How do donors make crypto gifts?

To make a gift, crypto donors need to find your charity and your crypto donation platform! 

In a nutshell, a cryptocurrency donation typically happens like this:

1. An individual invests in a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Over time, their crypto appreciates in value.
2. They want to donate a portion of their crypto to charity, they do a web search for a nonprofit organization that accepts crypto donations
3. The donor makes a gift and receives a tax receipt. The nonprofit holds the gift in the original cryptocurrency form or converts the gift into cash (yay!)

If your organization doesn’t accept crypto donations, a huge audience with extra income can’t give you their financial support. Worse, if you don’t have a crypto giving option, other organizations that do can enjoy all the benefits you’re missing. 

But once your organizations has been set up to receive gifts in crypto, you’ll find that donors will be inspired to give in various ways: 

Individual giving 

Individuals may find your nonprofit because of advertising, word of mouth, or even a simple Google search (e.g. “Charities that help children”). To engage these donors, making sure your website is ready to accept donations in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is key.

Social media

In many ways, your circle of friends influences who you become. Social media amplifies this effect to the extreme. That’s why having great content on social media is one of the best ways to build excitement about your cause. By posting on multiple platforms daily (or more often!), you can convert followers into generous supporters, and allow them to spread the word to their friends and family. 

Events and fundraisers 

Video calls aren’t only for work-from-home meetings. Use everyday technologies to connect with your donors and prospects. For instance, try hosting virtual events on Zoom to gain support from donors all over the world.

Want to jump on a growing trend? Partner with artists and creatives to host an NFT auction to raise your organization’s visibility among the crypto crowd. It’s most common for artists to sell NFTs in auctions, and to donate some or all the proceeds to charity. (In rarer cases, an artist may want to give an NFT to a charity as an investment.)

Corporate Giving and Partnerships 

Every blockchain and cryptocurrency company has a stake in the reputation of their industry. Many have begun to promote their social responsibility through corporate partnerships. The Giving Block has partnered with several companies to help make charity a priority in the crypto space. 

We’re also striving to make crypto and charity go hand-in-hand for everyone, not only the wealthiest investors (aka “whales”). To do so, we’ve worked with crypto and NFT exchanges to create options for users to donate a portion of their transactions to charity. We also assist crypto companies in building corporate giving programs. The resulting donor match programs and nonprofit partnerships make us optimistic for the future of crypto! 

Planned Giving

Would it surprise you to learn that your biggest donors invest in crypto and list it as an asset in their wills? It can’t hurt to ask. The American Bar Association predicts that “estate planning attorneys are likely to see more clients acquiring [cryptocurrency] assets and incorporating them into their estate plans.” If your donors want to make a planned crypto gift, they should be clear in granting permission to provide their digital wallet’s account information to any fiduciaries. 

Major Gifts

Many, if not most, crypto investors have never been approached by a major gifts officer from a nonprofit or charity. And since only a small percentage of nonprofits have already made the shift to crypto, the time could be right for your organization to develop a major gifts strategy for crypto. 

Think it might not be worth the trouble? Think again. The crypto community has a brief yet eventful history of big donations. In 2017, an anonymous donor created the Pineapple Fund and gave away 5104 bitcoins through an open call for grant funding. The total gifts were valued at somewhere between $30-55M. In 2021, when Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated about $1B worth of Shiba Inu tokens to India’s Covid Crypto Relief Fund.

Isn’t it time for your organization to maximize its potential for impact? Your nonprofit could be the next recipient of a massive crypto donation! 

Campaigns 

The crypto community has a robust and active online presence, making them a perfect audience for digital campaigns. We know of a few proven ways to engage them online. 

1. End of Year Giving
   For most charities, the end of year is the biggest fundraising season. That won’t change if you start accepting crypto donations. As a thought leader for the crypto-philanthropy community, we use our platform and crypto industry connections to execute campaigns that make it easy for nonprofits to align with and for potential donors to find without searching too hard. For example, #BitcoinTuesday (Giving Tuesday’s counterpart in the crypto space) increases visibility for end-of-year crypto giving. See the impact of our December 2020 campaigns.
2. Crypto Giving Pledge
   We’re doing our part to help make crypto the most charitable industry in the world, in part by launching the Crypto Giving Pledge, which encourages annual charitable giving by high net worth individuals who invest in crypto. 

