Hey all - we recently had the chance to talk to Connie Gallippi, who is the Founder & Executive Director at BitGive. BitGive was the very first Bitcoin non-profit recognized by the United States government. They've been around since 2013, so Connie has a valuable and unique view on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. She's a huge advocate for crypto and blockchain technology, and her company is not only helping people, but helping to encourage adoption.
Connie joins The BitcoinTaxes Podcast to discuss how blockchain technology is perfect for the non-profit sector. We discuss the benefits of utilizing the blockchain and cryptocurrency for social good, in addition to the added perk of being able to offset crypto capital gains to save you some money come tax time.
Episode Highlights
Non-Profits & The Blockchain – Perfect Harmony (07:20):
A lot of people, especially in the NGO world, see it as a different and new way to fundraise. That’s what I call the gateway – but there’s so much more to it. First of all, being able to fundraise without borders. You can a fundraise globally without any sort of constraints around regulatory boundaries, in a single currency. Moving it on the blockchain provides huge benefits to reducing the time and cost involved, especially for cross border transactions. Using the Bitcoin Network, you can get the donation there within minutes, and you’re only paying a network fee. It’s tremendously improving upon the current systems.
On top of that, we talk about the transparency of the blockchain itself. If you’re using this network to move funds across borders, then you can actually watch it happening on the blockchain in real time and you can see where those funds go and what’s going on with the them. We’re trying to surface the data in a way that is user friendly, makes sense, and can be used for accountability. NGOs can share what they’ve done with the funds to build trust and have a way to engage more with their donors on a real-time basis.
Helping Others While Helping Yourself (14:28):
Most people kind of get that you can have a write off if you make a donation and then that reduces your taxable income. That’s kind of basic. Where I think it gets much more interesting is the offsets aspect. If you donate in cryptocurrency instead of converting it first and then donating it, you’re able to offset any gains that you have.
If people actually think ahead before April, about what kinds of gains they might be looking at, they can preemptively offset those to avoid paying any taxes on them, which is awesome.
You’re making a contribution to nonprofits and helping other people, instead of paying the government.
Donating Your Crypto Helps Adoption (20:26):
For a mainstream audience, the interest would be more about what can this technology actually do. It provides faster and cheaper global transfers which means more impact on the ground for the nonprofits. It’s so crucial for us to have real use cases and to be able to demonstrate that those use cases are real and happening currently and not just in theory. We’re able to demonstrate them in ways that are very relevant – like charity.
I have nothing against buying coffee with Bitcoin, but I think it’s not necessarily the most intriguing demonstration of how the technology can benefit and improve existing ways of doing things.
The Industry Is Evolving (34:05):
Looking back at where we were in 2013 – with the first ever Bitcoin conference; and now there’s events every day on every continent. We used to work with one charity at a time and now we have a platform with 12 projects.
My hope is that we are able to break through some of these major barriers that are in the way and get to mainstream adoption where we reduce the friction of the on-ramps…and we’re able to really build out a functioning ecosystem. That is where I see it going. I definitely think that that’s possible in 5 or 10 years.
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