How to Fundraise in the Metaverse

06.08.2022
By: Jean Natalina
Category: Uncategorized

In late October 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s rebrand as Meta including plans to build out the metaverse. If you didn’t watch the announcement, you most likely heard ripples of chatter about it from people online. What is the metaverse? To explain it simply, it is a virtual world that users can pop in and out of at any time. In the future people could take business meetings or even meet up with friends for coffee in the metaverse. 

While several high-profile brands are already taking their plunge into this virtual world, it is yet to be seen what this technology can do for charities and non-profit organizations. The metaverse is currently new and moldable enough that it just might be able to find its purpose in charitable fundraising. Nonprofit Tech for Good hypothesizes that in the very near future the nonprofit sector will start to organize itself in the metaverse. There are truly endless possibilities. At the very least, we might see advertisements in the metaverse promoting causes that people can support, such as real-time cryptocurrency donations, and buying NFTs with the benefits going to nonprofits. Years in the future we could see this scale up to concerts, fundraisers, and even large-scale protests in the metaverse.

Telling Stories and Finding Purpose in the Metaverse

People instantly feel a deeper connection to a cause when they experience something firsthand or meet the people impacted. An advantage of the metaverse is that it could help charities and non-profits to show the value of their work and help people develop deeper attachments to their mission. An article by Adweek said that one of the main ways that the metaverse can create social good is for purpose-driven marketing to reach a broad audience without borders. For example, we may not live in a rainforest, but we know that brands like The Republic of Tea are working to protect the environment.

Another way that the metaverse can do good is by acting as a sounding board for effective storytelling. This new virtual world opens the door to tell compelling stories beyond the page.  An example is A Walk-Through Dementia. It is a virtual reality experience provided through Alzheimer’s Research U.K. This experience puts users in the minds of people impacted by dementia which helps to create empathy. The metaverse with its infinite possibilities holds the potential for nonprofits to tell their stories without borders and beyond words.

Fundraising Through NFTs

Non-Fungible tokens (or NFTs) are a way to sell virtual goods with cryptocurrency. They also serve as the key component of the metaverse ecosystem. Technical jargon aside NFTs are increasingly becoming a symbol of status and can help us to communicate our values. The beauty of NFTs is that they can be anything from artwork to music to trading cards. If a non-profit organization is looking to modernize its donation strategy, NFTs are a great place to start.

The Charity Navigator blog gave a few benefits of NFTs in non-profit fundraising.

  1. Diversify your nonprofits revenue streams by accepting donations in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies
  2. Engage with your young affluent donor base of crypto enthusiasts who tend to give more generously than cash donors
  3. Champion your cause using an innovative, cutting-edge technology that is becoming increasingly popular worldwide
  4. Collaborate with creators and major brands to elevate your organization’s visibility and reach

Charities could even create their own original NFTs and sell them for a profit in the metaverse. An example of this is youth charity, One Young World, the first charity in the world to sell NFTs, partnering with crypto artist Soy Fira to create five exclusive NFTs which they then auctioned off to raise money for a scholarship fund for young women in STEM.

 Cryptocurrency Donations

Since NFTs are purchased in Cryptocurrency you’ll want to make sure that your non-profit is also set up for cryptocurrency donations. Cryptocurrency is the financial system that powers the metaverse, so brands should take notice of this mega trend. The Giving Block is one of the best recourses for learning about cryptocurrency fundraising. There you’ll be able to set up your organization to accept crypto donations. You might also want to register a wallet for your nonprofit on Coinbase.

We have only scratched the surface of ways that nonprofits can use the metaverse for social good. Whether it’s just by spreading the word through effective messaging that can circle the globe, fundraising through NFTs, or accepting donations in cryptocurrency. It is up to us to decide what the metaverse will become, and charity and philanthropy could give it purpose.

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