tailored professional and business development focus.

Echo staff put profiles on the website so members have a better sense of who we are, helping to build trust between ourselves and our members.

We also made our Echo community more visible on our site, making it easier to see at a glance who our members are, what skills they have and what feedback they have received from other members.

We established regular points for feedback through workshop feedback forms, online surveys, focus groups and interviews so members continually have their voices heard.

AREAS FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

We want to increase members’ sense of ownership of our platform and our network. To do this, we’re developing our new platform so it’s fully conducive to member-owned events, workshops and interest groups.

We also want to engage our members as connectors – brokering trades and making introductions between members who can be useful to each other.

We intend to create more feedback loops and encourage members to leave feedback for each other after trades (effectively creating peer-generated ratings and more social context, which will enhance trust and connections).

We want to introduce longitudinal tracking of members’ journeys, tracking what members are able to do as a result of the connections they have made through Echo and see if the community is benefitting as a result.

RESEARCH QUESTION 2 – SHARING TO BUILD CAPACITY By offering a collaborative currency that allows members to trade time and skills, we hope to provide them with a way to gain benefits such as increased social capital, increased skills, and financial savings.

To determine whether Echo, and the hard-wired equality of its currency, helps to create social and economic benefits for communities by providing them with a mechanism to share possibly untapped knowledge, skills and resources to build capacity, we started the following conversations:

Have you learned a new skill through Echo? Have you been able to use it since, and how?

Have you accessed a skill or resource that you would not have been able to afford without Echo? How has this made you feel?

Has Echo helped you to save money? What have you been able to do with the money you saved?

Have the skills you learned through Echo helped you to start a new project? What have you been able to do?

Has being a part of Echo helped you to win commercial work (e.g. a new client or a paid gig)? What has that experience been like?

Has Echo allowed you to practice a skill that you don’t often use? How did that experience make you feel?



WHAT OUR MEMBERS TOLD US: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC VALUE

SAID THAT THEY ACCESSED A SERVICE OR RESOURCE THAT THEY OTHERWISE WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO AFFORD

87%SAID THAT THEY LEARNED A NEW SKILL THROUGH ECHO

82%

‘I did a 4 week WordPress course, and it was of tremendous value to me. Lots of clients came to me wanting to get their site further up the site rankings, which I couldn’t do because I didn’t know WordPress, so it was absolutely marvellous to me to have 4 weeks of practically 1 to 1 tuition. I’ve been able to use these skills all the time, and they have absolutely turned into something that I can monetize. I could have learned these skills elsewhere but the same course would cost me around £300, Echo saved me a fortune’


What is Unit G Gallery?

An affordable exhibition and retail space in the heart of Hackney, which focuses on showcasing East London talent.

How Kevin came to use Echo

Before launching Unit G Gallery in 2015, Kevin was leading social care enterprise Kaleidoscope London (KSL). An Echo member since 2013, KSL joined initially to network with other organisations.

They earned Echoes by offering spaces on their mental health first aid training courses and used them to buy 30+ hours of branding support, social media classes, business modelling support, WordPress design classes and graphic design.

When launching his new venture on a shoestring budget, Kevin automatically turned to the Echo community to access the professional services he needed, freeing up his budget for equipment.

He regularly earns Echoes back by hiring his space for events.

“We had a direct choice between spending on branding and design and making the space look nice. We chose to spend on making our space look nice, and got a branding course through Echo. We learned the difference between branding and logo, tested out our ideas on the course in real time, and we spent Echoes on a graphic designer to come up with our logo and brand guidelines. We also got signage for the unit.

Lastly, my assistant attended Echo’s WordPress course, where we got the input and assistance needed to set up our site, and learn how to make upgrades without having to employ a developer. We’ve been very happy with the results, and now customers can buy art online through the ecommerce function.

