After Thanksgiving Thursday, Black Friday and Cyber Monday comes Giving Tuesday, a day that encourages contributing to charity. 2021 saw a rise in crypto-philanthropy thanks to The Giving Block’s initiative of Crypto Giving Tuesday, which initially began in 2019. The organization that equips nonprofits to accept cryptocurrency donations raised $2.4 million dollars in crypto this year, a 583% increase from Crypto Giving Tuesday 2020.
From charities, universities, faith-based to other mission-driven organizations, 1,071 total nonprofits participated. And the average donation size was $12,600. The majority of donations were done in Ether (ETH), with Bitcoin (BTC) and USD Coin (USDC) in second and third place, respectively. It can be noted that ETH overtook BTC for the top spot in total donation volume, with more than $1.2 million worth of ETH donated.
For its overall campaign, dubbed #BagSeason, The Giving Block had set a goal to raise more than $100 million in crypto donations by Dec. 31. Following #CryptoGivingTuesday, the organization has fundraised over $50 million to date, according to their website. They plan to find an additional 5,000 crypto users to each donate at least $10,000 in order to reach their target.
Related: Charity platform expects significantly larger crypto than fiat donations for Giving Tuesday
The Giving Block’s sponsors include companies like Zengo, GSR, Gemini, Abra, Messari and Cheddar. Additional donors, whether they are individuals or organizations, have the option to commit to donating annually 1% or more of their crypto holdings to charity. Among the top five members in this Crypto Giving Pledge donor list are professional skateboard Tony Hawk, actor Rainn Wilson and crypto derivatives exchange FTX.
The Giving Block will launch NFTuesday, a one-day celebration of NFT philanthropy, on Dec. 7. In light of NFT donor demographic growth, The Giving Block recently announced a collaboration with Sotheby’s x Sostento Twitter 140 Collection to process the proceeds of the NFT auction.
