Bitcoin 100: Developed Specifically for Non-Profits

[partyp]

Hi,

I'm currently a board member for http://www.ac-af.com.  I have been trying to get in touch with Bitcoin100 for a few weeks now. 

AC-AF is a non-profit with offices in Toronto and Tanzania, with people on the ground in Africa helping kids impacted by HIV/AIDS.  I recently convinced the rest of the board to allow me to integrate Bitcoin onto our site as a donation method.  I understand that Bitcoin100 provides grants of $1000 for non-profits - would we qualify for such a grant? 

It was extremely difficult to get the board to understand how beneficial accepting Bitcoins as a form of donations, since most were only aware of what they saw on the news regarding the risks and its association with illegal activities.  I'm hoping that accepting Bitcoins as donations is only a first step.  It is very hard for us to send funds from Toronto to Tanzania (Africa) given the process and the fees involved.  I plan on having this organization send funds back and fourth using Bitcoins to pay for local programs, rent, salaries and grants in Africa once I can establish a credible conversion method on the ground in Tanzania. 

The Bitcoin100 grant will go a long way for us as we are in the midst of new management at the organization with a new incoming Executive Director and fairly new and forward thinking board of directors.

Unfortunately we have received 0 bitcoin donations to date, but I am certain this will change in the future. 

Our donation page is located at http://www.ac-af.com/blog/bitcoin
Our donation address is 14zrnfv5n6Ad2WAgvCojk1GK4txkCzre25

I just donated for the first time to bitcoin100.org without giving it much thought... I hope that my money gets to people like you. Is there anyway I can know where my donation goes to? Or rather be reassured that the money I donated its being put to good use?

[koomz]

Hi,

I'm currently a board member for http://www.ac-af.com.  I have been trying to get in touch with Bitcoin100 for a few weeks now. 

AC-AF is a non-profit with offices in Toronto and Tanzania, with people on the ground in Africa helping kids impacted by HIV/AIDS.  I recently convinced the rest of the board to allow me to integrate Bitcoin onto our site as a donation method.  I understand that Bitcoin100 provides grants of $1000 for non-profits - would we qualify for such a grant? 

It was extremely difficult to get the board to understand how beneficial accepting Bitcoins as a form of donations, since most were only aware of what they saw on the news regarding the risks and its association with illegal activities.  I'm hoping that accepting Bitcoins as donations is only a first step.  It is very hard for us to send funds from Toronto to Tanzania (Africa) given the process and the fees involved.  I plan on having this organization send funds back and fourth using Bitcoins to pay for local programs, rent, salaries and grants in Africa once I can establish a credible conversion method on the ground in Tanzania. 

The Bitcoin100 grant will go a long way for us as we are in the midst of new management at the organization with a new incoming Executive Director and fairly new and forward thinking board of directors.

Unfortunately we have received 0 bitcoin donations to date, but I am certain this will change in the future. 

Our donation page is located at http://www.ac-af.com/blog/bitcoin
Our donation address is 14zrnfv5n6Ad2WAgvCojk1GK4txkCzre25

I just donated for the first time to bitcoin100.org without giving it much thought... I hope that my money gets to people like you. Is there anyway I can know where my donation goes to? Or rather be reassured that the money I donated its being put to good use?

My goal is to make the organization's finances a lot more transparent.  Currently our annual report shows where your money is being invested, but my goal is to hopefully have a page on the site which visually demonstrates where funds received from donors go to, with each child touched by the funds identified as well.  Every board member and the Executive director in Toronto are all on a volunteer basis.  The only paid staff for the organization are people on the ground in Tanzania.

[partyp]

My goal is to make the organization's finances a lot more transparent.  Currently our annual report shows where your money is being invested, but my goal is to hopefully have a page on the site which visually demonstrates where funds received from donors go to, with each child touched by the funds identified as well.  Every board member and the Executive director in Toronto are all on a volunteer basis.  The only paid staff for the organization are people on the ground in Tanzania.

Thanks for the response. Now only if we could get a response from bitcoin100...

[SebastianJu]

Hi,

I'm currently a board member for http://www.ac-af.com.  I have been trying to get in touch with Bitcoin100 for a few weeks now. 

AC-AF is a non-profit with offices in Toronto and Tanzania, with people on the ground in Africa helping kids impacted by HIV/AIDS.  I recently convinced the rest of the board to allow me to integrate Bitcoin onto our site as a donation method.  I understand that Bitcoin100 provides grants of $1000 for non-profits - would we qualify for such a grant? 