We then spent our budget on lighting, kitchen fixtures, and an AV system that we needed but otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford had we not been able to get brand and web services through Echo”

MAKING AND SAVING MONEY THROUGH ECHO:


In Kevin’s words:

CASE STUDY: KEVIN SKINNER, UNIT G GALLERY

SAID THAT TRADING IN ECHOES HELPED THEM TO SAVE MONEY

64%SAID THAT BEING PART OF ECHO ENABLED THEM TO WIN COMMERCIAL WORK

24%

“We’ve been Echo members for over two years now. We joined Echo to build a track record for our young business and build trust. I started paying THCT for desk space through Echoes, and whilst using desk space at THCT they approached us for paid marketing and web design work.

Echo is a great way for a young company to gain confidence and get trust, and also to form a client base. Meeting us through Echo gave THCT a bit of assurance, and Echo has been a good way for JargNon to meet a new client.

It’s unlikely that we would have gained the client relationship that we have with THCT without Echo. I like Echo a lot and I’d encourage any business that is starting up to join to get what we got out of it, it’s a good way of building a track record, really good in terms of networking as well”.

What is JargNon?

A Hackney based CIC offering IT training and design for startups, individuals and community organisations.

How Murani came to use Echo

JargNon heard about Echo when it was still a pilot project called Hackney Shares, making them one of our original members. They joined because they thought it was a really good idea, and that time banking should be a national programme.

They also joined Echo to build a track record for their young business, and some of their first trades were doing digital inclusion training sessions for City and Hackney Carers. Since joining, JargNon have offered 50+ hours of IT training and web design, and have received 25+ hours of business mentorship and desk space.

Murani, founder of Jargnon, also earned Echoes for his organisation by facilitating a four-week WordPress for Beginners course.

At this time he met another Echo member, and set up a trade with them. After trading desk space for Echoes, the pair began a commercial relationship, demonstrating how the trust generated in the Echo trading process can lead to paid work.


SAID THAT THE SKILLS AND RESOURCES GAINED THROUGH ECHO HELPED THEM TO START A NEW PROJECT

47%

In Murani’s words:

CASE STUDY: MURANI OLOTO, JARGNON


“Before working with Echo, delivering workshops was part of my business plan and service, but I lacked confidence in regards to content development, presentation, public speaking and responding to questions. I have had great ideas of what I want to do without fully believing I am good enough to carry them out. I am also great at working behind the scenes, but realised I needed to make my businesses and myself more visible.

With a sound framework and a great track record of delivering workshops, I knew working with Echo would help boost my confidence and credibility to fellow Echo members, and the positive feedback I received for my workshops confirmed this.

Following my experience under Echo’s guidance, I successfully delivered a paid-for MailChimp training session at an Echo member’s venue, local to me – ELATT. The connections I made with ELATT led to me being invited to deliver a session for their students as part of their Connected Learning day.

Additionally, an attendee of my MailChimp course, who is a qualified trainer and coach, approached me a few weeks later to ask if I was interested in supporting her in delivering a 6 month Housing Management System training programme for an East London Local Authority – which was also a great success.

Without a doubt, I have gained both personal and professional development under the Echo ethos and umbrella and have actively encouraged a few business peers to join.”

What is Logic to Create?

Logic to Create supports creative businesses and individuals to make their ideas a reality by providing practical support with business systems and tools like WordPress and Mailchimp.

How Yejide came to use Echo

Yejide joined Echo in 2014, initially working as a freelance Virtual Assistant. She used Echo to deliver support like simple WordPress design, email marketing consultancy and other services to Echo members, and used the Echoes she earned to pay for venue space for meetings and workshops.

In 2014, Yejide launched Logic to Create, building on the services she had already developed and packaging them up for a specific audience of creative businesses. We approached her in early 2015 to co-lead an ‘Email Marketing with Mailchimp’ workshop with us, recognising demand for this service within the network. Yejide co-led two workshops with us, which received excellent feedback from attendees. She was then able to use the skills, confidence and materials she developed to run her own paid-for course in autumn 2015.

