“As a smaller organization with a smaller team, we saw how crypto could level the playing field and provide massive fundraising success,” said giving associate Alexa Castellano at Trees for the Future.
Charities and donations have been a trending topic in the cryptocurrency realm as of late. And it’s not simply an act of giving. In countries such as the United States, the country’s revenue authority provides generous tax deductions for those who donate their crypto to registered charities. One company, The Giving Block, provides such crypto-fundraising onboarding solutions to more than 1,000 nonprofits.
But just how does investors’ money make a difference? In a series of case studies provided to Cointelegraph, The Giving Block illustrated how six such charities benefited as overall donations volume on its platform surged over 1,000% year over year in 2021. As told by Tammy Tibbetts, co-founder and CEO of She’s the First, a charity organization helping gender equality through education:
“In the most challenging fiscal year of my career as a nonprofit CEO, I realized I had to take crypto seriously. If I didn’t, the ship was going to sail without us and, with it, take resources that could help girls around the world access education and unlock their dreams. This crypto donation was our second biggest gift this year, completely changing my view on cryptocurrencies.Â
Thanks to a crypto-fundraising campaign, She’s the First delivered more than 1,400 food, water and menstrual kits, a connected over 6,000 girls with mentors around the world. Similarly, CARE, one of the oldest nonprofit organizations fighting global poverty, saw its crypto donations increase from about $7,000 in 2020 to over $330,000 in 2021. One campaign, NFT CARE Package for Afghanistan, raised over $200,000 in a matter of weeks to deliver humanitarian aid to Afghan families.
CARE organization banner | Source: The Giving BlockÂ
Then there’s the orangutan preservation project Orangutan Outreach, which raised more than their entire budget 2020 revenue budget with crypto donations. “We’re going to incorporate crypto into everything we do moving forward, make it bigger so we can do more good work,” said Richard Zimmerman, the organization’s executive director. Organtuan Outreach’s team cares for orphaned and displaced orangutans in specially built sanctuaries with the end goal of releasing them back to the wild.
Orangutan Outreach banner | Source: The Giving Block
And thanks in part to nonfungible token campaigns, regenerative agriculture nonprofit Trees for the Future managed to plant 2.3 million trees that are estimated to sequester more than 80,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide over 20 years. “We can change the lives of 5,000 farmers and their families by providing training and allowing them to have a job and food security,” said Alexa Castellano, giving associate at Trees for the Future.
Next up is no other than the University of Arizona, itself, where the post-secondary institute sees over $20,000 per month in crypto donations volume. The money is used to fund scholarships, student experiences, athletics, research and various academic programs. Finally, Vive Church, a global community of churches with locations across the United States and European Union, managed to raise over $300,000 in crypto towards a down payment to 80,000 square-foot building in Palo Alto that could seat 2,000 people in its auditorium. And there appears to be a lot of “faith” in such donation method too, as Aaron Williams, Vive Church’s finance director, explains:
“Crypto is the only asset class that people seem to be super passionate about. I get phone calls and texts about it constantly from donors. I didn’t expect as much passion around it. But I believe that their passion drives generosity.”
