How to donate cryptocurrency to charity?

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Have you ever donated to charity? 

If you have or are ready to start now, we don’t have to explain to you the perks of doing so — you know your motivation. This article will simply tell you why donating in cryptocurrency is a strong alternative to donations in fiat currencies: it is anonymous, independent of banks and governments, and allows for maximizing your impact due to the tax deduction and assets’ growth. Below, we explain to you how this works and list the exact charities you can donate to with Bitcoin at any moment. Scroll down to the “Why donate in cryptocurrency?” section to find this info.

If you don’t have experience with charity and have doubts about it, consider the following: donating is not about sacrifice. On the contrary, it brings benefits not only to the recipient but to you as well. Below, we will list three reasons why people donate — and you may find that you have the same motivation. Further, we will explain how much you could donate (spoiler: as much as you feel comfortable), and why regular donations will bring you more satisfaction from donating.

Why should I donate?

Here, we won’t focus on the obvious outer sides of it like making people’s lives better, improving the environment, etc. When we make the decision to donate, we focus on our own feelings and intrinsic motivation. These have been investigated scientifically: charity experts from the University of Bristol conducted a study where they showed three main reasons why people donate. Here they are:

1. Pure altruistic: “I donate because I value the social good done by the charity”. People with this motivation don’t want anything in return for their activity, they just feel good and committed by donating to those in need.
2. “Impurely” altruistic: “I donate because I extract value from knowing I contribute to the social good for the charity”. This can be a non-material value like feeling that you’re cool.
3. Not-at-all altruistic: “I donate because I want to show off or extract some concrete profits from the fact that people know I donate”. This one may be considered egoistic by the general audience, but it’s normal to feel this and this motivation of course has the right to exist along with the others. In the end, should it matter what your motivation was if you saved someone’s life?

Moreover, donating is contagious. If you start donating, you are very likely to persuade someone else to donate as well. And this is even if your motivation was far from being totally altruistic. 

Where should I donate?

Find a niche that finds your personal response. People who’ve suffered from a specific problem often decide to donate to the charitable organizations that help combat this problem. If you find a field you feel empathy for, you will gain inspiration and will enjoy the process. 

How much should I donate?

We won’t give you the concrete numbers: listen to yourself and decide which sum you’re comfortable with. Some people recommend giving 1% of your income to charity each month, while others recommend donating from 3% to 10%. Evaluate your income and answer the question: where is the threshold between the sum that allows me to enjoy donating and the one that becomes a burden? Don’t surpass this threshold and feel pleased you’re doing the good. 

Why does donating regularly bring more satisfaction to both sides?

1. You maximize your impact. When charities receive regular donations, they can plan their activity. This allows them to set ambitious goals and achieve them without the stress of having a lack of funds. Isn’t this the purpose?
2. Less friction with setting the payments. Most of the charities have a “donate regularly” button: you click it, enter your data once, and the further payments are processed automatically every month.
3. The most enjoyable experience. By donating every month, you can rest assured you do your best to help others on a regular basis — this brings the most satisfaction from the process.

Why donate in cryptocurrency?

1. It helps maximize your impact due to tax benefits. If you donate with crypto to a US-based public charity, it will receive the whole sum without having to pay any tax to the IRS — simply no taxable event takes place. Thus, you can increase your impact by up to 20%. The same benefits are present in a number of other countries.

Also, if you already hold cryptocurrency and decide not to sell it and to donate it directly, the IRS doesn’t make you liable for a capital gains tax —  so you’re not a taxpayer in this case. And, this is a tax-deductible event: your tax deduction will be equal to the fair market value of the donated Bitcoin.

2. It helps charities benefit from the assets’ growth. This is how donor-advised funds work — you make an irrevokable transaction to a fund, then wait until these digital assets grow in price, and then donate them to a chosen charity once you think they have reached the maximum. With the continuing bull run, this idea looks like a good strategy.
3. It’s anonymous. Although Bitcoin doesn’t fully conceal your identity, it’s much more anonymous than regular fiat payments. If for any reason you’d like to donate without revealing who you are, crypto’s best for this.
4. It eliminates the friction of local currencies. Want to donate to an international organization but don’t hold any funds in USD? Cryptocurrency is the solution. Although services like PayPal simplify international payments, Bitcoin transactions will 100% reach their destination within minutes and, less often, hours, and require fewer fees.

5 ways to donate in crypto

Now that we’ve covered the perks of donating and why doing so in cryptocurrency is promising, let’s take a look at the major charities that accept cryptocurrency for donations. 

The Giving Block

In 2018, the team behind The Giving Block realized that the funds between charities are distributed inequitably: while a few non-profit organizations were getting hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin, others remained ignorant of the possibilities that crypto donations provide.

The Giving Block gives non-profits the tools to start accepting crypto without a cumbersome installation process. They’ve enabled over 100 organizations to get charitable donations in crypto. In 2020, they helped raise over $1 million to support pandemic relief efforts.

Remember how to choose your charity? Listen to your heart and find the niche you’re in most contact with. The Giving Block allows you to sort non-profit organizations with a filter: there are Animals, Human Rights, Racial Justice, Education, and much more. 

Save the Children

This is the first global non-governmental organization to accept Bitcoin. Save the Children protects kids around the world from harm, gives them a healthy start to life and a chance to receive a good education. In the period of the pandemic, they also protect separated families and supply personal protective equipment.

Save the Children says they started accepting cryptocurrency in far 2013 because cryptocurrency donations are one of the most tax-efficient ways to support your favorite cause. And here’s how it works: $50 can provide enough food to keep 3 children from going hungry for a month, and only $150 can wrap warm blankets around 30 children affected by conflict. Save the Children works in the hardest-to-reach places, where it’s toughest to be a child. And it’s easy as never before to support them with a little part of your cryptocurrency. 

American and Italian Red Cross

The US affiliate of the International Red Cross was founded in 1881. Here, you can support all of the urgent humanitarian needs of the American Red Cross, help people affected by disasters, provide for local Red Cross programs in your community, and help ensure that blood supplies are available and safe to those who need them. You can donate in BTC, BCH, ETH, and XRP. BitPay is the operator of donations. 

Italian Red Cross has started its COVID-19 campaign in March and keeps it live still. Although the main campaign has reached its goal of 6 Bitcoins, here’s a project that needs your support: a Bitcoin ambulance! Italian Red Cross needs an ambulance machine, and as a thank you sign to the community, they will paint a Bitcoin logo on it. 

Italian Red Cross accepts Bitcoin, Ether, and a dozen of other altcoins. 

Fidelity Charitable

This is this type of non-profit that allows donors to maximize their generosity through the donor-advised fund. It’s called the Giving Account: you send there some funds, and after they grow in price, you donate them. It’s like you invest money, but the profits go to a charity. And this is completely tax-free for everyone since made in cryptocurrency! 

About 250,000 donors have chosen Fidelity and donate to over 300,000 charities in every U.S. state and internationally. Two-thirds of Fidelity Charitable donors say they give more as a result of having a donor-advised fund.

Fidelity Charitable accepts Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin.

Remember: donating crypto is about joy, not sacrifice.

Although CoinRabbit is not a donation-focused service, we were happy to make this guide. Blockchain-based Bitcoin donations are the way to increase the impact of the donors and to make fundraising more efficient. Charitable giving makes both donors and recipients happy — that’s why we promote it!