In Yejide's words:

CASE STUDY: YEJIDE ADEOYE, LOGIC TO CREATE


TRYING SOMETHING NEW

Winning commercial work is an important and tangible socioeconomic benefit that we are proud to be contributing to. However, feedback reveals that there are also some more nuanced business benefits that come from trading in Echoes:

We learned many members are making use of skills that they do not often get to practice or using their skills in a different context. In doing so, they opened themselves up to new people and new experiences, which they told us they really value:

SAID THAT ECHO HELPED THEM TO MAKE USE OF SKILLS THAT THEY DON'T OFTEN GET TO PRACTICE

62%

However, survey, interview and focus group results also indicated that, for many of our members, offering their skills could be a difficult thing to do:

‘It’s a sense of freedom, that’s the thing that’s so nice about it, say you’re creating a business for example, you can play around with ideas and test something out and trade your time for that instead of charging money, before you test it out on paying customers you can test out with Echo... you bring your personality to it a bit more, it’s more relaxed, feels more kind. Kind is important, there’s a lot of aggression with money’


‘I helped out at a supper club. I cook, so I was able to assist in the kitchen. That was a great experience, to help someone in their home doing something I do ordinarily but in a different way. There were totally different people than the people I normally entertain for, a room full of English people eating guinea fowl and things like this! How it’s cooked, how it’s served, it was a great eye opener. It was a different world for me’


‘Asking what you can offer can feel a little intimidating, it can make you feel like you’re on the spot…what am I good enough at to offer?’



THE IMPACT OF THE CURRENCY

During one-to-one interviews and focus groups, we asked our members about their feelings towards our equal currency, and the importance they place on it in their overall Echo experience. Our members had some poignant comments about how our equal currency affects how they view and participate in Echo trading:

‘I think it’s a great way to view yourself because you’re responding to a need. ...You take the ego back a bit, it’s changing mind-sets about how you contribute to the marketplace.’


However, some of our members struggle to find other members who want to take up their offers. This leaves them feeling that they have gained more from the community than they have given back:

Others have been able to earn Echoes back, but are still conscious that what they are offering might have a lower financial value than what they’re receiving when they spend their Echoes, or vice versa:

‘I wanted to start treating (Echoes) as though they were money because everyone’s time is valuable, so I started to try and think about my time as effort, so in that way it’s changed the way I think about time.’


‘There are too many things that I’d like to do! I do really value the ethos of not needing to be an expert in what I’m offering, but I feel like I’ve been taking more than I’ve been giving. I want to take advantage of more stuff but I don’t have the credits’.


‘I definitely feel like my time is equal to that of other members, sometimes I even feel guilty because I know that my skills are worth less than the skills I am receiving’.’


‘I don’t really want to trade my photos for Echoes so much because there are a lot of photographers who work for free and I don’t want to devalue my photography, but I’d love to teach photography for Echoes. I had a really good time doing photos for an Echo member’s supper club!’

–Echo Business, member since 2013


RESEARCH QUESTION 2 – WHAT WE’VE LEARNED:

It’s clear our members feel Echo enables them to access new skills or resources that they could not otherwise have afforded or prioritised. This increased access to opportunities is a direct step towards building individual and collective community capacity.

Community capacity-building can be described as “Activities, resources and support that strengthen the skills, abilities and confidence of people and community groups to take effective action and leading roles in the development of their communities”11. We know this is important as “communities with capacity” are confident, organised, cohesive and influential, meaning members within that community are likely to enjoy a better quality of life and higher state of wellbeing. This means they can deal more effectively with public bodies, come up with solutions to problems or opportunities, that they can do more to set up and run projects or initiatives, and that they can encourage people to support each other.