Cryptocurrency in philanthropy: by sector

Nonprofits are one of several industries leading the world toward mainstream crypto adoption. Here is a close-up of two charitable sectors that have begun to embrace cryptocurrency: 

Faith-Based Charities

Every few years, faith-based charities need to find new ways to connect with younger generations of supporters. Today, they’ve adapted by embracing cryptocurrency. Crypto giving is not only Millennial-approved, it can also enable donors to fulfill certain religious duties such as: 

• Tithing, the Christian concept of giving 10 percent of one’s income to help the needy 
• Zakat, a form of almsgiving that is a religious duty of all Muslims, and is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. 
• Tzedakah, an ethical obligation in Judaism to give away a portion of income to help others
• Daswandh, which is a one tenth of a person’s income, and according to Sikhism, should be donated in the name of God 

Universities/Higher Education

It’s a fact that successful alumni are often eager to give back to their alma mater. As the number of crypto millionaires (and billionaires!) rises, the number of alumni who wish to donate in crypto will only grow. 

The problem is that many institutions of higher learning offer courses on blockchain and cryptocurrency, but most don’t accept crypto donations or (if they do) don’t make information on how to give crypto accessible. 

Accepting crypto donations can also help universities diversify income streams for their endowments. We only need to look at Bitcoin’s success to see how cryptocurrency can benefit its investors.

Looking to start your first higher ed crypto donor campaign? We’ve seen several examples of alumni making big gifts to fund crypto programs on campus, and this is a great model to borrow. Our higher education guide offers a closer look into the state of university crypto fundraising.

Which nonprofits accept crypto donations?

Each year, organizations struggle to reach new prospects or make repeated asks of young alumni that are difficult to convert to active donors. Meanwhile, they worry about not having diverse sources of revenue. There’s a solution: nonprofits are turning to crypto as a viable alternative to traditional pathways of outreach.  

Charities of all kinds can accept cryptocurrency, and all of them—big, small, global, local, old, and new—can reap the benefits.

Here are a few types of US-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations and international charities we work with: 

• Addiction & Recovery
• Animals 
• Arts & Culture
• Children & Youth
• Community Foundations 
• Community Service
• Developmental Disabilities
• Disaster Response
• Donor-advised funds
• Education & Training
• Environment
• First Responders & Veterans
• Fiscal Sponsor Organizations
• Health & Medicine
• Higher Education
• Homelessness 
• Human Rights
• Hunger
• Immigration & Refugees
• International Development
• LGBTQ
• Legal Support
• Racial Justice
• Religion & Faith-Based
• Technology
• Water & Hygiene
• Women & Girls
• And many more to come…

Browse our complete roster of nonprofit clients that are already accepting crypto donations. 

How do we accept our first donation in crypto?

Let’s walk through the ins and outs of accepting cryptocurrency donations: 

Which cryptocurrencies can my organization accept?

Depending on your platform, your organization could accept any number of cryptocurrencies. 

With The Giving Block, you can receive gifts in more than 45 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Amp (AMP), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), ChainLink (LINK), Dai (DAI), Dogecoin (DOGE), The Graph (GRT), Gemini Dollar (GUSD), Litecoin (LTC), Storj (STORJ), UMA (UMA), Zcash (ZEC), 0x (ZRX), 1inch (1INCH). We add support for new cryptocurrencies all the time.

With every cryptocurrency added, our nonprofit clients are diversifying their income sources and expanding their potential donor universe.

To increase usability and open the door for accepting more cryptocurrencies in the future, we have a drop-down menu option that allows donors to select which cryptocurrencies they wish to donate. For donors, this means more options to donate their appreciated cryptocurrency. In some countries, converting from one cryptocurrency to another is a taxable event, so we want to offer as many direct donation options as possible. 

How do we add a crypto donation platform to our website?

Nonprofits have several options for embedding a crypto-ready donation form on their websites. These options include: 

• 1. Button
  Lead your supporters to a donate page, where they can make a gift
• 2. Light Box
  Enable a form-based box to pops up over a website with a short, direct call-to-action
• 3. Wallet/QR Codes
  Display a QR code for your organization’s digital wallet—it’s a a quick, secure way to initiate a transaction with a donor 
• 4. Widget
  Create a one-stop form embedded on your website’s donation page

How is a donation processed?