It was extremely difficult to get the board to understand how beneficial accepting Bitcoins as a form of donations, since most were only aware of what they saw on the news regarding the risks and its association with illegal activities.  I'm hoping that accepting Bitcoins as donations is only a first step.  It is very hard for us to send funds from Toronto to Tanzania (Africa) given the process and the fees involved.  I plan on having this organization send funds back and fourth using Bitcoins to pay for local programs, rent, salaries and grants in Africa once I can establish a credible conversion method on the ground in Tanzania. 

The Bitcoin100 grant will go a long way for us as we are in the midst of new management at the organization with a new incoming Executive Director and fairly new and forward thinking board of directors.

Unfortunately we have received 0 bitcoin donations to date, but I am certain this will change in the future. 

Our donation page is located at http://www.ac-af.com/blog/bitcoin
Our donation address is 14zrnfv5n6Ad2WAgvCojk1GK4txkCzre25

As far as i see it your website is legit and so is the project. I dont see a reason why you should not be eligible. Though the last word has Rassah.

[Ente]

Well, I like both the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and AC-AF, and enjoy how diverse all our charities are.

Still, the initial plan of BTC100 was to give an incentive to charities which do not accept Bitcoin yet. As a way to enlarge the number of charities, and not as a way to reward a charity after they already came to the good conclusion to accept Bitcoin donations.
Some charities were already declined because of this, although those were great charities and support-worthy.

At the very least, we have to talk about this before those two (and future) charities receive a BTC100 donation. This isn't Brunos or Rassahs decision neither, as the original donators to the fund donated with those rules in mind.

Or, maybe, let's do a different project:
Collect all Bitcoin-accepting charities on a website. Each with its own Bitcoin address. Also, the website has one address, where all funds donated to will be spread amongst the charities (random, and/or evenly and/or "more to those who received the least yet"). As the blockchain proves where every donation ended at, there shouldn't be a trust issue here. It would make for a(nother) nice showcase too.
And, at the very least, it would make a nice compact list of all charities.

Oh, and then there is Cryptocharity, with its first project in Uganda. The website cryptocharity.org is offline atm, I informed them and it should be online soon. Maybe you can benefit from each other in some way?

Ente

[SebastianJu]

Still, the initial plan of BTC100 was to give an incentive to charities which do not accept Bitcoin yet. As a way to enlarge the number of charities, and not as a way to reward a charity after they already came to the good conclusion to accept Bitcoin donations.
Some charities were already declined because of this, although those were great charities and support-worthy.

I know. And youre right. I only think its a not perfect condition. If someone only recently sat up the donation button he could come and claim he created it to take part in B100. And followed the rules. We couldnt prove it happened differently.

Personally i would think a X Weeks ago would make more sense though like you say, the rules are set already. Probably the rules only could be changed by checking the current balance and contacting the last donators until current balance is met. So that the current balance donators are asked.

But i see its for spreading Bitcoins not for rewarding for accepting bitcoins in the first place.

[RCHumphrey]

Admitting now I haven't read all 100 pages of this but if someone could clarify this would be great:

1) if I contact a charity who I think would benefit from the BTC and they agree to accept BTC donations and implement it, then I request here for the 1 BTC, since its already been implemented then the charity is invalid... or

2) since I have contacted the charity and convinced them to accept BTC they would be valid (provided all other preconditions are met).


There are many great charities I know and frankly would appreciate these funds that are sitting dormant...

but I want to be sure on whether its 1) or 2)... I am assuming 2) is the case.

[edd]

Admitting now I haven't read all 100 pages of this but if someone could clarify this would be great:

1) if I contact a charity who I think would benefit from the BTC and they agree to accept BTC donations and implement it, then I request here for the 1 BTC, since its already been implemented then the charity is invalid... or

2) since I have contacted the charity and convinced them to accept BTC they would be valid (provided all other preconditions are met).


There are many great charities I know and frankly would appreciate these funds that are sitting dormant...

but I want to be sure on whether its 1) or 2)... I am assuming 2) is the case.

2) is correct.

The issue we're running into is that Bitcoin100 was created to promote Bitcoin by convincing charities to begin accepting BTC denominated donations. Now, some charities are hearing about Bitcoin, implementing a method to receive BTC donations and then, some time later coming to Bitcoin100 and saying, "We accept bitcoins." There is no hard and fast rule concerning how much time needs to elapse before an organization falls out of the running. We could easily give away the rest of the funds to NPOs that have jumped on the Bitcoin bandwagon but it defeats the original purpose of the Bitcoin100 - to promote Bitcoin.