We wanted to test whether there were deeper social implications of accessing skills and resources via Echo than might be directly apparent. Members confirmed this by expressing the sense of freedom Echo offers them, feeling less hesitant because there is less risk (specifically than when trading with money). Lower levels of risk has led to members trying new things or applying their existing skills in different ways and situations – all of which has resulted in increased capacity as well as positive wellbeing. Collectively, these interactions are also helping to break down barriers between people and organisations, increasing understanding and trust which in turn results in increased community capital.

Not all of our members join Echo hoping to gain benefits for their business. However, nearly a quarter of our East London members have won commercial work through Echo, and nearly half said Echo helped them to start a new project. This is important not only as part of building personal and professional confidence but also because it stimulates local economic activity, strengthening the web of money flows which often lead to tangible socioeconomic benefits in an area – otherwise known as the Local Multiplier Effect.12

11Skinner, S: Strengthening Communities. CDF publications, 2006

12New Economics Foundation, Plugging the Leaks: A Different Approach. Online at: http://www.pluggingtheleaks.org/about/index.htm (accessed 02/10/2016).

OUR MEMBERS FEEL ECHO ENABLES THEM TO ACCESS NEW SKILLS AND RESOURCES THEY COULD NOT OTHERWISE HAVE AFFORDED OR PRIORITISED.

Our results indicate that members are finding real economic value through Echo due to four complimentary aspects; making money, saving money, reducing risk and barriers to entry and encouraging experimentation. 87% said they have accessed something they couldn’t afford while 64% of respondents said they had experienced direct cost savings. This suggests that accessing something that you couldn’t afford without Echo doesn’t always equate to saving money. Instead we understand from members that trading in Echoes (not money) offers the chance to access things they wouldn’t otherwise have prioritised. The Echo system seems to stimulate wider interests rather than just direct needs and creates an environment that encourages a “give-it-a-go” mentality. There is a keenness to share and take up the social as well as the business benefits on offer. This, coupled with direct financial savings represents an important component in reducing barriers to effective business (and personal) development.

Similarly, members spoke to us of being able to test products or services through Echo before taking them to market, gaining valuable feedback and learnings from the Echo community. The financial investment and risk that businesses typically experience when trying something new can serve as a barrier to innovation, but minimising these risks by testing through Echo gives our business members more freedom to experiment and get their product right before taking it to the wider market.

We have also learned that members can find offering their skills on the platform a little intimidating. The issue is not that they don’t have skills; more they lack the ability to identify, package and market skills offers in a suitable way for an online marketplace, as well as the confidence to offer them to others. When members do not offer skills or resources, it’s harder for them to earn Echoes, and the cycle of trades reduces. Therefore this is something we need to explore further – particularly at the new members stage.

We’ve learned that there is more to creating equity than just making a currency. It’s evident from our research that some members actually go through a self-reflection or ‘Echo education process’ which forces them to think about the social value of sharing time and skills over the economic value of trade offers. For some members this process can require them to challenge their own value sets, but many then commented on how rewarding embracing the equity of Echo was. In order to make sure members feel their time is equal to the rest of our membership and there is inherent economic value (as well as social value), we need to continue to increase the diversity of offers and requests on our platform, so everyone finds trades that carry merit for them within Echo.

We also learned from members that providing a simple, cost-effective way for them to trade their time and skills has encouraged them to value time and skills differently. This has often led to a direct increase in confidence and wellbeing due to feelings of empowerment and potential. Again, this is important at an individual and a community level, and we are thrilled that Echo is playing a role in supporting this collective confidence-building.

MEMBERS SPOKE TO US OF BEING ABLE TO TEST PRODUCTS OR SERVICES THROUGH ECHO BEFORE TAKING THEM TO MARKET.

SAID THAT THEY HAVE ACCESSED SOMETHING THEY COULDN'T AFFORD

87%

SAID THAT THEY HAD EXPERIENCED DIRECT COST SAVINGS

64%


WHAT WE’VE DONE IN RESPONSE

We have run workshops with members to address this explicitly, working with them to identify what they have and how best to package it for the marketplace, alongside what they really need that can be accessed via Echo. This is good work full of mutual learning and yet presents us with a challenge in terms of our own time and resources required to deliver these regularly.

