The Digital Leaky Bucket

ORGANIZATION:
Coady International Institue,

Author +
Gord Cunningham

Year: 2012

Have you ever wondered how much money comes into, or flows out of your local economy or household?

The Digital Leaky Bucket (DLB)  is an online version of a tool that Coady graduates have been using with communities for more than 15 years. The leaky bucket is a popular education tool that helps people at the grassroots better understand their local economy. It enables them to identify and quantify the main flows of money coming into and out of their community. In turn, this process may reveal economic opportunities, which can help community members improve their household and community well-being.

Generally there are three main uses for the Digital Leaky Bucket tool:
  1. To enable  individuals, groups  and communities to discover:
    • how much money enters their household or local economy on an annual basis, or,
    • how much money their household or community spends on certain items or activities – some of which could be redirected to more productive use
  2. To monitor and evaluate changes in household or community economies over time
  3. To undertake basic business planning for an enterprise (various versions of the digital leaky bucket can be produced to represent different scenarios of income and expenditure for the business)