Topic: Bitcoin 100: Developed Specifically for Non-Profits - page 36. (Read 262784 times)

Dmitry,

Please meet my good friend Jessie Morey. She's the awesome director of a nonprofit that teaches meditation skills to teens to improve emotion-regulation and self-esteem, among other things. It's called Inward Bound Mindfulness Education.

I told Jessie a bit about BitCoin100 and your work to connect donors and charities. She's quite tech-savvy -- she was one of the pioneers of wiki sites as a student at Dartmouth -- but IBME is not yet accepting BitCoins on its donations page. I'm sure she'll be interested in hearing your story. I know they can make a big difference with $1,000.

Enthusiastically,

Frankie

Dmitry,

Please meet my good friend Tami. She's the director of the North Carolina-based Abundance Foundation, a non-profit that focuses on hands-on sustainability education. They hold events to promote local foods, renewable fuels and sustainable agriculture, among other things. Tami is quite forward-thinking as far as tech goes-- she and her husband once ran a successful open source software company called Tarus. However, Abundance does not yet accept BitCoins as donations.

Tami is awesome and I know she could do a lot of good with $1,000.

Enthusiastically,

Frankie

Dmitry,

Please meet my friend Amy. She's the founder of the Primate Education Network, a young nonprofit dedicated to supporting teachers to save endangered monkeys, apes, chimps and the like around the world. PEN creates classroom training tools and resources to increase compassion and protection for primates in their natural habitats. Amy has spent much of her career working in Africa with great apes (gorillas?) and did a stint at the National Zoo. She's awesome and I know $1,000 would make a big difference to her.

Enthusiastically,

Frankie

Dmitry,

I contacted my friend Phil, the Executive Director of Greenpeace, about getting Greenpeace hooked up with BitCoin100. I worked for Phil in my first job out of college, back in 2001 when he had a small solar-focused startup called PowerShift. He suggested Gala Goodwin is the right person to connect with at Greenpeace. She's cc'ed.

Gala,

Nice to meet you! I'm not sure if Phil told you anything, but please meet my friend Dmitry. He's the founder of BitCoin100; we went to business school together. Dmitry's BitCoin100 project connects donors with charities who agree to accept BitCoins as a currency for donations; as incentive, BitCoin100 rewards them with $1,000 worth. I know Greenpeace could do some great work with that money.

Enthusiastically,

Frankie

100 is binary for 4. So, maybe Bitcoin100 could be the Bitcoin 4: myself, Bruno, Edd, and Jason? Though we would have to not let anyone else join 
Just kissing..

Bitcoin100 didn't raise more than $10k. I think we raised something like $5k in donations. Maybe more, but not $10k. Bitcoin raise in value has just been very good to us.

Personally, I wouldn't want to bother with the 501c status. On the one hand it *might* get us more donations from people wanting to donate for tax deduction purposes. On the other hand, that would mean most costs, more fees, for paperwork for donations and IRS filings, and I think generally goes against what I think is the spirit of Bitcoin and this group, which is that it transcends governments. People from all over the world are donating bitcoins. And we do our job without relying on any bank or official organization "allowing" us to send money to charities. Why should we limit ourselves to a specific country, and force all out records and filings into a specific currency? Plus, I would have to keep record of every Bitcoin we receive in it's USD price at the time we got it, in order to file proper tax revenue filings. Sure, it's also extra work I'd really rather not bog myself down with, especially since I don't think it's needed, but really, my main objection is the one above.

Think New Age, oppose to Hippy. That said, how many times did Satoshi Nakamoto use the word "Karma"?

The most powerful marketing tool you have is a good story.  There nothing wrong with "outgrowing" a name when it means you were more successful than expected.  Here's a quick example of what I'm talking about.

