How does Crypto for Charity work?
How does this work?
Your donation goes to our affiliated 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity, FreeWill Impact Fund (EIN: 86-1218871) — that's where your tax receipt will come from. Then, your donation is automatically converted/sold to USD and 100% of the net proceeds of your gift are distributed to the nonprofit or cause you chose (subject to applicable grantmaking policies).
How are donations processed?
Crypto assets donated through the Crypto for Charity platform are initially received by our affiliated 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit, FreeWill Impact Fund, which maintains cryptocurrency exchange accounts with Coinbase and Gemini. See more info about our infrastructure here: https://support.cryptoforcharity.io/article/149-security.
FreeWill Impact Fund provides donors with a tax receipt for their donation, sells the donated cryptocurrency to USD, and passes the net cash proceeds on to the ultimate nonprofit beneficiary organization (subject to our grantmaking policies and procedures)
Why doesn't the donated crypto go directly to the nonprofit?
We built our solution so that nonprofits don't have to worry about transacting with crypto since many nonprofits don't want the additional overhead of maintaining crypto wallets and exchange accounts.
In the future when most nonprofits will most likely become more comfortable with crypto transactions and prefer to hold the donated crypto, we will adjust our solution accordingly.
How can there be 0 fees?
Crypto for Charity is basically a "free tier" of a more comprehensive suite of fundraising products, which many nonprofits pay for. See FreeWill's Smart Giving Suite for more info.
What is the contribution to FreeWill Impact Fund used for?
You may add an optional tip to your donation. This supports our efforts to help nonprofit organizations benefit from the generosity of crypto donors and the increase in digital philanthropy, as well as improving the functionality and overall experience of Crypto for Charity.
FreeWill Impact Fund is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity, through which all crypto donations are received, with the net proceeds granted to high-impact nonprofit organizations, subject to applicable grantmaking policies. When you support FreeWill Impact Fund, you’re helping us build new relationships with nonprofits looking for an introduction to the world of crypto philanthropy. You'll also support the R&D efforts of Crypto for Charity in the fast-changing world of web3.
Blockchain transaction fees
While we don't take any fees out of the donations, donors are responsible for covering blockchain network transaction fees.
What will be the dollar value of the donation?
According to the IRS, it is up to the donor to determine the value of their gift. Some donors use the average market value of the asset on the day it was sent as the value. For more information on how to assess the value of your donation, please see the IRS guidelines for determining the value of donated property.
Supported charities
Donors can recommend that a grant be made to more than 55,000 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations based in the United States using our tool. All crypto donations made through the platform initially go to FreeWill Impact Fund, which will make a grant to the charity donors designate.
If your nonprofit is not on the list, let us know and we should be able to add it!
Also let us know if for some reason you want your nonprofit removed from our database.
When will the nonprofit receive the proceeds?
In most cases, we notify nonprofits of the incoming gifts and initiate an ACH transfer of the proceeds within 1-2 business days for any gifts once a $100 gift threshold is reached. If the gifts are less than $100, then the notifications and transfers go out monthly.
What if we're unable to send a gift to a given nonprofit organization?
FreeWill Impact Fund typically directs gift proceeds to nonprofit organizations within two weeks of the gift's initial receipt. Sometimes, however, this may not be possible. For example, the organization's mailing address may have changed, or the organization does not claim the check we've sent them. Other times, a nonprofit organization may have lost its tax-exempt status, which prevents us from distributing funds to it. In these cases, we will work to resolve these complications for up to 12 months from the date of the original donation.
If our efforts are ultimately unsuccessful, the proceeds will be redirected to our High Impact Fund for maximum impact.