By Richard H. Levey
Cryptocurrency donations occupy a strange place in donation strategies, according to Pat Duffy, co-founder of the crypto donation platform The Giving Block. When the prices are down, whether because of market forces or because of external negative news, nonprofits are not likely to put energy into soliciting it, whether by including it as part of their asks or creating web-based mechanisms for accepting it.
Unfortunately, when cryptocurrency values rise and investors are looking to divest themselves of it for tax purposes, the lack of attention means fewer nonprofits than one might hope made potential donors aware of their willingness to accept these donations, Duffy said. Last year was a bear market for crypto. This year, cryptocurrency prices have boomed: Bitcoin is up 130% for the year to date and Ethereum is up 72%.
The bad press and depressed prices crypto experienced toward the end of 2022 did the assets no favors, in terms of their desirability by nonprofits. “A lot of nonprofits assumed crypto was dead and stopped asking for it,” Duffy told The NonProfit Times. “This year, when bitcoin got up above $30,000, nonprofits began to say ‘Oh, this could be a thing again?’”
The nonprofit community’s willingness to accept cryptocurrency donations is a lagging indicator, Duffy continued. Last year, despite the flagging fortunes of the security, nonprofits were still buzzed from 2021’s results, when cryptocurrency donations reached an all-time high. The number of nonprofits willing to accept cryptocurrency donations through Giving Block’s platform doubled from the previous year. This year, despite the recovery in cryptocurrency prices, the number of nonprofits accepting it increased by 10%.
The numbers, whether for transactions or dollar amounts, aren’t in yet for cryptocurrency #GivingTuesday donations. In fact, Duffy sees #GivingTuesday less as an actual transfer of assets and more as part of an awareness campaign on the part of nonprofits: it is an opportunity for exempt organizations to make potential donors aware of their willingness to accept crypto.
“Today is when most of the commitments and donor awareness is earned,” Duffy. “It is the main day when charities should be tweeting – crypto donors hang out on Twitter. It is kind of a kickoff for the year end.” In fact, for crypto donors #GivingTuesday is a day of commitment, with the actual donations often set to happen on December 31.
Duffy is bullish on the role cryptocurrency will play in late 2023 funding. Those nonprofits that have mentioned it as part of their social media efforts leading up to #GivingTuesday 2023 have seen extremely high levels of engagement with cryptocurrency-related content.
“It’s nothing like 2021, but I’m seeing a few hundred nonprofits engaging CryptoGivingTuesday content on various platforms, and donors are commenting,” Duffy said. “If we keep trending this way, the month of December could be fantastic. The small number nonprofits that, over the course of 2023, told their donors this was an option are going to receive the vast amount of these donations. So long as the market continues to trend [upward], 2024 will look a lot closer to 2021 in terms of crypto donations.”
