EURO 2025 Leeds
Abstract Submission

1339. Navigating Crypto Philanthropy: Should Nonprofits Self-Manage Their Crypto Fundraising or Rely on Third-Party Platforms?

Invited abstract in session TD-55: Game Theory, Contracts, and Economic Models for Humanitarian Aid, stream Humanitarian Operations.

Tuesday, 14:30-16:00
Room: Liberty 1.09

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Milad Keshvari Fard
Information, Decisions and Operations, University of Bath, School of Management
2. Jingshu Liu
Cranfield School of Management

Abstract

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) face persistent funding challenges, worsened by global crises and declining contributions from major donors. To mitigate these issues, many NPOs have embraced cryptocurrencies as an alternative funding source. While most rely on third-party platforms like The Giving Block to handle crypto donations, this approach incurs substantial fees and limits donor engagement. An alternative is self-managed crypto fundraising, which allows NPOs to retain control, reduce costs, and potentially attract more contributions by signalling innovation and financial efficiency.
This study investigates the financial implications of self-managed crypto fundraising compared to third-party outsourcing. Using data-driven mathematical modelling on over 28 cryptocurrency donation campaigns from 2018 to 2024—encompassing more than 300,000 transactions across 300 tokens—we evaluate expected financial returns under different liquidation strategies. Our findings indicate that self-management can significantly enhance fiat returns, particularly when employing simple trading heuristics like the Triple Exponential Moving Average. Even with immediate liquidation, financial gains remain substantial. Additionally, our results suggest that both small and large NPOs can benefit from self-management, albeit in different ways, making it a viable strategy for optimizing cryptocurrency fundraising efforts.

Keywords

Status: accepted

Back to the list of papers