What is Davis Dollars?
Davis Dollars is a community currency for the City of Davis. By using Davis Dollars, we strengthen the local economy and build community spirit and resiliency. Businesses around Davis are accepting Davis Dollars, and you can too!
If I accepted Davis Dollars, how can I make the best of it?
- Notify us of any events you might have so we can, in turn, advertise it to all of the Davis Dollars users on our websites.
- Put up a Davis Dollars stickers to attract customers who has Davis Dollars
- Stop by our farmer’s market booth on Saturdays to drop off your business coupons for even more chances to reach out to Davis Dollars users.
What are the benefits of accepting Davis Dollars?
- Community members want to spend their Davis Dollars, so you’ll get more business
- You’ll build goodwill by being seen as a participating member in the community helping to promote Davis currency
- Free marketing: Davis Dollars will highlight businesses that accept Davis dollars on DavisDollars.org:
- An article about your business, posted on DavisDollars.org, and featured on our front page for at least one week.
- An article and video featured on all our social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.
- A promotional video for some businesses accepting DDs, to be featured on DavisDollars.org (as we’re able)
- By accepting Davis Dollars, you help keep resources in Davis, and in turn help make the community more resilient, and economically stronger
- You’ll help promote individuals spending locally in the Davis community
How does it work?
Accepting DDs is easy. You don’t need any new equipment. You can accept Davis Dollars in the same way you accept U.S. Dollars. You also have the choice to accept only a percentage of a purchase in DDs, only certain product types in DDs, or any other system that works for you. Once you have DDs, you can:
- Spend them on services or goods your businesses uses in Davis
- Exchange them for U.S. Dollars at the rate of $0.95 USD per 1 DD. (You can get $0.97 per DD if you exchange 250 DDs or more, or $1.00 per DD if you exchange 500 DDs or more.)
- Sell them to anyone who wants to buy them, and you can set your own prices – so you can sell DDs at a 1-to-1 rate with US currency, for example. We’ll even list you on our website as a seller of DDs!
How do you prevent counterfeiting?
Like any bill (including US dollars), we can’t make Davis Dollars impossible to counterfeit. We just make it hard enough to do that it really isn’t worth it. How do we do this? It’s printed on an expensive, high-quality paper. It has a lot of colors so it’s expensive to photocopy, and each bill has a serial number on it. The serial number are printed in a metallic color, which is difficult to copy or reproduce, even digitally.
We also keep track of every single bill that is in circulation, using each bill’s serial number. We ask each business to contact us if someone pays for something using an unusually large number of bills, so we can check right away whether all those serial numbers are actually in circulation.
Why Davis Dollars?
To support and strengthen local community, we are not only working with businesses but also people to stimulate spending in Davis. When people receive Davis Dollars for providing a service, the first thing they often ask is “Where can I spend these Davis Dollars?” That’s when our newsletter, blogs, service list, and social events come in handy. We can help bring you business by letting people know they can support your business and the Davis community at the same time. This unites local business and consumers together as team, benefiting not only you, the people, but also the city altogether.
Can I do a trial run?
We’ll exchange the first 100 Davis Dollars you bring us at a 1:1 scale. It is a risk-free trial period to give you an opportunity to decide if our service is benefiting your business.
How else can I control the way I receive Davis Dollars?
If you want to support the community by accepting DDs, but don’t feel you can accept DDs fully, there are ways to control the inflow of DDs. You may decide to accept only a percentage (for example, 50%) of any purchase in DDs, or accept only a new customers’ first purchase in DDs. You can also offer make it clear that for Davis Dollars transactions, you can only offer change in Davis Dollars, and only if you have enough in your register – customers can choose whether to pay partly in US Dollars if they don’t have correct change in Davis Dollars. These strategies may turn away some potential new customers, but may be useful if you aren’t ready to accept lots of Davis Dollars.
Why else might I decide to accept Davis Dollars?
- To encourage people to spend locally when possible instead of buying things online, or from outside the community.
- To strengthen the community by supporting a currency that builds connections between people.
- To strengthen the local economy by cultivating expertise and exchange within Davis.
How does accepting Davis Dollars affect my taxes?
It doesn’t change how you pay taxes – you must pay taxes on Davis Dollars income the same way you pay taxes on other income.
What happens if someone pays for something in Davis Dollars, and needs change?
You can return change in Davis Dollars. Or if you have run out of DDs, you can reduce the amount of change by 10% (to account for the 10% decrease when you exchange DDs into US currency) and give change in US currency.
Jeff Simons, co-owner of Watermelon Music, on Davis Dollars:
“When we met with Davis Dollars, they said they needed to reach a critical mass of retailers, and we signed on as a supporter….It’s not that we think that we’re going to make any more money, but we benefit in the grand scheme. If the Davis downtown succeeds as a whole, then it’s better for everyone in town. ” – Jeff Simons, owner of Watermelon Music (quoted in the Davis Enterprise story of October 20, 2010)
