Giving Tuesday underwent a technological revolution this year, with multiple organizations embracing crypto and NFTs to attract donations from the spaces. A report unveiled this news yesterday, noting that these changes come after multiple leading crypto players announced support for charitable causes.
An example is Gemini, a renowned crypto company founded by the Winklevoss twins. Reportedly, Gemini introduced a feature that allows its wallet users to give back with crypto. This feature offers Gemini users a chance to donate to over 300 non-profits through a platform dubbed The Giving Block.
The Giving Block offers the technology stack to link the crypto community with the philanthropic community. All exchanges that join hands with the company give their users an open gateway to donate a wide array of cryptos to non-profits.
Through The Giving Block, crypto users can easily contribute to charitable causes without worrying about tax implications, seeing as the process is almost similar to donating stocks.
Tapping into a growing base of wealth
While crypto donations might seem new, it is worth noting that some non-profits have been accepting crypto donations for over six years. An example is United Way, which began accepting Bitcoin (BTC) donations in 2014.
Explaining what drove the organization to embrace BTC donations, United Way’s Vice President on Innovation, said,
“We saw a growing thriving community of individuals who were passionate as well as a growing base of wealth.”
With the crypto evolution came the rise of the NFT space, which is disrupting the art and entertainment sectors. However, the industry’s potential is far-reaching, seeing as NFTs have already made a statement in charitable giving. The first known case is when Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s former CEO, sold his first tweet as an NFT earlier this year and donated the proceeds to charity.
Gemini was also quick to embrace NFTs for donation after selling over 100 phrases from BTC’s whitepaper on a former CNN billboard in NYC’s Columbus Circle as NFTs on Nifty Gateway. The company donated all the proceeds to charity.
Donating NFTs is similar to donating physical goods
While the above examples involve selling NFTs and donating the obtained funds to charity, Patrick McLaren, the COO Of Nifty Gateway, believes people can directly donate NFTs to charitable non-profits. He argued that if donating crypto is similar to donating stocks, donating NFTs would be analogous to donating physical goods like a valuable traditional piece of art.
Although the world is just waking up to the potential of NFTs disrupting the charity industry, venture capitalist and BTC bull Bill Tai realized this concept early. He commissioned what would become the first NFT for charity in 2018. The NFT in question was Honu Kitty, a part cat, part turtle CryptoKitty that raised $25,000 for marine conservation.
Fast-forward three years later, Tai founded Metagood, an NFT marketplace that enables donations for each NFT drop. The marketplace is one of many NFT-related social impacts that launched this year. Others include Binance dropping the NFT for Good collection to support charities for children. OpenSea also hosted charitable drops.
DoinGud, a Polygon-based NFT marketplace that launched yesterday, mandates artists to donate a fraction of their sale proceeds. The marketplace lets artists decide how much of their NFT sales go to charity.
Meanwhile, The Giving Block has rolled out its version of Giving Tuesday dubbed NFTuesday. The project is in conjunction with Sotheby’s and seeks to help Sostento, a non-profit for healthcare workers. Per Sotheby’s and The Giving Block, the upcoming event will be the biggest NFT auction charity in history.
