Crypto Isn't Just About Earning. How Givepact Seized Web3 to Support Nonprofits

While summer is the best time to live life to the fullest, the closer it gets to winter, the more we think about giving. Because of this, Givepact's platform wants to attract 1,000 nonprofits by November, making it the place to go for giving on Web3. But Givepact has had some other successes so far. At Consensus 2022, they won the Web 3 Pitch Fest for startups.

"What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear crypto?" was a question posted on Quora a while back. A number of users chose "money," "wealth," or "profit" as their response, while others selected "Bitcoin."

Cryptocurrency is accepted as a means of payment, added to balance sheets, and combined with traditional investment choices. Also, many people perceive trading cryptocurrencies as one way to make money these days.

As a result, it's understandable why so many people think of cryptocurrency as a way to acquire rather than a way to give.

For that reason, it's easy for the phrase "crypto" to arouse strong feelings of opposition among the participants of any given discussion.

One company, though, is attempting to change things.

Web3 and Philanthropy

Givepact was founded by Alicia Cepeda Maule and Steven Aguiar, two friends from Brown University who made a career out of digital marketing from the best in the business - including President Obama's 2012 campaign, the Fader, MSNBC, Player's Tribune, the Innocence Project, and dozens of other nonprofits. Givepact aims to be a free crypto fundraising platform for nonprofits that propels a DAO community for social impact. In other words, by using blockchain Givepact wants to prove that there is a better way to redistribute human generosity.

"What we are doing is building a platform that allows donors to give assets to nonprofits and convert crypto into cash. Part of the revenue will go to the DAO, where the community members can decide how the money should be spent,” said Steven Aguiar.

You scratch your brain when you first hear something like this. It all makes sense, though, once you consider the possibilities offered by Web3. It is an interactive world where people, data, and machines can share information in ways that have never been possible before.

Web3 is giving nonprofits the chance to change the way they do business by using blockchain, virtual reality, and other technologies. That's the kind of power Givepact wants to use.

"On the site, nonprofits can claim a profile. All they need to do is to give us their incorporation documents and banking information. Donners can come, connect their wallets and donate Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other ERC-20 tokens,” said Aguiar.

Crypto Is Getting More Charitable

Even though the idea behind Givepact is new, it is part of a trend in crypto that has started gaining traction. The idea is that people who own cryptocurrency are getting highly charitable.
A study by Fidelity Charitable found that 45 percent of cryptocurrency owners gave $1,000 or more to charity in 2020, while only 33 percent of all investors did the same.

Givepact, on the other hand, has a much broader goal in mind. Alicia and Steven want to create the first place where non-profits can go to learn about Web3 technology. In order to take advantage of this, they've decided to begin by focusing on fundraising.

“Our goal is to get 1,000 nonprofits on the platform by November, which is the biggest time of giving.” said Alicia.

She added that she believes that Givepact can be of great value to the social causes that need Web3 advocacy the most.

“At the end of the day, we want to figure out what our tooling the non-profits will need in the future. And we want to be the incubator and the accelerator for all of that,” said Steven.

» Read our article to learn more about the use of blockchain outside Bitcoin and unexpected ways of blockchain application

Winning During The Web 3 Pitch Fest

The most difficult part of starting a business, like with many others, is finding people who believe in the company's mission and are prepared to provide a hand as it expands.

“Fundraising is a challenge. You always get more nos than yeses. All you need is a couple of yeses to see the vision. We aim to gather as many people around this project as possible. If we find a handful of people who see the vision and get it, that's all we want right now,” said Alicia.

“We learn something from every no. Every no is just another iteration of the project that only makes us stronger,” said Steven.

At Consensus 2022's Web 3 Pitch Fest, a resounding "yes" was heard, with Givepact being voted the competition's top startup by Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) and CoinDesk. It’s worth mentioning that Givepact won the No. 1 prize out of 120 other WEB3 projects taking part in the competition. Check out Givepact’s winning pitch below:

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