We have provided more support (via introductory phone calls) to new members to help them post offers, offering a 5 Echo overdraft to those who book the intro call with us. This gives them the opportunity to start trading right away.

We send out weekly community emails highlighting different offers, requests and events happening on the platform in order to share and stimulate ideas for other offers from our members.

When we realised that many of our members were interested in learning the same kinds of skills, we started holding workshops to maximise the use of members’ time and to get them meeting each other in person. We are continuing to develop our workshop programme based on member feedback, and our initial successes led to the launch of our business accelerator programme, Echo++.

We targeted our communications to share easy ways to earn Echoes, highlighting requests on the platform, opportunities to help Echo, and suggestions of generic offers such as data entry or transcription services.

We targeted Echo members who were in Echo debt, offering them the chance to earn Echoes by helping us at focus groups, events and platform testing.

We encouraged members with surplus Echoes to post more requests, thereby fuelling supply and demand within the Echo system.

AREAS FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

We’re thrilled that many of our members are testing products and services through Echo at the early stage of business development. We want to track this progress and establish whether it has been easier and faster to take products to market after utilising Echo first.

We love talking to our members, but as a small team with a fast growing membership base, we are running out of capacity to talk to everyone. We want to recruit Echo ambassadors to help share this responsibility with us, helping us get to know our members and connect them with other people and businesses.

We want to gain a clearer sense of whether our members are receiving the specific resources which they may have signed up to the platform in order to receive, so we can help them access the resources that are most relevant to them and get them trading.

We intend to undertake more in-depth analysis of what our members regularly spend their money on to see what we can do to make these things available on the Echo platform.


KEY LEARNINGS AND LOOKING FORWARDThis impact study represents our first formal steps towards really understanding and measuring the “Echo effect” both on our members and within the communities in which we operate.

It has been a valuable process in terms of the direct and detailed engagement with our members and the lessons we’ve learned. As explored in our Impact Assessment sections, if we reflect back on our two original research questions, the key findings can be summarised as:


Yes, we’ve found direct evidence that:

Echo provides a powerful vehicle to help form new local, professional and social connections that wouldn’t otherwise have come about.

Echo activity enables these connections to lead to more follow-on contact, helping to build and sustain important relationships that underpin connected and prosperous communities.

The trust structures created within Echo are a big part of enabling these new connections to form, meaning Echo effectively acts as a relationship accelerant.

Through Echo activities members certainly feel a connection with the Echo community (other members) as well as, to an extent, an improved connection with the wider local community too.

The range of members we have from community groups to corporates and everything in-between speaks for itself, whilst the social and supportive relationships initiated through the Echo marketplace, then swiftly moved offline, demonstrates the trust and respect the currency generates.


Yes, we have found direct evidence that:

Significant numbers of members are learning new skills as a direct result of Echo. They are also saving money, winning commercial work and trying new things.

By removing money from the equation, members confirm they are diversifying how they use existing skills, the experiences and relationships they form and some of the priorities they make.

Sharing skills through Echo is helping to break down barriers between both people and organisations, increase understanding and trust and build community capital as well as local economic return.

It can take some people time to adjust their value perceptions, but the ‘hour for an hour’ principle does result in a more level playing field with everyone’s time valued equally, thus increasing confidence, access to opportunities and levels of activity within the Echo system.


NEXT STEPSUltimately we would like to see Echo used at scale, and we’re working with partners to ensure that that can happen.

In the short term however, we will be focussing our efforts on the local area of East London, in order to:

Benchmark, track and then increase our social impact (of which this study represents the first step)

Increase our activity whilst reducing our costs by transferring ownership/responsibilities to members

Develop an Echo package that can support a new community asset-based approach to local development in urban neighbourhoods undergoing significant change

Develop a revenue stream via Echo++ that, in tandem with the above, will bring Echo to sustainability.

