Fidelity Charitable, the charity arm of Fidelity, released its annual report, which said that they received over $100 Million USD in cryptocurrency donations since it began accepting cryptocurrency in 2015.
Interestingly, cryptocurrency donations were actually down in 2018 with only $30 million given so far and $69 million being given up through 2017. However, the number divergence isn’t that surprising to Amy Pirozzolo, the Head of Marketing at Fidelity Charitable, since she said “that people are less likely to offload their crypto assets for charity whenever the market faces a downturn”. This is because individuals can reduce their capital gains taxes if they donate as cryptocurrency is appreciating. Pirozzolo said that this does not bother them since it can also benefit them as a charitable organizational since “the firm encourages investors to give their assets with the highest depreciations first, as both the donor and charity could benefit from the tax advantages provided by these as well”.
Cryptocurrency’s applications to charity
Cryptocurrency applications and improvements to charity such as administrative cost savings where some money would be lost to processing card and checks or administrative personnel. Plus, since cryptocurrency is all traceable on the public blockchain, it mitigates the chances of charity fraud, which remains a multi-million dollar risk in the sector.
Additionally, some charitable recipients have been blocked from receiving traditional payments, necessitating the use of a censorship resistant digital currency. WikiLeaks famously lost support from payment processors, relying on cryptocurrencies to receive donations and conduct payments. The WikiLeaks shop similarly lost payment processor support, including from cryptocurrency processor BitPay, and has since switched to accept a variety of cryptocurrencies, including Dash, directly through Coinpayments.
Dash’s unique applications to nonprofit challenges
Dash transactions are ideal for charity transactions since they cost less than a penny to send and lock in within seconds. As a testament to what is possible on a decentralized blockchain for charity fundraising, Dash Text has launched what they believe to be the first decentralized charity system where all money donated through the system gets automatically split and distributed via the Dash Text platform to those enrolled in the program. Their pilot started with 50 students in need at the San Antonio school in Caracas and later expanded to 100 students after initial signs of success.
Notably, Fidelity also owns a 15% stake in Neptune Dash, a publicly-traded company primarily running Dash masternodes as a business model.
