Mercy Corps is planning to place greater emphasis on crypto donations this year as part of an effort to expand its donor base and encourage greater financial inclusion for lower-income communities globally, according to the organization’s leaders.
Mercy Corps CEO Tjada D’Oyen McKenna recently tweeted that nonprofits like hers were beginning to understand what crypto fundraising might look like for them and were “ready to introduce new audiences to philanthropy & cautiously explore new ways of raising funds.”
How nonprofits are navigating the rise of cryptocurrency giving (Pro)
As the number of crypto billionaires climbs, so too will the number of nonprofits that accept these digital assets, making it all the more important for early adopters to share how they are navigating this new frontier.
Mercy Corps first began accepting crypto donations in 2018, a spokesperson for the organization told Devex, though she said she was unable to provide details about how much the organization had collected in crypto donations since then.
Up until now, Mercy Corps has not been proactively promoting crypto donations. That will soon change, Britt Rosenberg, Mercy Corps’ senior director for strategic philanthropy and partnerships, told Devex.
Mercy Corps plans to step up its crypto donation operations this year to keep up with the interests of its current donor base, which has become more active in the crypto community, and to connect with a new and potentially younger audience of digital currency holders, Rosenberg said.
“This just provides another channel or another tool in our toolkit to be able to accept financial contributions,” Rosenberg said. “We also think that this could potentially help us connect with other audiences, new audiences that may just be learning about Mercy Corps and Mercy Corps’ work.”
In October, Mercy Corps partnered with The Giving Block, a popular platform for crypto donations. Mercy Corps is now able to accept more than 50 different cryptocurrencies, which is an upgrade from when it first began accepting donations via its own coin-based wallet a few years ago. That wallet could accept Bitcoin and Ethereum only, according to Rosenberg.
The Giving Block recently told Devex that it expects to help its clients raise more than $1 billion in crypto donations this year as crypto philanthropy booms. The group said it raised more than $100 million last year.
Will 2022 be a boom year for cryptocurrency philanthropy?
Advocates say they expect to see more donors giving in cryptocurrency, but its relatively low use among the general public and negative perceptions about its environmental impacts might keep some charities away.
But not everyone sees the potential rise in crypto donations as a good thing. Critics have raised concerns about the environmental impacts of cryptocurrencies — some of which require a lot of energy to produce and verify — and questioned whether nonprofits would undercut their commitments to environmental sustainability by accepting crypto donations.
Rosenberg acknowledged the criticism and noted Mercy Corps’ support of Indigenous and other front-line communities impacted by climate change globally. The crypto industry does still need to evolve and innovate but there are new, emerging currencies that have less of a carbon footprint, which is promising, she said.
She further explained that Mercy Corps saw the use of cryptocurrencies as part of its advocacy for financial inclusion for people who are unbanked or otherwise cut off from traditional financial services.
“I think with every engagement we look at both the risks and the opportunities,” Rosenberg said. “With this we feel like Bitcoin has been around for a decade. We don’t see this financial revolution going anywhere, so we feel like Mercy Corps has a really important role to have a seat at the table with the communities that we partner with and make sure we are holding the industry accountable because the promise of this technology is financial inclusion for all.”