How Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Can Improve Charitable Giving

Ayelen Osorio

Community + Content Marketing

March 5, 2020

In our previous article, we touched on how Bitcoiners have answered the call for relief multiple times over the years. But why is there this sudden movement towards using Bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency) and how does this actually improve charitable giving?

The Problem

While most charities do amazing work, high-profile scandals and a lack of transparency have reduced trust and confidence across the sector. It is also very costly for charities to transfer funds and operate in countries that need developmental aid.

Traditional banking systems charge high fees to transfer funds, especially across borders, and these transactions can take weeks, even during a crisis response.

The Solution

Enter in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Because the Bitcoin blockchain is a public ledger, it offers unique opportunities for transparency in a charity. A public, transparent path of the funds means that anyone can track the movement of cryptocurrency from wallet to wallet. This increases accountability and makes auditing and accounting easier for nonprofits as well.

Using bitcoin has allowed charities to bypass banks and governments, and make transactions faster, and cheaper because it’s the same everywhere, no matter what kind of government a country has or what currency it uses.

How Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Can Improve Charitable Giving

Blockchain technology and the concept of a digital currency not only opens the doors to fundraising globally without borders, but also offers the ability to move funds across the world much faster and cheaper than traditional methods.

Because of these benefits, one company is leveraging the efficiency and transparency of cryptocurrency to become the first Bitcoin and Blockchain non-profit. BitGive’s GiveTrack platform will allow donors, nonprofits and the public to see when and where donations are received and spent in real time.

More and more charities have started to accept Bitcoin as a form of donation too, not just to fully reap the speed and transparency benefits, but also to stay current and appeal to a new generation of givers.

UNICEF for example, through its newly-established UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund, will now be able to receive donations of Bitcoin and will use it to fund open source technology benefiting children and young people around the world.

Ettore Rossetti, Director of Social Media and Digital Marketing at Save the Children emphasizes the importance of staying current;

“We want to remain contemporary and relevant to current and future generations, we don’t only want to be your grandmother’s charity, we want to be your grandchild’s charity. One way to do that is to accept bitcoin.”

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