How Calgary Dollars Moves Through the Norfolk Community

Since we first began integrating Calgary Dollars into our NHA ecosystem in 2018, Calgary Dollars have moved through Norfolk in all kinds of ways. Residents have earned them by contributing their time and skills, used them toward rent and groceries, exchanged them with neighbours, and earned new Calgary Dollars through opportunities beyond Norfolk. 

And if you follow those dollars for long enough, you start to see a small local economy taking shape. Because behind every transaction is something much more human: a resident contributing their time or skills, meeting an everyday need, exchanging something with a neighbour, or participating in the wider Calgary community. 

What happens to a Calgary Dollar once it enters the Norfolk community? 

At NHA, Calgary Dollars often begin with a resident contributing something to their community. Through the program, residents can receive honorariums in recognition of their time and participation, and over the past reporting year, those contributions added up. Between July 2025 and June 2026, Norfolk residents earned 137 honorariums, worth a total of C$6,099. 

But how those dollars get used – and moved – depends on the resident. 

Each Calgary Dollar can take its own path. For many residents, that path leads toward one of their biggest monthly expenses: housing. Over the course of the year, residents put C$5,175 toward rent, while Calgary Dollars were also used for groceries through Fresh Routes and other everyday expenses. In total, residents used C$5,386 toward basic needs during the reporting period. 

Other Calgary Dollars stayed even closer to home, moving directly from one Norfolk resident to another. C$520 was exchanged between residents during the year, allowing the value of one person's contribution to become something another neighbour could offer or use. 

That's part of what makes a community currency interesting: instead of every exchange beginning and ending with an organization, value can continue to move between people. 

And the circle stretches beyond Norfolk. Residents brought Calgary Dollars back into the community by participating in opportunities elsewhere in the city, earning C$423 through citywide volunteering and another C$90 through Calgary Dollars Rewards. At the same time, Calgary Dollars moved outward through purchases from Fresh Routes and market vendors, while Norfolk itself used C$650 within the network for equipment rentals.  

Follow all of those exchanges and what emerges isn't a straight line from Norfolk to a resident and back again. It's a loop. Residents contribute and earn, use what they've earned to meet their own needs, exchange value with neighbours, participate in opportunities across Calgary and bring new Calgary Dollars back into the community. 

More than “extra” dollars 

Of course, not everything that moves through a community can be counted in Calgary Dollars. Alongside the rent payments, grocery purchases and exchanges between neighbours, people are participating, building relationships and becoming more connected to the communities around them. 

We can see some of that in Calgary Dollars' 2025 experience survey. Among the 47 participants surveyed, 85% said they felt more involved in their community since joining the program, while 89% said they had established relationships of trust. Nearly three-quarters (74%) said they were better able to live within their means, and 89% said they'd been encouraged to buy more locally.  

Those numbers help us see what isn't captured simply by following where the dollars are spent. A Calgary Dollar might ultimately help pay someone's rent or buy groceries, but it often begins with something a person has contributed—their time, their skills, their ideas or their willingness to get involved. 

And as those dollars move between residents and out into the wider Calgary community, they create more opportunities for people to exchange not only money, but resources, knowledge and connection. 

And from the NHA perspective, that's the more interesting thing to follow. Since Calgary Dollars became part of the Norfolk ecosystem, thousands of them have changed hands. Along with those dollars, residents have exchanged time, skills and resources, while building relationships along the way. 

The dollars give that value somewhere to go. The community is what gives it meaning.