Offers and Requests

A resource-matching pattern where community members make their needs and capacities visible on a shared board, enabling organic connections, mutual aid, and the emergence of collective abundance.

Overview

Put up a digital and/or physical board where anyone can post something they need or would like (Requests), and anything they could contribute (Offers). This simple practice creates a marketplace of gifts and needs, allowing resources, skills, time, materials, and knowledge to flow where they're most valued.

Rather than relying on centralized resource allocation or leaving needs unmet due to lack of awareness, Offers and Requests creates transparency that enables peer-to-peer matching. When offers meet requests, value is exchanged directly between community members without requiring intermediaries, currency, or complex coordination.

Why Use This Pattern

Makes Abundance Visible: Often communities have untapped resources, skills, and capacity that go unused because people don't know who has what to offer. This pattern reveals hidden abundance.

Creates Demand Signals: Requests show what the community actually needs right now, allowing contributors to direct their energy toward real, expressed needs rather than assumptions.

Enables Mutual Aid: Those with capacity can directly support those with needs, building reciprocity networks and social bonds.

Supports Gift Economy: By making offers without explicit exchange requirements, communities can experiment with gifting, generosity, and trust-based resource sharing.

Resource Coordination: Aligns with REGENERATIVA's vision where collective subscriptions create demand signals, and contributors respond with solutions through three pathways: Purchase, Produce (become a production center), or Attract (pool resources collectively).

Implementation

Setting Up the Board

Physical Board: Use a bulletin board, whiteboard, or wall in a common area with two clear sections:

• Offers (left or top section) - "I have" / "I can provide"

• Requests (right or bottom section) - "I need" / "I'm looking for"

Consider using different colored cards or markers to distinguish between categories:

• Skills & time (blue)

• Physical objects & materials (green)

• Space & infrastructure (yellow)

• Knowledge & learning (purple)

• Emotional support & care (pink)

Digital Board: Create accessible online boards using:

• Community forums with "Offers" and "Requests" categories

• Shared spreadsheets with clear columns

• Project management tools (Notion, Airtable)

• Dedicated platforms (Buy Nothing groups, Time banks, Resource sharing apps)

• Blockchain-based coordination tools for multi-Holon networks

Hybrid Approach: Maintain both physical and digital presence to serve both local (face-to-face) and distributed (remote) community members.

How to Post Offers

Be Specific: Instead of "I can help with gardening," write "I can help plant winter crops on Saturday mornings" or "I have 20 seed packets for cold-weather vegetables."

Include Constraints: Mention any limitations - "I can offer carpentry skills, but only evenings and weekends" or "I have a spare room available for short-term stays (up to 2 weeks)."

Update Regularly: Remove or mark offers that are no longer available. Nothing erodes trust faster than responding to an offer that's already been claimed.

Examples of Offers:

• "Offering sourdough bread baking lessons - can teach up to 3 people"

• "I have a truck available for hauling - can help with material transport on weekends"

• "Offering conflict mediation skills - available for one-on-one or group sessions"

• "I can provide childcare Tuesday and Thursday afternoons"

• "Extra harvest from my garden - tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs - take what you need"

How to Post Requests

Be Clear About Needs: Specify exactly what you're looking for and why. Context helps people understand how they might contribute.

Differentiate Urgency: Mark time-sensitive requests clearly ("Need by Friday") versus ongoing needs ("Looking for eventually").

Open to Solutions: Sometimes you don't know exactly what you need. "Looking for help organizing a workshop - open to ideas" invites creative responses.

Examples of Requests:

• "Need someone to review grant proposal - due next Monday"

• "Looking for bike repair tools - just for a few hours"

• "Seeking someone to practice Spanish conversation with"

• "Need help moving furniture on Saturday morning - can offer lunch and gratitude"

• "Looking for scrap wood for building raised garden beds"

Making Connections

Direct Contact: Include a way to reach you (name, contact method, or "see me at dinner").

Respond Promptly: When you see a match, reach out quickly. Resource needs often have timing components.

