How are you fundraising for your projects?

Greetings, Makers!

We hope the busy times are beginning to wind down a bit and that you are starting to give yourself time and space to rest, reflect, and be with loved ones. Thank you all for being part of this journey so far.

Since the start of the month, we’ve kicked things off in Quad, our new community chat application. Come check it out and join conversations about how nonprofits can utilize decentralized technologies.

Our first topic of focus was the various ways decentralized technologies are supporting nonprofits in fundraising. Here’s the day-by-day breakdown:

  • On Maker Monday, we introduced a handful of active DWeb projects currently being used to help nonprofits with fundraising (The Giving Block, Merry Merkle tree, Gitcoin, and Open Collective). 
  • On Tuesday, we raised open questions in nonprofit fundraising using DWeb, such as legal compliance, overcoming fear, and building trust and transparency.
  • On Wednesday, we addressed some of the open questions with this podcast episode that features Pat Duffy from The Giving Block, who spoke to our concerns around whether crypto is safe for nonprofits.
  • On Thursday, we discussed the philosophy of decentralization and practices that your organization can try — such as participatory grantmaking — to shift towards more decentralized governance.
  • On Friday, we wrapped up the week summarizing our learnings.

Be sure to join us there and check out each post for more links and resources. 🤓 And if there’s a specific topic you’d like to see us cover or a question you have about DWeb, feel free comment directly in Quad or send us an email at MakerLabs@TechSoup.org.

Enjoy the holidays, all those celebrating, and have a very happy new year. See you in 2024!

Looking forward to continuing this adventure,

Billy Bicket , on behalf of the Public Good App House team

Maker Events

See you next year!  

We’ll be back in 2024 with more webinars featuring leaders in the decentralized web. Until then, be sure to watch the recordings of any of the events you might have missed on our Accelerating Makers website!

Public Good Tech Ecosystem Events

Nonprofit Technology Conference: NTEN’s conference, often referred to as the NTC, is the annual gathering of people who want to make the world a better place through the skillful and equitable use of technology. At the NTC, you'll learn essential nonprofit technology best practices while connecting with a community that shares your commitment to social change. In-person in Portland, Oregon, or virtual.

🗓️ March 13 – 15, 2024

🎫 Register now

Code for America Summit: Bringing together changemakers from across the country to convene, collaborate, and learn as they break through some of government’s biggest challenges by removing barriers and finding real solutions that can make our systems work well for everyone.

🗓️ May 28 – 30, 2024

🎫 Register now

Funding and Grant Opportunities

💰 2023 EmpowHer Grant 

Boundless Futures Foundation's mission is to provide financial and leadership resources for aspiring female entrepreneurs building businesses to solve today’s biggest social issues so they can have a boundless impact on society. Apply by December 31.

💰TxP Progress Prize

A new £5,000 blog prize, in partnership with Civic Future and New Statesman Spotlight, encouraging responses to the question: Britain is stuck. How can we get it moving again? Apply by January 7, 2024. Learn more and apply

💰The Pizzigati Prize

The Pizzigati Prize celebrates software developers who create, for free public distribution, open-source apps and tools that nonprofit and advocacy groups can put to good use. Apply by January 24, 2024.

💰Just Tech Fellowship

This is a two-year, full-time, remote fellowship supporting a diverse community of researchers and practitioners investigating the intersection of technology and social justice. Completed applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The last day to submit application materials is January 31, 2024.

💰The FREE STEM Fund

The FREE STEM Fund aims to narrow the gender gap in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. It provides direct grants to registered and unregistered initiatives, groups, collectives, and organizations focused on the rights of girls, women, transgender, and nonbinary people.

💰Web3 Foundation Grants

These grants fund software development and research efforts that drive the advancement and adoption of decentralized software protocols. Both technical development and community development grants are available. In the short term, they are most interested in teams building with Substrate or Polkadot, though they encourage all builders to apply!

Community Spotlight

Introducing Jason Shim

Jason Shim is a nonprofit technology innovator, expert, and consultant with 15 years of experience helping organizations stay ahead of the technology curve. He is passionate about helping nonprofits understand how digital, decentralized currencies can benefit their work. Currently, Jason serves as editor at Ledger, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal at the University of Pittsburgh that publishes full-length original research articles on the subjects of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. In 2013, he led Pathways to Education Canada to become the first charity to issue tax receipts for bitcoin donations.

On November 1, Jason Shim presented Blockchain Basics for Nonprofits: Preparing for the Future where he explained the fundamentals of blockchains and how nonprofits can use blockchain-enabled technology for fundraising. 

Jason details a few different use cases of blockchain in supporting nonprofit initiatives including fundraising. For example, he mentioned a project called Merry Merkle, which is a decentralized giving project enabled by the ethereum blockchain, where every crypto donation results in a Christmas tree being lit. Another project Jason mentions is called Smileycoin, which is a platform incentivizing students to study with tokens.

Other blockchain-enabled tools Jason mentions that might be useful to nonprofits include smart contract trusts, POAPs (proof of attendance protocols), and oracles, which have been used by the Associated Press to validate information including election results.

Watch the full playback of Jason’s presentation on YouTube and connect with him via LinkedIn if you have any questions!

News and Other Cool Links

💥Will bitcoin become the primary monetary good? Fidelity thinks so.

In September 2023, Fidelity published this report (PDF) to help people better understand digital assets and bitcoin’s unique value and to make the case for why bitcoin has the potential to be the primary monetary good as a result of network effects.

💥State of Web3 Grants Report

Web3 — a term used to encapsulate blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and the totality of communities and possibilities that emerge as a result of their creation — has seen hundreds of millions of dollars given out in grant funding. This research report aims to demystify and bring all-round awareness to these programs.

💥Is “Anonymized Data” Really Anonymous?

This important read from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) debunks the myth of “anonymous” data and tells the real story of how our data is being used, bought, and sold.

💥Apply to the Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme (HRDAP)

Are you a human rights defender keen to use the UN to push for change at home? If so, apply for the 2024 edition of ISHR’s flagship training, the Human Rights Defender Advocacy Programme (HRDAP)! Be sure to check out the important dates and information before applying.

💥The Bloom Social Impact Newsletter

This newsletter and online community provides well-curated social impact jobs, uplifting stories, and global resources for folks already involved or looking to get involved in social impact work all around the world.

💥Developer Gig Alert!

Our friends at OpenArchive are hiring a Lead Mobile Developer to contribute code and manage their overall technical effort, including overseeing the implementation and delivery of their super cool Save app.

💥New Offering Alert!

TechSoup has a new nonprofit offer with GitLab, an AI-powered DevSecOps (development, security, and operations) platform that allows organizations to prioritize, manage, and automate their software development tasks.

Support for Nonprofit Developers

If your project is a registered nonprofit, you’re eligible for TechSoup’s discount and donation program. These are among the 100+ products:

Thanks for reading! We hope you have a great day. If you have something that should be in our next newsletter, let us know at MakerLabs@TechSoup.org


Hello Val Elefante and the Accelerating Makers team! 🌟 Your dedication to gathering opportunities for societal good is truly inspiring. It reminds me of what Anne Frank once said, "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." 🍃 Speaking of impactful opportunities, you might be interested in a unique sponsorship opportunity with Treegens for the Guinness World Record of Tree Planting. It could be a fantastic addition to your events! Check it out here: http://bit.ly/TreeGuinnessWorldRecord Let's keep making a difference together! 🌍✨

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