On achieving our goals, we’ll be in a strong position to replicate the system elsewhere, working with partners to develop multiple instances of Echo, in the long term stitching these together to create a national web of local networks.

In January 2016 we launched our new online platform, which marks a significant step forward in how we intend to improve member experience, facilitate and increase devolved member responsibility and streamline back-end operations. Already we have seen sign up rates to the new Echo platform increase by 15%.

Over the next year, we will continue to track our progress against our social impact goals as these remain the fundamental drivers behind Echo.

We’d like to say thank you to all of our members who have provided us with their valuable thoughts and feedback. Without you, Echo would not be the worthwhile exchange network it has proven to be.

We would also like to extend a huge thank you to our funders; Friends Provident Foundation, Nesta and the London Legacy Development Corporation. Like us, they have seen the socioeconomic potential embodied within the Echo model and have provided the chance for us to develop and evidence this. It’s an exciting time to be a part of Echo, and we look forward to continuing to learn, grow and innovate to change our community for the better. As always, we welcome new partnerships and suggestions for how Echo can be used for socio-economic good in diverse settings.



APPENDIX A: GLOBAL DATA

I have made a new professional connection through Echo Agree: 60% Disagree: 19% I don’t know: 21%

I have made a new social connection through Echo Agree: 48% Disagree: 27% I don’t know: 24%

I have learned a new skill through Echo. Agree: 45% Disagree: 26% I don’t know: 29%

I have gained access to a service or resource that I would not have been able to afford without Echo Agree: 68% Disagree: 15% I don’t know: 17%

Being a part of Echo has allowed me to make use of skills that I don’t often get to practice. Agree: 47% Disagree: 28% I don’t know: 25%

Echo has changed the way I perceive the value of my time and skills. Agree: 62% Disagree: 17% I don’t know: 21%

I feel that my time is equal to other Echo members’ time. Agree: 68% Disagree: 8% I don’t know: 24%

I feel like I can trust Echo as an organisation. Agree: 87% Disagree: 1% I don’t know: 12%

I feel like I can trust my fellow Echo members. Agree: 74% Disagree: 1% I don’t know: 24%

Echo has helped me to win commercial work (e.g. a paid gig, a new client, etc). Agree: 19% Disagree: 42% I don’t know: 39%

Trading in Echoes has helped me to save money. Agree: 59% Disagree: 14% I don’t know: 27%

Being a part of Echo has helped me feel more connected to my community. Agree: 63% Disagree: 13% I don’t know: 24%

The skills and resources that I have gained through Echo have helped me start a new project. Agree: 36% Disagree: 31% I don’t know: 33%

I would recommend Echo to a friend or colleague. Agree: 89% Disagree: 0% I don’t know: 11%

Members surveyed: All (2,405)

Responses: 290 (exceeded minimum target of 240 responses, equivalent to 10% of membership)

RESPONSES (EXCEEDED MINIMUM 10% TARGET)

290

APPENDIX B: RESULTS BASED ON REASON FOR JOINING ECHOHere’s a quick overview of some of what we found when we cross-cut our data based on why participants joined Echo.

This question was answered qualitatively, but we’ve grouped members’ answers into the nine categories you see below. We’ve based our statistics on the answers of those who had already completed an Echo trade at the time of the survey. There are a few stats for each that were much different from those from the wider membership:

Ethos: Of the participants who joined because of the ethos and general idea of Echo, 82% had completed an Echo trade. Their results, however, were not drastically different from the wider membership. Generally, we’ve found that those who join Echo for a very specific reason (i.e. to get business support) had higher results on our impact survey than those who joined for a less specific reason (i.e. the general idea of Echo). We’re going to use this data to better engage with members who join for more general reasons, figure out what will be the most helpful for them in their membership and point them in the right direction.