Document Exchanges: After a successful match, consider noting it on the board or in a shared log. This creates visibility of mutual aid in action and builds trust.

Express Gratitude: Publicly thank those who fulfill requests. This positive reinforcement strengthens the culture of generosity.

Connection to Regenerative Systems

This pattern directly enables REGENERATIVA's three pathways for meeting needs:

1. Purchase Pathway: When someone posts "I need solar panels for my workshop," another might respond "I sell/install solar - here's my offer." Money flows in, supports the network, and the need is met.

2. Produce Pathway: If multiple requests appear for the same solution (e.g., "need fresh bread," "looking for baked goods," "want to learn bread-making"), this creates a demand signal. Someone might respond by becoming a production center, using open-source recipes, and serving those subscribers automatically.

3. Attract Pathway: When a request is too large for one person (e.g., "community needs a root cellar for food storage"), multiple offers can pool together - someone offers land, another offers labor, another offers materials, another offers expertise - and the resource manifests collectively.

Demand Signals for Collective Needs: Recurring requests reveal systemic needs. If five people request the same thing, that's a signal for the community to create a shared solution rather than five individual ones.

Multi-Resource Exchange: The board naturally reveals that value flows in many forms - not just money, but labor, materials, knowledge, space, time, and care. This aligns with blockchain-based multi-resource accounting in regenerative economies.

Tips for Success

Normalize Requesting: Many people feel uncomfortable asking for help. Create a culture where expressing needs is seen as a gift - it gives others the opportunity to contribute.

Encourage Small Offers: You don't need to offer something extraordinary. "I can listen if you need to talk" or "I have 30 minutes to help" are valuable.

Review Regularly: Dedicate time in community meetings to read the board aloud. This keeps everyone aware of current offers and requests.

Celebrate Matches: When an offer meets a request, acknowledge it. "Jordan's truck helped Alex move the lumber for the new workshop - thank you both!" This positive feedback loop encourages more participation.

Notice Patterns: If certain types of requests never get met, that reveals gaps in community capacity. If certain types of offers go unclaimed, that reveals either abundance (great!) or lack of awareness.

Avoid Debt Dynamics: This isn't barter (I do this for you only if you do that for me). Keep exchanges generous and trust-based. The community as a whole balances out over time.

Connect to Other Patterns: Use with "Did this" to track fulfilled requests as contributions. Use with Task Buddy to respond to requests together. Use with Flow Tokens to recognize those who consistently fulfill community requests.

Scaling Across Networks

Local Holons: Each community (Holon) maintains its own Offers and Requests board for internal resource matching.

Inter-Holon Coordination: Digital boards can connect multiple Holons, allowing surplus from one community to meet deficits in another. This creates interdependent networks rather than isolated communities.

Subscription-Based Needs: Collective requests (e.g., "our community needs 100 lbs of organic flour monthly") become subscriptions, creating stable demand signals for producers.

Open-Source Solutions: When someone produces a solution to meet collective requests, they can open-source it under regenerative licenses, allowing other Holons to adopt or adapt it.

Variations

Categorized Boards: Separate sections for different types of resources (skills, materials, space, time, knowledge, care).

Time-Banking Integration: Track exchanges and create reciprocal time credits for those who prefer structured exchange.

Gift Economy: Make all offers unconditional gifts without expecting anything in return - trust that the community will support you when you have needs.

Blockchain Coordination: For distributed networks, use smart contracts to match offers to requests across multiple Holons, with automated flow token distribution to those who fulfill collective needs.

Related Patterns

• Did this: Track fulfilled requests as contributions

• Task Buddy: Partner up to fulfill larger requests together

• Open Space: Surface community needs and self-organize to meet them

• Consent Decision Making: Decide which collective requests to prioritize

• Navigate via Tension: Express unmet needs as tensions that drive community evolution

By making offers and requests visible, communities create the conditions for organic resource matching, mutual aid, and the emergence of local abundance - establishing sufficiency within before seeking external trade, exactly as regenerative economics envisions.