Add to that the fact that we're all being pulled in multiple directions with other projects, and you get a backlog like we have now.

[RCHumphrey]

Admitting now I haven't read all 100 pages of this but if someone could clarify this would be great:

1) if I contact a charity who I think would benefit from the BTC and they agree to accept BTC donations and implement it, then I request here for the 1 BTC, since its already been implemented then the charity is invalid... or

2) since I have contacted the charity and convinced them to accept BTC they would be valid (provided all other preconditions are met).


There are many great charities I know and frankly would appreciate these funds that are sitting dormant...

but I want to be sure on whether its 1) or 2)... I am assuming 2) is the case.

2) is correct.

The issue we're running into is that Bitcoin100 was created to promote Bitcoin by convincing charities to begin accepting BTC denominated donations. Now, some charities are hearing about Bitcoin, implementing a method to receive BTC donations and then, some time later coming to Bitcoin100 and saying, "We accept bitcoins." There is no hard and fast rule concerning how much time needs to elapse before an organization falls out of the running. We could easily give away the rest of the funds to NPOs that have jumped on the Bitcoin bandwagon but it defeats the original purpose of the Bitcoin100 - to promote Bitcoin.

Add to that the fact that we're all being pulled in multiple directions with other projects, and you get a backlog like we have now.

Thanks for the clarification Edd... one more question if you don't mind...

is there anywhere else where discussions between the people behind Bitcoin 100 communicate or is it all done through here?

[edd]

Thanks for the clarification Edd... one more question if you don't mind...

is there anywhere else where discussions between the people behind Bitcoin 100 communicate or is it all done through here?

We have been known to communicate through PMs and in person when we happen to attend the same conferences, but I'd say 99% of it is hashed out in this thread.

That's another reason we encourage others to speak up here - we (and by "we", I mean "Rassah") could use some help vetting charities and making these tough decisions.

[SebastianJu]

Adding to my last post. If the donation depends on if a BCT-User convinced them then it could be failsafe i guess.

In that case NPOs are eligible for a donation if:

* The NPO asks in here BEFORE they implement BTC
* A BTC-User convinces them to accept BTC. Doesnt matter then if he asks here before or claims he convinced them after that.

But not when:

* A NPO has the BTC-Donation Ability implemented and says they did it because of BTC100.

This only would work if the BTC-User has to be on here since some time already. Or do i miss a point?

I think it would be helpful to clarify things a bit more and publish clear rules so that NPOs that wouldnt be eligible dont need to ask.

[Ente]

Adding to my last post. If the donation depends on if a BCT-User convinced them then it could be failsafe i guess.

In that case NPOs are eligible for a donation if:

* The NPO asks in here BEFORE they implement BTC
* A BTC-User convinces them to accept BTC. Doesnt matter then if he asks here before or claims he convinced them after that.

But not when:

* A NPO has the BTC-Donation Ability implemented and says they did it because of BTC100.

This only would work if the BTC-User has to be on here since some time already. Or do i miss a point?

I think it would be helpful to clarify things a bit more and publish clear rules so that NPOs that wouldnt be eligible dont need to ask.

This sounds reasonable, Sebastian.

Ente

[No_2]

I'm thinking of doing an approach to these guys behind the ice bucket challenge:

http://www.alsa.org/fight-als/ice-bucket-challenge.html

Before I do though can I check that they will be eligible receive a donation?

So I've made a few calls to these guys but not managed to speak to anyone in charge of donations yet. Does anyone know if the people donating BTC since Hal's passing have had any luck contacting them?

[BitcoinBrains]

Hi there, we've been working to get Canadian charities to accept bitcoin donations for around a month.   
We've got a few in the works but this is the first one that has fully implemented it. 

http://www.womenscentrecalgary.org/donate/donate-with-bitcoin/

The Women's Centre of Calgary provides a safe place for all women. They also offer a wide variety of services to help low income and immigrant families.

[BitcoinBrains]

Just found out that the Women's Centre received a rather sizable anonymous bitcoin donation. 
Thanks to whomever that was.
Should have some details soon.

[Rassah]

Good morning,

My name is Kirsten Tynan, and I am executive director of the Fully Informed Jury Association, a 501c3, non-profit, educational organization dedicated to fully informing everyone of jurors' right and authority to judge the law as well as the facts in cases before them, and to conscientiously acquit through jury nullification when a just verdict requires it.

