More and more people are entering the wonderful crypto world and discovering all the advantages of blockchain technology. Charitable organizations that especially value transparent and borderless transactions are no exception. If you are wondering whether to accept crypto donations or not, this article is for you.
Key points:
- Cryptocurrency is gradually replacing fiat and becoming the most effective donation tool.
- Crypto donations benefit charities with transparency, low fees, global reach, and speed.
- NOWPayments enables non-profits to set up the acceptance of crypto donations in a matter of clicks.
Charities and crypto donations overview
For many years, most non-profit organizations have not accepted donations in cryptocurrencies, not being able to work with digital assets and fearing regulatory consequences, since the legal status of cryptocurrencies has not been determined.
And as there were relatively few holders of such assets — there was no need to worry about adding another donation method.
Everything changed in 2013 when Save the Children and The Water Project became pioneers among charitable organizations for accepting cryptocurrencies. In 2015, the Fidelity Charitable foundation added support for cryptocurrencies. Gradually, most of the largest charitable organizations began to accept digital currencies.
Which charities accept crypto in 2022?
From national charities to local non-profits, there are many different charities that accept crypto donations. The most famous are:
The Water Project
Despite the huge amount of water in the world, only a small part of it is of real value to a person, namely, it is drinkable. Most often it consists of underground resources. In temperate climates or even tropical forests, there is no problem — rains come and thus fill natural reservoirs, but in Africa, it is not so easy to get fresh water, which is why part of its population suffers from thirst.
About 5 million people die every year across the continent either from lack of water or from infection with diseases, because the water there is mostly dirty and in some cases even dangerous to health. Fortunately, the charity organization The Water Project makes a significant contribution to solving this problem. The project team is building water wells, small dams, and spring protections to provide clean and safe water for the residents of sub-Saharan Africa. But most importantly, the organization allows you to make donations using Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an international environmental organization. It is one of the largest and most famous in the world and has been engaged in environmental protection for half a century. The purpose of the organization is to preserve nature and peace on Earth by changing people’s attitudes to natural resources.
Greenpeace supporters believe that there are many global (and not only) problems: global warming, pollution of the atmosphere with hazardous substances, water pollution, radiation hazard, reduction of forest area, extinction of animals, etc. The organization takes various measures to solve these and many other environmental problems. Over the years, Greenpeace has grown from a small group of activists to a large international environmental organization, which consists of 26 independent national/regional organizations in more than 55 countries. By collaborating with the popular crypto payment provider BitPay, Greenpeace allows you to make donations in BTC, ETH, and XRP.
Fidelity Charitable
Fidelity Charitable is an organization that allows you to effectively donate to causes that are close to your heart. This is one of the first non-profit organizations that started accepting crypto donations. This organization has an interesting approach to philanthropy, the purpose of which is to facilitate and maximize the effectiveness of donations.
In order to start donating funds, you need to create your personal Giving Account. Next, you can deposit the desired amount and choose the charities that you want to support. Fidelity Charitable supports more than 500 public charitable organizations. The great thing is that by contributing to Fidelity Charitable you can get an instant tax deduction. Moreover, being a heavy donor, you can grow tax-free.
Red Cross
The Red Cross is the largest international movement known for its humanitarian orientation. The protection of human life and health, the relief of human suffering, and the formation of respect for each individual are the key tasks of the largest humanitarian association on the planet.
Today, this humanitarian organization has a large number of powers and functions. In addition to helping victims of military clashes, volunteers help to restore separated families, protect civilians, and interact with services engaged in the search for missing people. Given that the organization is dedicated to saving lives around the world, it is not surprising that the Red Cross team has started accepting crypto donations. Today you can donate Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and Litecoin. In addition, you can contact representatives of the organization in case you want to donate another digital asset.
UNICEF
UNICEF is one of the largest and most up-to-date charitable organizations. The United Nations Children’s Fund is confident that global progress is impossible without the full development of every child.
