Bitcointalk Charity Fund

[Hhampuz]

I like giving for a good cause just as much as the next guy but sometimes I feel like it would be nice to send some bits and pieces here and there to a collective pool that would be given out at the end of each month for example. Why don't we launch something like that for bitcointalk? Imagine certain months if people were in a giving mood and we could make some headlines around the world (perhaps wishful thinking but still).

What I'd propose would be for either theymos or the newly formed multi-sig treasurer team to be in control of a donation address and at the end of each month we take a week to poll what charity to give it to?

Perhaps the idea is silly, if that's the case I always welcome a "F off". Just thought it might be time to spread some good vibes rather than the recent (not so recent) bad ones.

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[PrimeNumber7]

I think this will violate this rule:

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7. No begging. [5]
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[5] - "NEWBIE README" - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=177133.0
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I would consider "asking for donations" the same as "begging" :

beg
verb (used with object), begged, beg·ging.
to ask for as a gift, as charity, or as a favor:

[Hhampuz]

I think this will violate this rule:

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7. No begging. [5]
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[5] - "NEWBIE README" - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=177133.0
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I don't think it would be a direct violation of that rule if it was just an address posted in a thread by theymos, for example. Nobody would be forced to give and it wouldn't have to be promoted all too much. Would just be nice to see something official, perhaps you are right though 

[bones261]

   I think the poll should be taken before the funds are collected. I am leery of giving funds to a charity fund and after the poll, it ends up being for a cause that I don't agree with.

[PrimeNumber7]

   I think the poll should be taken before the funds are collected. I am leery of giving funds to a charity fund and after the poll, it ends up being for a cause that I don't agree with.

I would agree with this statement. In addition to being a little annoyed about getting panhandled for money, I would be ticked off if any money I did give as part of my tithe went to something I did not wish to support.

I could also give money to a charity of my own choice on my own.

[cabalism13]

A nice idea, indeed. Me and my local will love to support this kind of project, I haven't updated my thread for I was too busy at the moment, and yet, there are some things that I must do first,... Still it wasn't dead yet, We're willing to continue this Charity Things.

As for the donations,we can also give the portion of the funds that we have saved in the past...

[Hhampuz]

   I think the poll should be taken before the funds are collected. I am leery of giving funds to a charity fund and after the poll, it ends up being for a cause that I don't agree with.

That could definitely be a thing too. I don't know of too many charities accepting crypto but there's a handful - all of which support great causes like the water project, freeross etc.

[SaltySpitoon]

I think you'd be better off creating a type of charity club where some members reach out to various established charities and try to convince them to accept Bitcoin. Then, you wouldn't need any middlemen holding the funds or any type of vote on what a collective fund would be used for. After the legwork is done, any user could contact the organization directly to get a new deposit address to prevent any sort of shenanigans, and there wouldn't be any sort of bureaucracy involved.

[cabalism13]

Shouldn't we just moved on, for the guys who doesn't want to support the OP?  Nobody would care if you didn't make a contribution, but if you're saying that you'll just support a Charity if you like it, then just do it. Nobody is enforcing you to make a donation for a random Charity. In fact, the poll will be the first move and I think you will still have the chance to decide for yourself whether you'll give or not.

That could definitely be a thing too. I don't know of too many charities accepting crypto but there's a handful - all of which support great causes like the water project, freeross etc.

There are some, but the majority is just pure scam. The only thing we can do about it is to visit them personally, just like what @crwth has done on the past month. If theymos could consider this then there will be some individuals here that will do a voluntary work.

I don't doubt the chances, if its for the sake of the other people whose in need, I won't hesitate to help. (I would also love the Animal Charity 😁 )

I think you'd be better off creating a type of charity club where some members reach out to various established charities and try to convince them to accept Bitcoin. Then, you wouldn't need any middlemen holding the funds or any type of vote on what a collective fund would be used for. After the legwork is done, any user could contact the organization directly to get a new deposit address to prevent any sort of shenanigans, and there wouldn't be any sort of bureaucracy involved.

I second this.

[Hhampuz]

I think you'd be better off creating a type of charity club where some members reach out to various established charities and try to convince them to accept Bitcoin. Then, you wouldn't need any middlemen holding the funds or any type of vote on what a collective fund would be used for. After the legwork is done, any user could contact the organization directly to get a new deposit address to prevent any sort of shenanigans, and there wouldn't be any sort of bureaucracy involved.

That could definitely be an option too, although there's a few that already do accept bitcoin. But I get what you're saying, just wanted the community to come together slightly for a common goal.

[Vod]

What I'd propose would be for either theymos or the newly formed multi-sig treasurer team to be in control of a donation address and at the end of each month we take a week to poll what charity to give it to?

You'd have to openly vet each charity before you even suggested them.   A lot of work.  Someone could just claim they are "like a charity" and accept donations.   Who would be on the hook for the taxes and legal issues?

