Has your team thought about getting set up for accepting cryptocurrency gifts? Have you wondered if it is really worth the bother?
We weren’t sure, either. All this cryptocurrency talk was too speculative for us.
That is, until we chatted with Ariel Rogers, the Executive Director of Friends of Bonobos, and a former member of our Major Gift Intensive cohort. (In case you have not heard of bonobos, they are a type of ape, and are our closest genetic relatives.)
What we found out.
Ariel and her team raise money and awareness to help save endangered bonobos in Africa. After one of her donors suggested they take cryptocurrency gifts and offered to help and donate, she decided to do some research.
Ariel found The Giving Block (we wrote about them three weeks ago), an organization that helps nonprofits accept cryptocurrency donations. After asking her donor for advice, and including them in the decision, Ariel’s team made the leap. They registered with The Giving Block, got set up to accept cryptocurrency gifts and immediately that same donor donated $10,000.
$90,000 in less than two weeks.
Not only did her donor promptly come through with a $10k gift, but an NFT community also gave them $77k shortly after they registered with The Giving Block. Plus, even more money flowed in.
A major gift from an NFT Community.
Apparently, there is a crypto group that focuses on apes. These enthusiasts hang out together on social media, mostly twitter and instagram, sharing their interest in all types of apes. As part of their activities, they decided to make some gifts to charities – and Friends of Bonobos made their list.
Using social media to connect to donors.
Ariel and her team constantly focus on building awareness on social networks. For this reason, they make twitter, instagram and facebook a priority, and have built a social reach from 10k to over 120k followers in only two years.
So this is how this major donor crypto group found out about Friends of Bonobos.
Ariel’s team is out there every day on social – sharing stories of their mission, their impact and the cute, but endangered Bonobos. They are chatting with other enthusiasts and building relationships with potential donors.
Why social reach is so important.
Get this from a fundraising standpoint: At Friends of Bonobos, their team sees social initiatives as a way to identify new friends for their cause. In other words, social serves as the first step in the fundraising funnel.
For this reason, the building of awareness is a serious business. Social media covers the functions of what traditional marketing used to do, and it works.
From social followers to becoming donors.
It’s clear that you can transition your social followers into donors. In the case of Friends of Bonobos – all social followers are invited to share their email and sign up for the newsletter.
Once followers start receiving the newsletter, they may become more and more interested and invested in the cause. And as you might expect, interest and investment often lead to donations.
And chances are, some of these highly active followers might be crypto investors.
Connecting with crypto donors via social media.
When we interviewed Pat Duffy, co-founder of The Giving Block, last June, he described a general profile of people who are most vigorously investing (and donating) in cryptocurrency:
These investors are usually under 40 years old, 84% are male, they are highly financially literate and they are very active on social networks.
So, it makes perfect sense that you need a strong social media presence if you want to position yourself in front of wealthy young crypto donors. They are clearly out there, and the cryptocurrency market is only growing.
Bottom Line: Research cryptocurrency gifts – one nonprofit says it is definitely worth it.
As Ariel said – she did her research, she had a little help, and she took the leap for her organization. And it paid off – $90k and counting.
Want to start accepting crypto donations? Gail Perry Group highly recommends The Giving Block. Find out more here.
We are always looking for ways to help nonprofits succeed in their fundraising efforts. Make sure you do your due diligence before saying “no” to accepting crypto donations. It might just be worth it.
As always, it is a pleasure to share our weekly news and insights with you as we cover new fundraising trends.
If your organization is planning a capital campaign or launching a major gifts program – we can help. Send an email to coaching@gailperry.com if you’d like to schedule a free strategy call with us.
