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  • Writer's pictureSam Joel
    • Jan 4
    • 6 min read

Can you fundraise for charity with an NFT?

Updated: Mar 5


Can you fundraise for charity with an NFT?
Kitaro #4728 https://opensea.io/GiveTree

Can you fundraise for charity with an NFT?

 

Yes, you can! Fundraising with NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) is 100% possible. There are many great examples of NFTs being sold and auctioned to raise a significant amount of money for charities and causes important to the fundraiser creator.

The largest cryptocurrency donation to charity in Australia was when a Dutch Artist from the Art Blocks community donated Ethereum 1188.226 (US$3.5m) to Doctors Without Borders Australia. What a lot of people don't know is that Doctors Without Borders Australia was not the artist's first choice. The artist had originally intended to support a different charity and cause but unfortunately, that charity was not set up and ready to accept cryptocurrency donations so the artist had to find an alternative. The artist was able to use The Giving Block's directory to find a suitable alternative. When the artist saw that Doctors Without Borders Australia were set up and ready to go, they were able to process their donation of US $3.5m in cryptocurrency which you can read about here > USD 3.5m donation from Art Blocks artist

 


“When I worked at MSF USA 15 years ago, there was a similar feeling from the gaming tech community,’’ she said. “They’re both really enthusiastic online, irreverent, and innovative.’’
Jennifer Tierney, MSF Australia Executive Director (26 November 2021)
 

OKAY BEARS NFT FUNDRAISER Another example is when the NFT community Okay Bears successfully raised $23,000 for Earthquake victims which you can read about here > Okay Bears NFT fundraiser


 

THE FIRST EVER NFT "QUANTUM" The first NFT was called "Quantum" and was created ("minted") in 2014 on the Namecoin blockchain by a gentleman called Kevin McKoy. You can read more about that here: The first ever NFT "Quantum"

 

THE VALUE OF THE GLOBAL NFT MARKET

Since the original NFT "Quantum" in 2014 on the Namecoin blockchain, the NFT market has grown into a global market. In 2021 the NFT market generated USD 41B in revenue, with some NFT collections generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

NFTs started to gain traction in 2017 when the Ethereum blockchain made digital artwork & ownership extremely appealing to people all around the world after it removed many barriers to entry such as reducing the cost and complexity of creating ("minting") an NFT making the technology more accessible for everyone. You can read more about why & how the Ethereum blockchain made NFTs more accessible here > Ethereum NFTs


 

Rengoku #928 https://opensea.io/GiveTree
Rengoku #928 https://opensea.io/GiveTree

WHAT IS AN NFT? In very simple terms a Non-fungible token (NFT) is when you save data to a blockchain to create an immutable record of data that can never be changed or altered. The process of saving the data to a blockchain to create an NFT is commonly referred to in the web3 community as "minting". You can read a more detailed description here > What is an NFT?

 

NFT'S ARE DEAD! (ARE THEY THOUGH?)

In 2024 a lot of people seem to think NFTs "are dead" due to the fact the market is no longer as strong as it was in 2021, arguably because of the world-famous FTX drama, but also because many people believe that NFTs are limited to digital artwork. This in my opinion is a mistake. NFTs are not limited to digital artwork they have a wide range of potential applications.



The CEO of Blackrock, Larry Fink, strongly believes that everything will become tokenised in the future. In other words, Larry Fink believes that NFTs could include stocks, real estate, cars, and more. The idea of real-world assets becoming tokenised seems to become more and more likely every single year, especially when you consider that the Australian government's two main parties (labour and liberals) both seem to support the digital ID concept. As terrifying as the digital ID is (1984 anyone) this means that the tokenisation of real-world assets becomes more likely. With all of this in mind, I don't think it is accurate to suggest that because NFT sales are not as strong as they were in 2021, this is somehow an indicator of the value of the technology as we adventure forward into the future. You can read more about Larry Fink's opinion on the Tokenisations of everything here > The CEO Blackrock's opinion on the Tokenisation of real-world assets

 

HOW TO CREATE AN NFT FUNDRAISER (without GiveTree): After you have your NFT you can keep it, trade it, sell it, or auction it. It's completely up to you what you do with the income generated, so if you would like to donate it, you can. Before you can run your NFT fundraiser, the first thing you will need is to get yourself an NFT. You can buy one from someone else who has already created one, or you can "mint" or create one yourself. Creating one from scratch is a lot harder than buying one because you are going to need to organise your artwork and a smart contract, so to get started if it's your first time it might be easier just to buy an existing NFT from a platform such as OpenSea: Before you can connect to OpenSea and buy your first NFT you will need to set up a cryptocurrency wallet. But first; find the NFT you want to buy on OpenSea and check what type of cryptocurrency it is, for example, it might be Solana or it might be Eth (Ethereum). This will determine which cryptocurrency wallet you should set up. For example, if the NFT you want to purchase is being sold with SOL on the Solana blockchain then you should set up a Phantom wallet. However, if the NFT you want to buy is being sold in ETH on the Ethereum Blockchain then you should set up a MetaMask wallet. This is very important because certain types of cryptocurrency wallets hold specific types of cryptocurrency in them. Once you have determined what type of wallet you need to set up, make sure to purchase the correct cryptocurrency for the NFT you would like to buy. Let's assume the NFT you want to purchase is being sold on OpenSea in ETH on the Ethereum blockchain for 1 ETH including the gas fees and you have now set up your MetaMask wallet. Connect your MetaMask wallet to OpenSea and set up your account. Fortunately, in 2023 you can now purchase ETH on OpenSea with your credit card (it used to be more complex). Purchase 1ETH to "fund" your wallet. Note: You are now ready to buy your NFT. Navigate to the NFT you want to purchase and complete the transaction. You should now see the NFT has appeared in your wallet and in your OpenSea accounts user interface for you to view. OpenSea does not have a fundraising feature built in, but what you can do as an interim solution is contact the charity you would like to raise funds for, get that permission to conduct a fundraiser and explain you will send them the funds as fiat currency after the fundraiser is completed so they don't need to worry about cryptocurrency or NFTs you will just send them the money after the fundraiser is completed (trust me in most charity cases you are going to want to remove cryptocurrency and NFTs from the conversation to make things easier for yourself. Just say you want to raise some funds for them and you will send them the cash once done). Once you have approval, you are now ready to sell or auction your NFT on OpenSea, navigate to your NFT and complete the sale or auction set-up process. Once the NFT is sold, you will need to convert the cryptocurrency to fiat currency and send it to your charity. Done :)

 

CREATING AN NFT FUNDRAISER ON GIVETREE In a nutshell, the charity will already be onboarded, verified, and set up ready to receive your cryptocurrency donations directly into their wallet with their own exchange and distribution system already in place. So all you need to do is sell or auction your NFT, and then you don't need to worry about anything that comes after that saving you time, money, and hassle. Way easier, way faster. (Also way safer given the KYT and KYC checks we have built-in utilising services such as Chainalysis based on charity requirements).

 


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