UNICEF constantly appeals to the cooperation of politicians and various government organizations and supports and implements programs aimed at protecting the health and life of children, and their full physical and intellectual development. The organization helps children get an education, prevents child abuse, and also plays a leading role in providing vaccine safety. Realizing the usefulness and effectiveness of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, UNICEF has created a so-called “Cryptocurrency Fund”. Thanks to the fund, contributors can now make donations using Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In addition to the listed charities, crypto donations are also accepted by Save the Children, United Way Worldwide, Food for Life Global, The Giving Block, The American Cancer Society, and other charitable organizations. But despite such an extensive list of non-profits accepting crypto donations, digital assets are still far from mass adoption.
What stops charities from accepting donations in crypto
To date, most charities either accept crypto donations or are working on this issue. What stops charities from mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
- Volatility. Perhaps it is the most important stumbling block. Despite the fact that the capitalization of the crypto market has been growing over the years, digital assets do not differ in particular price stability. Today you donated $50, and tomorrow this amount may turn into $10. The best solution is to use stablecoins.
- Legal uncertainty. Many jurisdictions have not yet decided how to treat cryptocurrencies, how to pay taxes on them, and how to indicate them in the reports. It’s up to the authorities — the sooner they figure out the legal status of cryptocurrencies and their regulation, the sooner coin holders will be able to use them in real life, and not just for speculation.
- Inability to work with crypto assets and blockchain. So, one of the main problems is security: how to store cryptocurrencies, work with secret keys and protect assets from hackers.
As these problems are solved, the number of donations in cryptocurrencies will grow, and the introduction of blockchain into the sector may completely change charity, increasing its effectiveness.
Why should charities change their mind about cryptocurrency donations?
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies can help solve many problems inherent in charity by making this sector transparent and efficient. Thus, the achievements of the crypto industry can help in the following areas of charity:
- Tracking the expenses. Non-profit organizations are supported by donations: they are spent on employee salaries, advertising, promotions, and other operational activities. These expenses take up to a third of all donations collected. The money received is often not spent efficiently. This also affects the attitude of ordinary people to charity, who trust large foundations less and less. Cryptocurrencies allow you to track every transaction: information about when and how money is spent, and whether it has reached the recipient, is recorded in the blockchain. This allows you to control the work of charitable organizations and makes it more transparent.
- Savings on transaction costs. Fees for cryptocurrency transfers are much lower than in the traditional financial system, and the transfers themselves reach faster. Even with a few percent saved, charities are able to do a lot for those who have nothing.
- It is easy to make donations to other countries. It is also important that cryptocurrencies allow you to transfer donations to any jurisdiction from any country with minimal fees and without currency control. This is convenient since in some countries there are restrictions on cross-border transfers.
- The opportunity to earn on the price growth. Charitable organizations, as a rule, have a reserve of funds that provides them with several months of work. Especially large organizations can have tens of millions of dollars “free”. These funds are usually either simply stored in fiat currencies. Given the gradually growing capitalization of the crypto market, charities can make long-term investments and profit from the growth of the exchange rate.
How can charities accept crypto donations?
NOWPayments is the easiest way to accept crypto donations. Our service is characterized by low fees, support for 100+ coins, as well as instant payouts. In addition, with the help of NOWPayments, you can set up auto crypto-to-fiat conversion. We provide the following donation tools:
- Donation link is the easiest-to-use tool. The link is ideal for accepting donations on social media or directly from contributors. Simply generate a custom link and share it with your audience.
- Donation widget is a tool with which you can accept more than 100 cryptocurrencies as a donation on any platform, application, or website.
- Donation button is the perfect tool that will fit well into the design of your website, forum signature, or blog. The button allows you to accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other supported cryptocurrencies quickly and seamlessly. To add a donation button to your website follow the steps below:
- Create your NOWPayments account.
- Go to the “Settings” section >> “Payment settings”.
- Add your page address.
- Generate an API key.
- Go to the “Payment Tools” section >> “Donations”.
- Select the donation style button.
- Paste the code anywhere on your website, but make sure to replace the placeholder with your API key.
- Accept crypto donations!
Conclusion
NOWPayments enables charities to accept 100+ cryptocurrencies as a donation option. Thanks to our service, non-profits will be able to stand on par with world-famous charitable organizations and set up efficient fundraising.