Dear Friend,

I’ve gotten a lot of comments on my latest Forbes post about blockchain, so I thought you might be interested in reading an excerpt:

Several weeks ago, cryptocurrency startup Ripple made the equivalent of a $29 million donation in XRP, the digital coin that it uses in transactions, fully funding all projects on DonorsChoose.org. As evidenced by this unprecedented charitable donation, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency certainly have a place in the future of social impact, but this is merely the very tip of a much bigger iceberg.

It feels like everyone is talking about bitcoin and blockchain technologies, but most folks have a gossamer thin grasp of what it is. That is certainly true in the social impact sector.

Fortunately Mercy Corps’ Ric Shreves has been studying distributed ledger technology and offered our community a primer on it during a recent webinar.

Here are highlights of his message:

Imagine a technology that could:

• Improve the graduation rates of Nigerian girls by automatically generating cash payments to families when their daughter achieves a 90% attendance rate.
• Enable a musician to automatically donate 50% of royalties from a specific song to their charity of choice.
• Coordinate what resources (financial, medical, etc.) have already been provided to a refugee by a variety of aid organizations that have historically not been able to ‘compare notes’ in this way.
• Help homeowners conserve electricity with a ‘smart’ refrigerator and then automatically donate the money saved to charity.

These are all increasingly possible thanks to the emergence of blockchain technology. While still in the ‘early adopter’ phase, blockchain has huge potential for social impact programs around the globe.

Want to learn more about this exciting, emerging technology? Check out Ric’s webinar on demand or read my full Forbes post with some highlights.

Sincerely,

 

 

 

David Hessekiel
President
Engage for Good

P.S. If you’ve already registered for #EFG2018, we can’t wait to see you in Chicago in May. If not, check out the list of who’s already registered and plan to join us for the only conference laser-focused on helping you take your corporate social impact efforts to the next level!

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