"Bitcoin100 started off with humble beginnings.  We set out to raise what, at the time, seemed like a daunting amount of 100 Bitcoins.  As the project picked up steam though, we learned that the community behind bitcoins is much more generous than we would have ever imagined.  We've smashed our original goal of raising 100 BTC and to date, we've donated more than "X" dollars to charities in need.  There's no slow down in sight, either.  Bitcoin100 is a powerful evidence of how bitcoins are the currency for a new generation, a generation that wants to fundamentally change the world."

The goal is obviously to effectively communicate that bitcoin, and the Bitcoin100, is bigger than the technology that runs the protocol.  It's growing faster than even its core members (That's you Phinnaeus) can predict.  Everyday people are excited by big, growing movements and are liable to donate just to be a part of the Bitcoin100 movement if you can portray a sense of "organic" and "bigger than we ever expected".  

The "100" MEANS growth beyond our imagination.

I was contacted by a friend regarding this charity http://ibme.info/

Here was the short pitch:


It basically sounds like the new field of "mindfullness" education that is being discussed for use in schools, that teaches kids how to think, focus/concentrate, manage emotions, and understand others (this was briefly covered in my MBA curriculum, too btw). I would support it, since "learning how to manage your own thoughts and emotions" is a valued skill, but I'm concerned some here may associate this with "hippy stuff." Anyway, let me know what you guys thing, and whether we should pursue them to add Bitcoin as a donation option.

Please meet my good friend Jessie Morey. She's the awesome director of a nonprofit that teaches meditation skills to teens to improve emotion-regulation and self-esteem, among other things. It's called Inward Bound Mindfulness Education.

Actually, the 100 was more in reference to the donating 100BTC aspect regardless if there were 42 or 314 members.

I've just been telling people that it's 100 people/members pledging to donate a combines $1,000. It's not 100 people any more, though...

Quoting here:


Discuss?

From a marketing standpoint, I've been having a very difficult time redefining the 100 aspect of Bitcoin 100. At the onset, it made perfect sense, but no longer.

Can we brainstorm to the nth degree to come up with what the 100 could mean so that years down the road it wouldn't once again lose its meaning?

Exactly.  Plus its a good idea for a handful of people that know what they are doing to handle the promotional expenditure.  I will happily donate to Bitcoin100 altruistically.  On a completely separate front though, Bitcoins could really benefit from smart public relations efforts.  Bitcoin100 represents a great opportunity to gain sympathetic media attention.  

As I'm sure many of us do, I have a vested interested in bitcoin's success.  As such, contributing to people that are strategic and know what their doing when publicly promoting the currency is high on my to-do list.  It helps everyone who has invested their time and money in bitcoin.

On the other hand, advertising and promoting and interfacing with media is a skill.  Plenty of advertisements accomplish the exact opposite of what they were intending because they are put out by those who don't understand how to influence people.  If we want it to be done effectively, it makes sense to get money into the hands of professionals for the purposes of promoting things like Bitcoin100.  We need good stories to counteract the bad ones (like the ones that equate bitcoin with drugs and criminals and child porn and money laundering, etc.) and Bitcoin100 is a good story that needs to be done right.

I will also happily donate to a bitcoin100 promotional fund if that's how you guys want to do it.  I'll even put you guys in touch with the best ad buyers and PR gurus in the world.  Maybe we can get them to do some of this promotion for free.  My main purpose though was to chime in and say that there is nothing wrong with advertising (and working every other possible angle) to maximize donations, as long as you're aiming to do good.  

 

May be better to give someone the 9.17BTC to build them a new website...

9.17 BTC sent to http://generationgreen.com/

https://blockchain.info/tx/8d74695fd3eff1b92aa66ae87fce1266f6b23d466d672611f5f00ab61ba5b395

Hello all,

Is there some kind of brochure document that explains Bitcoin 100 and can be sent to prospective non-profits thinking of adopting bitcoin as a method of accepting donations?

If yes, can I take a look at it?

And if no, happy to lend a hand creating one... think it would be quite useful.