By Pat Duffy, co-founder of The Giving Block

1) Should your nonprofit fundraise cryptocurrency?

Hundreds of nonprofits now accept cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin is perhaps the fastest and most tax-efficient way for donors to support nonprofits, but not all nonprofits should accept cryptocurrency.

Reasons to accept crypto donations:

  1. Simplicity: Crypto is significantly easier than accepting stock donations. 
  2. Market Size: Crypto has 70,000,000 users and that number is rising.
  3. Young Donors: 35% of Millennials bought crypto in 2019.

Reasons not to accept crypto donations:

  1. Your Nonprofit Does Not Use Tweet: Twitter is the most popular platform for crypto donors.
  2. Lack of Financial Stability: If you don’t have stable revenue, don’t use crypto as your hail mary.
  3. Limited Marketing Resources: If you don’t have someone who runs your online marketing.

2) How can our nonprofit accept cryptocurrency donations?

Accepting cryptocurrency donations is easier than accepting stocks, yet the main reason nonprofits cite for not accepting crypto is their fear that it is overly complicated to set up. Thankfully, it’s not difficult.

Features you want:

  1. An Institutional Account: Open an account with your 501c3, not individually. 
  2. A Fundraising Platform: Don’t just put a button on your site and wait. Join a platform.
  3. Autosell/Auto-receipt: Open an account that can sell the crypto for you and issue donor receipts.

Features you don’t want:

  1. Don’t Only Accept Bitcoin: Moving between cryptocurrencies is a taxable event. Give them options.
  2. No Conversion to USD: Many accounts won’t let you cash out. Select carefully.
  3. No Donor Forms: If you put a wallet address directly on your site, you won’t get donor data.

Where do charities find cryptocurrency donors?

It is of paramount importance that nonprofits think of cryptocurrency not only as a payment method, but as a donor demographic. Nonprofits who get their messages in front of crypto users, get crypto donations. Nonprofits who don’t effectively promote their cryptocurrency campaign can expect minimal results. 

Ideas for attracting crypto donations:

  1. Website Content: Having good content on your donation page and blog gets you found.
  2. Consistent Tweeting: Crypto users are on Twitter.
  3. Active on Reddit: Reddit is a go-to for information on cryptocurrency.

Campaigns that do not attract crypto donations:

  1. Print, radio, and TV: Crypto donors do not respond to traditional marketing campaigns.
  2. Facebook: Crypto users are not on Facebook. 20% are under 18.
  3. Events: Focus your efforts online, rather than pitching cryptocurrency at fundraising events.

The Giving Block helps nonprofits fundraise with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, ZCash and more. According to the IRS, approximately 8% of all adults in the United States have some form of taxable cryptocurrency holding, meaning at least 12,000,000 people are potential cryptocurrency donors.