All cryptocurrency transactions, including donations, are recorded on a public blockchain ledger that is immutable (i.e nearly impossible to tamper with). A donation has “gone through” when the donated amount is transferred from the donor’s digital wallet to the charity’s wallet. 

This process does not need confirmation from a bank. Instead, it relies on blockchain technology to provide a secure, quick transaction for both parties. 

What do we do with crypto donations?

1. Converting

Converting means exchanging cryptocurrency for its equivalent value in another asset or currency. Most nonprofits have a gift acceptance policy that requires immediate liquidation into cash. The Giving Block is able to automate this conversion for its nonprofit clients. Nonprofits can choose to auto-convert to dollars, pounds, or another cash currency. 

2. Holding

Organizations are also able to HODL (i.e. hold onto) their cryptocurrency donations long term. This can be an ideal solution for highly-regulated tax exempt organizations such as 501(c)3 nonprofits and charities. Before going this route, nonprofits will want to choose an exchange platform that is secure and trusted. Through our exchange partner, Gemini (one of, if not the most regulatory compliant and secure cryptocurrency exchange in the world), nonprofits can secure custody and liquidity of crypto assets they receive.

Cold storage is another option for organizations that wish to further secure their crypto investments by using offline storage solutions. Options include:

• Typing your digital wallet’s private key into a document and saving that document onto a portable USB/flash drive
• Saving your private key on a laptop that is never connected to the internet
• Writing your private key on a piece of paper that is kept in a safe place

Despite the obvious “low-tech” nature of this option, this is considered one of the most secure methods available to users.  

Also available to investors are third-party custody solutions and high interest accounts. 

3. Using

Charities can also use their crypto gifts in ways that serve their mission. One nonprofit using crypto for good is UNICEF. In 2020, it established a Cryptocurrency Fund that provides investments in the form of crypto grants. Recipients are technology startups that seek solutions to local and global challenges. 

Other nonprofits may wish to do something similar, or use their crypto to make purchases, which is becoming more and more common.

How do we reach out to crypto donors?

Your organization might already know a few crypto investors—it can’t hurt to ask around! We also recommend participating in giving campaigns like #BitcoinTuesday. You can also post on social media with hashtags like #DonateCrypto to help the right people see your content. 

Most importantly, make sure that your organization publicizes the fact that it accepts crypto and makes it easy for donors to give. 

Tips for engaging your new audience

Our best piece of advice is also the simplest: be you. Your messaging to potential crypto donors should help you connect to those who share your values, no matter how they choose to give.

With that said, we also encourage you to learn more about your new audience. Start by following thought leaders in the cryptocurrency space and subscribing to e-newsletters. 

The crypto community’s online presence takes after its user base: it’s youthful, tech-savvy, idealistic, and a bit irreverent. Your organization might want to use some crypto slang like HODL, FUD, and whale. If it feels unnatural for your brand at first, don’t give up! 

Younger generations understand that brands have to balance mission focus with approachability. On the whole, they appreciate when a brand is willing to speak their language. 

Here are few more quick pointers: 

• Make sure your donate platform is live and your links are working
• If you don’t ask, you won’t receive: let the world know which cryptos you receive
• Celebrate your wins! If you received your first crypto donation, tweet and let the world know. (Don’t forget to use a hashtag like #DonateCrypto!)

We’re ready to accept crypto donations. How do we get started?

Now that you know more about cryptocurrency fundraising, feel free to bookmark this page! 

If you’re interested in talking about how your organization can accept crypto donations, we’re available to answer your questions.  

Nonprofits choose The Giving Block because our crypto donation tools are easy and effective, and our support is unrivaled. We empower nonprofits by:

1. Helping them open a crypto wallet specifically for charitable purposes
2. Creating a donor widget that can be published on charities’ websites. 
3. Auto-converting gifts to US Dollars
4. Generating gift receipts for donors to use for tax return purposes
5. Activating our customer support team day and night to answer questions and troubleshoot any issues
6. Providing visibility through our blog, social media accounts, and digital campaigns geared to attract new donors

Our combination of experience and care has made us the #1 cryptocurrency solution for charities and their donors. Here’s why:

Have questions about how your nonprofit can accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? Book a demo with us. We’ll walk you through our product and show how your nonprofit can begin diversifying its revenue streams today.