Unlocking Potential: The Benefits of NFTs for Non-Profits

NFTs have become a popular way for artists, celebrities, and others to raise funds for various causes, and many NFT sales have included charitable donations as part of the sale. On Giving Block in 2021, the total volume of crypto donations was $69,644,535, an increase of 1,558% from 2020 with NFT Sales contributing $12.3 million.

What is an NFT?

NFT stands for “non-fungible token” which allows you to buy and sell ownership of unique digital items and keep track of who owns them using the blockchain. It can technically contain anything digital, including drawings, animated GIFs, songs, or items in video games. An NFT can either be one of a kind, like a real-life painting, or one copy of many, like trading cards, but the blockchain keeps track of who has ownership of the file.

NFT benefits for Non-Profit Organisations:

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) can bring several benefits to non-profit organisations, including:

1. Fundraising: NFTs can help non-profits raise funds through unique and collectable assets that can be auctioned or sold.
2. Transparency: NFTs can provide a transparent and secure way to track the ownership and distribution of assets, which can enhance the accountability and credibility of non-profits.
3. Diversification of revenue streams: NFTs can provide non-profits with an additional revenue stream, helping to diversify their sources of funding.
4. Digital Preservation: NFTs can provide a way to digitally preserve important cultural and historical assets, making them accessible to a broader audience.
5. Borderless: NFTs are digital contracts and can be purchased from around the world. They do not have additional expenses, such as shipping or customs fee, that can be associated with other types of donations.
6. The Gift that keeps on giving: Non-Profit organisations can assign Royalty (%) to the NFT. Every time that NFT is traded on the secondary market, it will produce a passive income for the organisation.
7. Awareness, Engagement, and Loyalty: NFTs can help increase engagement with supporters and the public by providing a new and exciting way to interact with the organisation and its mission. NFTs are very popular with Millennials and Gen Z, who spend hours online and value digital experience. Non-Profit organisations rely on Patrons, members and supporters for the survival of the organisation and their donations. NFTs can offer a utility for exclusive access to events and fundraising galas, they can be passed on from parents to their children, and perhaps even host Metaverse events for the NFT Holders.

User Cases of Non-Profits that have sold NFTs:

NFTs are becoming a popular and creative way for Non-Profits to Fundraise for their project. These are just a few examples:

1. UNICEF CryptoFund: UNICEF launched the UNICEF CryptoFund in 2020 to raise funds through cryptocurrency donations, including NFTs.
2. The Ocean Cleanup: The environmental organisation The Ocean Cleanup auctioned off an NFT of one of their cleanup systems to raise funds for their work.
3. Beeple: Beeple, an artist, sold “Ocean Front” NFT as part of “Everydays” Series for $6 Million and donated the proceeds to the Open Earth Foundation to combat climate change.
4. Doctors Without Borders: An artist from the Art Blocks generative arts community made one of the largest NFT donations ever recorded, a gift of ETH worth approximately $3.5M to Médecins Sans Frontières (aka “Doctors Without Borders”) Australia. There also have been a number of other projects that have donated NFT profits to this organisation.
5. Make-a-Wish Foundation: Make-a-Wish Foundation partnered with Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, where Macy’s launched a limited edition of 9,510 NFT capturing the iconic balloons of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Macy’s donated the proceeds of 10 auctioned tokens. All proceeds were donated to the Foundation, and the remaining 9,500 NFTs were given away for free. All future secondary sales of this limited collection of NFTs would donate 10% of the transaction to the Foundations. This was a win-win for the Foundation and the brand, as it generated great press and passive brand marketing through NFT trades.

• Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation: Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) is a foundation that funds cancer research, awareness, and support for families of sick children. ALSF chose to fundraise for the foundation themselves, without corporate partners or famous NFT Artists. The foundation launched three Gold-Ribbon NFTs at 0.1 and 0.3 ETH ($243.06 and $486.11) during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Each NFT had an assigned number of hours that it would support in the lab for cancer research, ranging from 1 to 10 hours.

How can NFTs support charities?

Small and large non-profits can significantly benefit from NFTs donations and proceeds to support their operating budget by incorporations some of the examples below:

1. Brand Partnership: Big brands have vast resources and have already launched their own products as NFTs. An organisation can partner with a corporate partner to host an auction for the charity and Artists can donate their work as an NFT.
2. Accept donations of NFT or Cryptocurrency: There is a big market for NFT and Crypto donors. Organisations can set up a Crypto/NFT donations wallet, to welcome new philanthropists on board. Making it easy to drop NFTs or Crypto donations. It was recently stated, in Yahoo, NFT donations “would be similar to how people donate valuable items for charity auctions or other events to raise money.”
3. Celebrity NFT Auction: Partnering with a well-known celebrity for a cause is always a good idea. Celebrities draw crowds in, auctioning of never seen photos, music, a poem they wrote or behind-the-scenes video as NFT is another creative way to engage your donors with NFTs and attract new NFT collectors to your organisation.
4. Non-Profit NFT Project: Organising your own NFT project for a specific cause or multiple causes. This can be a limited or a 10K collection, offering a number of utilities to the holders of NFT.

How to donate NFTs:

1. An Artist can “mint” NFTs on PayRue NFT Marketplace and Gift them to the Non-Profit Organisation by transferring the NFT to the organisation’s digital wallet.
2. An Artist can give the digital file to a Non-Profit Organisation, which will allow them to “mint” the digital donation into an NFT.

When NFT is “minted, it means the NFT authentication is registered on the blockchain. After this, it can not be altered or forged by anyone.

How to get started:

Charities and Artists that are interested in exploring NFT donations, and launching an NFT Non-Profit campaign can contact PayRue team for further inquiries. Our team works with non-profits, and projects that are incorporating NFTs into their business model. We offer a number of different solutions to help you launch your project.

info@payrue.com

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