What Are the Potential Benefits and Impacts of Bitcoin Donations on Charity?

by Christina Comben

Bitcoin donations are an excellent way for charities to encourage more donors to participate. For donors, sending funds in Bitcoin is easy, as long as the charity has an online wallet set up. And for charities, they can receive funds from around the world, from a modern type of donor, who prefers this payment method.

“Bitcoin is an exciting, new digital currency that allows for global payments to happen 24/7, 365 days a year with nominal fees,” says Christopher Moussa, Chief Investment Officer at Crypto Capital Investments. “Charities are beginning to realize the many potential benefits in accepting Bitcoin donations. Being at the forefront of accepting Bitcoin donations opens your organization up to a new community of donors that prefer to deal exclusively with Bitcoin.”

Sounds awesome, right? And it is. But, like anything else in life, you should read the fine print first. If you’re a charity, and you want to accept Bitcoin donations, there are a few things you should know. You don’t let issues such as tax compliance, volatility, and security of your bitcoin donations put you off. But do your research first.

Once you’re aware of the possible risks and know how to process bitcoin donations correctly, accepting this type of funding can have major benefits for your charity. Let’s take a look at a few of them here.

A Wider Donor Pool

Charities are up against some pretty stiff competition when it comes to attracting donors. Not only do they have to convince donors to hand out money from their own pockets, but they have to compete with thousands of other causes as well.

In the United States alone there are 1.5 million registered nonprofits. Convincing donors to choose yours over the rest is no easy feat.

Accepting Bitcoin donations not only opens up the potential donor pool, but it gives you a leg up on the competition who don’t accept cryptocurrency. It’s easier for international donors to send money as well. And for donors who prefer complete anonymity, sending Bitcoin is an added incentive.

Just think about the Pineapple Fund that donated $55 million worth of Bitcoin to charities anonymously. That wouldn’t have been possible without Bitcoin.

Nonprofit consultant, Paul Lamb points out, “One clear benefit is that, as more and more individuals become aware of and comfortable using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the greater the ability of charities to capture new funding streams.”

Appealing to the Millennial Demographic

Startup charities have it particularly hard trying to catch donors’ attention. They usually don’t have the funds to market themselves and aren’t well known to the public. When most people donate, it’s to the biggest charities and the go-to names they’re used to seeing in the media.

Appealing to millennials should be part of any charity’s priorities. Millennials are more passionate about causes and more altruistic than generations before them (the average millennial donates almost $600 a year to charities). Millennials also happen to be the most active generation using Bitcoin. They’re willing to donate to your cause if you make it as easy for them as possible.

There are several crowdfunding platforms that make it easier for small charities to make themselves known, including bitgive and bithope. Once you get your charity in front of the right audience and make it simple for them to donate by accepting Bitcoin, you widen your appeal.

“Millennials are the demographic most actively using Bitcoin,” says Lamb, “and as charities attempt to recruit younger donors, cryptocurrency is an unprecedented and growing fundraising opportunity area. Also, the ability to accept Bitcoin carries with it a kind of ahead-of-the-times cache, which can capture the attention of the modern and more innovation-oriented donor.”

This article was originally published on Coin Central.