Share skills: Of the participants who joined to share skills, 90% had completed an Echo trade, 80% felt that their time was equal to that of other Echo members, 71% said that they gained access to a skill or resource they wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise and 76% said that trading in Echoes had changed their perception of their time and skills.

Trade without money: Of the participants who joined to trade without money, 90% had completed an Echo trade, 76% said that Echo helped

them to save money, 80% reported learning a new skill through Echo and 57% said that the skills and resources that they gained through Echo helped them to start a new project.

Location: Of those who joined for the East London location, 100% had completed a trade, 100% felt more connected to their community through Echo, 88% made a new professional connection, 75% said that Echo had helped them to save money, and 100% reported gaining access to a service or resource that they wouldn’t have been able to afford without Echo. Wow! Those who joined because Echo is local to them have really been able to reap the benefits of our collaborative currency and network of peer support.

Membership: Of those who joined to have access to our membership, both personally and professionally, 85% had completed a trade, 81% said that they had made a new professional connection, 70% made a new social connection, 78% reported feeling more connected to their community, 78% reported being able to save money, and a quarter said that the resources they accessed through Echo helped them to win commercial work. Those who join to leverage our network really see results!

Business: Of those who joined in order to gain support for their business, 77% had completed an Echo trade, and of these, 80% had accessed a resource that they couldn’t have afforded without Echo, and 37% were able to start a new project with the skills and resources that they gained through Echo. The rest of their responses were in line with those


OF THOSE WHO JOINED BECAUSE OF THE ETHOS AND GENERAL IDEA OF ECHO HAD COMPLETED A TRADE

82%

of the wider network. Like we’ve mentioned previously in this report, accessing resources that members couldn’t otherwise afford does not necessarily equate to saving money. What’s clear here is that we need to take steps to make sure our members who join for business gains are better able to make useful connections and leverage the network to grow their business.

Learn: Of those who joined to learn or access a specific workshop, 95% had completed an Echo trade, 82% accessed something they couldn’t afford without Echo, 82% said that they felt their time was equal to that of other members. However, only 65% reported learning a new skill through Echo, which is more or less in line with wider responses, despite this being the reason these members signed up in the first place. This could be due to the phrasing of a question: Next time, we’ll ask members if they learned something new through Echo as opposed to asking if they’ve learned a new skill, as this is a fairly strong statement to make. It will then be up to us to keep up with members and learn what they’ve been able to do with the knowledge they’ve gained through Echo.

Convenience: Of those who joined because they thought Echo would generally be convenient or useful, only 50% had completed an Echo trade. However, of those who traded, 100% felt that they had saved money, 100% felt that their time was equal to that of other Echo members, and 83% felt that they had gained access to a service or resource that they couldn’t otherwise afford. The low conversion to trading activity among this

group falls in line with our theory that those with a more broad and general reason for joining are less likely to get the benefits potential through our network, but that once they do trade, they experience the positive effects of our collaborative currency.

Volunteering: of those who joined Echo because they thought it would be a good way to give back or volunteer, 50% had completed an Echo trade. Like the group covered above, those who traded had experienced tangible benefits: 100% felt more connected to their community, 100% felt that they had saved money, 100% felt that they had gained access to something that they couldn’t otherwise afford, and 100% felt that their time was equal to that of other members time. This data suggests that those who want to volunteer have trouble getting started, perhaps because of difficulties getting offers taken up, a low number of requests on the platform compared with offers, or unresponsive members. We’ll need to test this further to better engage with our members who have a special interest in giving back.


OF THOSE WHO JOINED TO LEARN OR ACCESS A SPECIFIC WORKSHOP HAD COMPLETED A TRADE

95%

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AN ECONOMY OF HOURS · 2017-04-03 · AN ECONOMY OF HOURS Unlike conventional time banks, Echo focuses, not solely on a specific community or sector for its participants and beneficiaries,