The holiday season is the perfect time of year to donate to charity, and the rise of cryptocurrencies has created more opportunities for philanthropy. This was highlighted on Giving Tuesday 2021, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, when more than $2.4 million in cryptocurrency was raised from The Giving Block, an ideal fundraising platform.
As cryptophilanthropy has become a new sub-sector of the cryptocurrency economy, some in the industry believe that crypto donations will only increase. Alex Wilson, co-founder of The Giving Block, told Cointelegraph that the organization raised about $4 million in cryptocurrencies last year, noting that more than $100 million in cryptocurrency is likely to be raised this year.
Wilson said that this rise is partly due to the fact that cryptocurrency donations are more tax efficient than paper donations. “Anyone who donates before December 31 can claim a deduction for tax year 2021. It’s a great way to recoup some of your winnings.” Wilson added that more than 1,000 nonprofits currently accept cryptocurrency through The Giving Block, including St. We expect to accelerate our growth. We estimate that next year we will process nearly $1 billion in donations and engage more than 6,000 nonprofits.”
Campaigns providing cryptocurrency for the holidays
While a number of non-profit organizations have started accepting cryptocurrency, it is also worth noting that campaigns dedicated to crypto-charities are starting this holiday season.
For example, in early December, Upbring Innovation Labs, a Texas-based organization committed to advancing technology in the nonprofit sector, launched the Give Big TX crypto fund. Ryan Park, Vice President of Innovation at Upbring, told Cointelegraph that the fund is a collaborative crypto campaign that works with a dozen Texas nonprofits:
“You can think of it as a ‘state box’. The reason here is to make Texas a better place to live. This is also to show non-profit organizations that they can use new Web 3.0 technologies to promote. The goal is to see Texas become a leader in crypto-breeding. .”
Park shared that the Give Big TX Crypto campaign partners with organizations such as Austin Pets Alive, Big Brothers Big Sisters Lonestar, Central Texas Catholic Charities, and eight other nonprofits. He added that the Texas Blockchain Council, a 501 C(6) organization, is also part of the initiative, given the group’s commitment to advancing blockchain across industries in Texas.
Kelsey Driscoll, chief innovation strategist at Upbring, told Cointelegraph that the campaign will accept more than 40 different types of cryptocurrency for donations through December 31, all facilitated by The Giving Block. “When donations are made, The Giving Block automatically converts them into US dollars, so accepting cryptocurrencies was just as easy, if not easier, as accepting paper donations,” she said. Driscoll added that the r/Bitcoin subreddit will match donations in Bitcoin (BTC) when you donate to certain charities supported by The Giving Block.
Pawthereum, a community-driven decentralized project that supports animal shelters, launched a crypto-charity campaign this month. John Withers, a social worker at Pawthereum, told Cointelegraph that the 12 Days of Crypto Giving campaign allows you to donate cryptocurrency to specific projects that help animals in need. The Pawthereum project was created as a crossroads for the Grumpy Cat Coin meme project, which raised $70,000 in cryptocurrency for the Stirling Animal Shelter in Massachusetts.
Recently, Pawthereum raised $25,000 in cryptocurrency for Muttville Senior Dog Rescue, an animal shelter in San Francisco that looks after dogs with special needs. Withers said that nearly $400,000 in cryptocurrency has been donated since the campaign launched on December 14.
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This year, non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, will also be used for donations. With the NFT market expected to grow to $17.7 billion by the end of 2021, the sector is launching one of the biggest crypto charities this season. This auction, known as Right Click, Give!, is open to the public on the NFT Opensea platform. The auction lasted until December 24, everyone went to save the situation.
