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Sustainable fund raising from decentralized social media and blockchains.

intelliguyPosted for Everyone to comment on, 5 years ago5 min read

Helping others by donations, or the reward pool?

sustainable-charity-fundraising.png

Raising charity funds without hurting the reward pool --CAN IT BE DONE?

It's a complex subject though, and really needs to have a roundtable of ideas, from many people, not just me. I could see this being hashed out during an afterparty at a whaleshares event one day soon.

In the past, I've seen two main forms of fundraising on steem and whaleshares:

  • (1) Upvote or reward this post, and the proceeds from the reward pool go to charity
  • (2) Upvote or reward this post, and our bot, or organizer, will ensure you get upvotes and rewards in return

Both of these methods are flawed, and I will explain why:

  • (1) Taking rewards from the reward pool to fund charities, long term, is NOT sustainable. It's a leak of value from the platform to outside sources, in one direction, non-stop.

If you get enough charities on the system, and enough people supporting those charities, it slowly spirals down the value of STEEM or WLS in a downward pressure, as it tries to feed or support the homeless, the hungry, etc.

Initially, in the beginning, you do not realize, you're actually "hurting one" to "feed another". That's not sustainable.

  • (2) Upvoting and rewarding a charity post, in exchange, for a return upvote, or return reward, is doubling the problem of #1. Now you have both people (charity and the donator) both sucking from the reward pool! :angry:

Reward pools are designed, to reward "good content". Content includes:

  • Posting about a project, and informing people of developments
  • ....but not necessarily about funding a project itself.

The true key reason, why someone would fund, or donate to a charity, is for these reasons:

  • (1) A donator believes in the charity
  • (2) A donator would like recognition of some sort (don't say no one does -- people do)
  • (3) A donator wants to see the charity receive the benefit.
  • (4) A donator may not have money. But they may have time, skills, or effort they can donate too.
  • (5) A charity doesn't want thieves stealing on behalf of the charity.

That's pretty simple isn't it?

If your fundraising effort includes those 5 major things, and supports those 5 major things... That becomes a sustainable and proper way of fundraising.

Or course charities should want a sustainable, and proper way of fundraising... because when you have that... you have a success driven model that works!

I don't like blockchain / pool reward driven fundraising activities that use reward pools as the core way of raising funds. I'd rather see:
  • (1) Donators of funds, voluntarily reaching into their own pockets to give a donation. Allowing them to do so in bits, over time, is more effective than asking for a lot of funds, only at once.

  • (2) Donators should get recognized. This allows other people to realize other people are doing it too... and get involved themselves.

  • (3) Proof of the donations being given, and then received by the charity are important

  • (4) Posting about the charity, keeps people informed, and is actually "good content" -- and that part, should be rewarded by the reward pool.

So then you ask... what should a charity do?

Well, one thing they could do is create a token, that people can buy at a fixed cost, with no buyers to buy low, and re-sell lower than the official charity seller.

Is that possible with Bitshares? I don't know. Maybe someone could figure that out.

Let's say token FEEDTHEHOMELESS was created.

They are sold at 0.25 USD per token by the charity administrator. This way, you could buy just 1 FEEDTHEHOMELESS (0.25), or 100 ($25)

Anyone could hold this token, they just couldn't sell them. They could only hold them, or burn them.

Each week, or each month, an accounting of how many funds were raised by this method, was posted. The donators were acknowledged in some way, and thanked for contributing.

The tokens are bought and paid for, by the donators, out of their own funds.

This way, you leave a sustainable model of:
  • (a) Token purchasing
  • (b) Blockchain social media reward pools being used to give "good content" by updating people about the project
  • (c) Those that do not like the charity, or are uninterested in supporting it, do not get "taxed" as the reward pool isn't the primary source of raising funds.
  • (d) This becomes more sustainable and a better model.

Now this is one example. There are probably hundreds more..

A think tank should be developed to discover the best way of raising funds, in the best sustainable way possible... because if it turns out to be a good model.... it will instantly be copied by most charities out there.

We have a lot of charities... and a lot of good willed people that want to support charities.

All we need best practices and best supported models to be used in fundraising, so everyone has the best chance of success.

The reason why I wrote this post, is because of a post I recently read by @littlenewthings

https://whaleshares.io/life/@littlenewthings/thinking-out-of-the-box-branching-out-lifestyle-change-complimenting-the-current-system-staring-from-charity-works

She's from Malaysia and wants to raise funds for a local food bank.

I admire her for doing that... and want to bring attention to her charity, and also help her find a suitable fundraising model that is sustainable, effective, and demonstrates "it can be done"... that helps more people than it hurts.

Which sounds like a basic request. Let's help her to discover one that works!

Without involving vote-for-vote, or primarily taking funds from the reward pool, how would you do it?

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