[SaltySpitoon]

That could definitely be an option too, although there's a few that already do accept bitcoin. But I get what you're saying, just wanted the community to come together slightly for a common goal.

It can still be a collective effort, the collective part would be the community effort to make it easier for anyone to donate. A trader might make a really nice trade and decide to donate some for example, but they might not do so if they have to jump through hoops converting to fiat to do so. If a handful of people put in the effort to reach out to charities to get them to accept BTC in the first place and keep a thread about those that do, the trader might donate when they otherwise wouldn't have.

It would be easier to get charities to accept if you said, hey, we've got a fund together with 1 BTC (~$8000) if you want to accept BTC to motivate them to learn about it in the first place, but then you run into the issue of people being unhappy donating to causes they don't care for by a popular vote.

[Hhampuz]

You'd have to openly vet each charity before you even suggested them.   A lot of work.  Someone could just claim they are "like a charity" and accept donations.   Who would be on the hook for the taxes and legal issues?

My suggestion would be to only go with the legitimate and verified charities, such as the water project, freeross etc. I believe there's an extensive list (We wouldn't add each and every suggestion to the poll, but perhaps take from this list?), if that makes sense. I had it when I did a charity raffle a while back, will see if I can't find it again.

It can still be a collective effort, the collective part would be the community effort to make it easier for anyone to donate. A trader might make a really nice trade and decide to donate some for example, but they might not do so if they have to jump through hoops converting to fiat to do so. If a handful of people put in the effort to reach out to charities to get them to accept BTC in the first place and keep a thread about those that do, the trader might donate when they otherwise wouldn't have.

It would be easier to get charities to accept if you said, hey, we've got a fund together with 1 BTC (~$8000) if you want to accept BTC to motivate them to learn about it in the first place, but then you run into the issue of people being unhappy donating to causes they don't care for by a popular vote.

Yeah I get what you're saying. As my reply above to VOD I would mainly have us start out with the ones that do already accept BTC/Other crypto, not converting any fiat or so (I've done it in the past when doing charity raffles). It's perhaps not the best idea but maybe some food for thought. I'll take what you've proposed to heart as well and see if I can't link up with a few other members and to just that, educate charities that currently don't accept crypto.

[suchmoon]

It seems contrary to the whole idea of Bitcoin to have someone else handle payments for me when I can easily do it myself. Perhaps a better effort would be to maintain a list of Bitcoin-accepting charities if one doesn't exist yet, plus what Salty suggested. Also there might be some inconveniences with pooled funds depending on local laws and regulations - larger donations could trigger reporting requirements for the charities, individual donors might not be able to use tax deductions unless the fund itself is a charitable organization, etc.

[Hhampuz]

It seems contrary to the whole idea of Bitcoin to have someone else handle payments for me when I can easily do it myself. Perhaps a better effort would be to maintain a list of Bitcoin-accepting charities if one doesn't exist yet, plus what Salty suggested. Also there might be some inconveniences with pooled funds depending on local laws and regulations - larger donations could trigger reporting requirements for the charities, individual donors might not be able to use tax deductions unless the fund itself is a charitable organization, etc.

Understandable, evidently I did not think this thing through 

[Lionel Messi]

It seems contrary to the whole idea of Bitcoin to have someone else handle payments for me when I can easily do it myself. Perhaps a better effort would be to maintain a list of Bitcoin-accepting charities if one doesn't exist yet, plus what Salty suggested. Also there might be some inconveniences with pooled funds depending on local laws and regulations - larger donations could trigger reporting requirements for the charities, individual donors might not be able to use tax deductions unless the fund itself is a charitable organization, etc.

Understandable, evidently I did not think this thing through 

No reason to apologize you are only trying to help everyone 

[suchmoon]

Understandable, evidently I did not think this thing through 

Nah, it's always easier to critique something...

[vit05]

I believe that there could be something like this, but not accept donations, but contributions from services that are offered in the forum and paid in tokens. Signature Campaigns, bounties, ANN, airdrops. Any such topic would pay a small contribution, a part of this would pay for moderation and a portion would be sent for donations.

[Quickseller]

Given your history, I don’t think it is a good idea for you to be involved in managing others’ money in any way, including organizing any effort for someone else to do so.

Polls can be manipulated and are generally not reliable

[theymos]

The voting could be proportional, so if you donate 1 BTC and vote to donate it to the EFF, 1 BTC will be donated to the EFF.

More seriously, this sort of donation pool might have some extra positive effects due to its ability to more effectively market itself and its ability to engage in more complicated projects than just "donate to x charity". But for it to be better than just having donors donate to whoever they want, the pool should probably be an actual tax-exempt nonprofit.

I've thought before about giving forum badges (or maybe even forum BTC credit) for donating x BTC to Bitcoin-accepting charities, but it's difficult to track. There's no way to prove that you donated to the EFF, for example, as far as I can tell. It'd be nice if there was some standard protocol for this sort of thing.