I have been looking into setting FIJA up to accept Bitcoin, and one area I have not yet figured out is what we need to do for Bitcoin donors to fulfill legal requirements for some kind of receipt for their tax-deductible donation. Do you have any guidance on this? I browsed the Bitcoin100 website a bit, but didn't find anything on this. I tried to send you a message through the BitcoinTalk forum, but that is not working for me at the moment so I hope it is okay to try and reach you by e-mail.

Thank you!

Kirsten C. Tynan
Fully Informed Jury Association
http://www.FIJA.org

Wow. Prominent Bitcoin Button. They have their own wikipeadia article so i think they are a NPO and they specialize in educating Jury members about their rights. I wonder why one would need money for that since the website could do it on its own but they seem to do some sort of public service.

Probably need someone to actually run the website, plus my guess is they actually reach out to jurors to give them some training and such. I guess I'll take this as "they are approved." Since BitPay limits them to $1,000 a day, and someone already donated some today, I can't send them a donation until later. Will try again sunday after I'm back from Cryptolina.
EDIT: Read later that they added more information. Yeah, I'd say they are definitely approved. Just have to wait for BitPay.

And finally, belatedly, donation has been sent:
https://blockchain.info/tx/a873736c3889fa686e77096ec036a37401ab437b3c150fee65545d0dce15b4c6

[Rassah]

Hi,

I'm currently a board member for http://www.ac-af.com.  I have been trying to get in touch with Bitcoin100 for a few weeks now. 

AC-AF is a non-profit with offices in Toronto and Tanzania, with people on the ground in Africa helping kids impacted by HIV/AIDS.  I recently convinced the rest of the board to allow me to integrate Bitcoin onto our site as a donation method.  I understand that Bitcoin100 provides grants of $1000 for non-profits - would we qualify for such a grant? 

It was extremely difficult to get the board to understand how beneficial accepting Bitcoins as a form of donations, since most were only aware of what they saw on the news regarding the risks and its association with illegal activities.  I'm hoping that accepting Bitcoins as donations is only a first step.  It is very hard for us to send funds from Toronto to Tanzania (Africa) given the process and the fees involved.  I plan on having this organization send funds back and fourth using Bitcoins to pay for local programs, rent, salaries and grants in Africa once I can establish a credible conversion method on the ground in Tanzania. 

The Bitcoin100 grant will go a long way for us as we are in the midst of new management at the organization with a new incoming Executive Director and fairly new and forward thinking board of directors.

Unfortunately we have received 0 bitcoin donations to date, but I am certain this will change in the future. 

Our donation page is located at http://www.ac-af.com/blog/bitcoin
Our donation address is 14zrnfv5n6Ad2WAgvCojk1GK4txkCzre25

I think this one is fine. They added a bitcoin donation option less than two weeks before contacting me, and I have discussed this with them already, so I'm just going to go ahead and donate:
https://blockchain.info/tx/220fb7a66f85a58da6012efc89d5ef28b0e987591f94c2b4746e8450e59f64e1

I would prefer if the donation option was visible someplace on their main Donation page.

[Rassah]

I'm thinking of doing an approach to these guys behind the ice bucket challenge:

http://www.alsa.org/fight-als/ice-bucket-challenge.html

Before I do though can I check that they will be eligible receive a donation?

Yes, ALSA is eligible. I doubt they would do it just to get $1,000 though

[Rassah]

Hi there, we've been working to get Canadian charities to accept bitcoin donations for around a month.   
We've got a few in the works but this is the first one that has fully implemented it. 

http://www.womenscentrecalgary.org/donate/donate-with-bitcoin/

The Women's Centre of Calgary provides a safe place for all women. They also offer a wide variety of services to help low income and immigrant families.

Checked, reviewed, approved, and donation sent: https://blockchain.info/tx/7058ab24b4f26a667c5250b13453cd0aabb6751d4c4444b8d5abbacbb182a504

[BitcoinBrains]

Hi there, we've been working to get Canadian charities to accept bitcoin donations for around a month.   
We've got a few in the works but this is the first one that has fully implemented it. 

http://www.womenscentrecalgary.org/donate/donate-with-bitcoin/

The Women's Centre of Calgary provides a safe place for all women. They also offer a wide variety of services to help low income and immigrant families.

Checked, reviewed, approved, and donation sent: https://blockchain.info/tx/7058ab24b4f26a667c5250b13453cd0aabb6751d4c4444b8d5abbacbb182a504

We've got a couple other charities signed up that haven't implemented it successfully yet. How long will this program continue?