Blockchain for Transparent Donations

📖 The Story

Who, When, and Where — Context

Founded in 2020, a US-based company Change delivers a “Charitable Giving as a Service” donation processing platform for companies and nonprofits.

Why — Challenge

Conventional donations make it difficult for donors to trace the inside of a nonprofit’s wallet such as donation histories and how the money has been used; after donation, supporters should trust the recipient organization unconditionally and wish their dollars are used for something meaningful. The lack of transparency may hinder (1) donors from actively supporting good initiatives and (2) organizations from effectively engaging with their supporters.

What and How — Tech Solution

Change provides a development toolkit and no-code applications that allow users to implement a “Donate with Crypto” cryptocurrency-based donation form on their website. Due to blockchain technology's transactional, transparent, and real-time nature, the tech solution enables nonprofits to collect and process donations more efficiently and effectively. The platform is built on the Solena blockchain ecosystem.

💡 Key Insights

• 🪟 (Some but certainly not all) technologies help make complex real-world activities more transparent. Higher transparency leads to better clarity for ordinary people, forcing organizations to be more accountable for their activities.

• 💰️ Wider payment options make donations more accessible and inclusive, welcoming diverse potential donors with different interests and motivations. Nowadays, traditional organizations like Save the Children also support cryptocurrency donations.

• 🤔 Careful design choices are required to implement emerging technologies like blockchain. There must be reasons why a dedicated platform like Change is needed—in addition to the existing blockchain solutions—and why it works with Solena—not any other blockchain ecosystems.

✅ Try This

Search “crypto donation” online and see which organizations support the new giving format. How are they advertising the unconventional donation method for their (potential) donors?

📊 Did You Know?

The 2024 Annual Report on Crypto Philanthropy reported that, as of January 2024, 56% of the top 100 US charities accept cryptocurrency donations.