Timeraiser150 is seeking applications from local artists and non-profit organizations, the deadline to apply is January 31st.

Timeraiser150 aims to encourage emerging Canadian artists, and partner skilled volunteers, with non-profit organizations. Timeraiser is facilitated by Framework, an organization that purchases work from emerging artists, then allows people to bid on that art with a promise of volunteer hours.

Timeraiser hosts parties where participants meet with non-profits and commit to volunteer their time with an organization in their community. Work by local artists will be on display at the party, and volunteers can use their pledged hours to bid on original art in a silent auction. This year parties will be happening in ten Canadian cities including St. John’s.

After the party, volunteers will have one year to complete their hours and receive their piece of art. Framework have developed an app called Timetracker that records completed volunteer hours and sends the data directly to Framework.

Framework purchases work from local artists at prices set by the artists and are willing to pay up to $1000 per piece.They invite artists to attend the party to see how many volunteer hours their work raises.

Framework’s mandate is to help non-profit organizations improve their digital infrastructure and find capable volunteers. They also run a program called Techraiser that offers non-profits workshops on topics like Volunteer Management in the Cloud and Building Basic Websites.

Techraiser also does website audits and finds ways non-profits can use digital infrastructure to run their organizations more efficiently.

In the spirit of helping non-profits improve how they operate, Timeraiser parties were designed as an innovative way for non-profits to share information about the work they do and chat with potential volunteers face to face about the volunteer roles they need to fill.

The first Timeraiser party took place in Toronto in 2003. Since then, almost 2000 emerging artists have showcased their work at Timeraiser parties all over the country, and 1,816 pieces of original art have gone home with volunteers who pledged their time.

In the past fourteen years, art winners have clocked 167,225 volunteer hours and nearly 2000 non-profits have participated in the annual events.

This year’s Timeraiser150 is supported by Canada150, an initiative launched by the Canadian Government to mark 150 years of confederation.

This year people who aren’t able to attend a Timeraiser party will be able to bid on artwork with a commitment to volunteering their time online, at Online150 (which can be found on the Timeraiser site). Through Timeraiser parties and Online150, Framework aims to raise over 150,000 volunteer hours in 2017.