The beauty of blockchain technology is that it brings transparency and honesty to transactions.

Today I want to focus on how this new technology can drastically improve the honesty, efficiency, effectiveness of charities.

I first became familiar with Griff Green after the DAO attack, I’d referenced his articles on Medium many times to be sure I could get a hold of my Ether Classic. As it turns out, in addition to donating his time to help users of Ethereum, Griff Green also began a blockchain-based charity, so let’s check it out.

Giveth is a blockchain-based, open source platform built on the Ethereum blockchain.

It serves as a place to bring people together. It’s for those who have causes and goals towards community improvements, and it’s for those who want to help see that those goals come to fruition.

If you want to donate to a cause on Giveth, you will be connected to those individuals who are putting in the work, giving you a much more clear and honest look at directly how your donations are helping.

All too often the big name nonprofit foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or the American Red Cross are less than transparent about what they do with the funds raised through donations.

This just emphasizes the need for honesty for the good of those who need help, and for those who can provide it.

Also a really great aspect of Giveth is that it is open source, meaning that if one cause discovers a successful way to meet their goal, this method can be shared with others on the platform to help them achieve success as well.
So keep and eye out for Giveth if you’re looking for a way to contribute to an honestly good cause, or if you want to organize fundraising for a cause to benefit others.

There are other projects that have community at its core, one of these is pretty new, it’s called SmartCash.

There has been a bit of activity involving cryptocurrency in Venezuela, with some community members from Dash organizing educational conferences. SmartCash is also focused on helping Venezuelans in a number of ways.

In a nutshell, Smartcash is very focused on community governance, and community funded projects.

Because it is so new, the proposals are mostly focused on promotion of Smartcash, but I was quite happy to see that one proposal is designed to distribute roughly 600 meals once a week for a month. They will also be educating the locals there about the benefits of cryptocurrency and how they can invest with their local currency.

If you haven't already, be sure to check out the video to hear from Aaron, the man who developed this Smartcash proposal and his motivations for doing so!

Additional Reading/Sources:

Giveth website
Giveth Wiki
Griff Green on Medium

Bill & Melinda Gate Foundation Truth

American Red Cross Truth

Smartcash website
Roadmap
SmartRewards
SmartHive Governance Portal (Voting on Proposals)
Smartcash TipBot for Steemit