The Change DeVO Protocol is bringing to the Philanthropic Sector

Everyone in the philanthropy sector is focused on making the world a better place. Traditional methods of recruiting and retaining volunteers through centralised channels can be very expensive though, using up donor money that could otherwise have gone directly to the cause. Giving total transparency to donors and administering financial bureaucracy also uses up valuable contributions.

The blockchain, with its total transparency and ability to instantly form trusting relationships between pseudonymous actors, and the fact it can transfer targeted funds quicker and cheaper than traditional rails, creates an opportunity. DeVO is a protocol that will leverage the blockchain to create a world of decentralised volunteering, taking on the challenges facing philanthropy today, boosting productivity, better mobilising donors and volunteers to charity work, and increasing efficiency in the global $2.3 trillion philanthropy sector.

Total Transparency and Trust for Donors and Volunteers

The blockchain makes transactions transparent. If a donor gives to a cause, they can trace their donation from that point onward and ensure it’s spent appropriately. The DeVO platform has a number of interface options for donors and volunteers to communicate too, especially in the case of donors releasing funds on a milestone basis, with the DeVO smart contract disbursing the funds automatically once the donor has reviewed the work.

Sadly, there are also bad actors in the philanthropy sector, which destroy the reputation of so many fantastic organizations that change the world daily. It has caused donors to become wary of who and to what they give their money, especially at times when the newer influencer/creator economy overspills into philanthropy.

99% of amazing charities work hard to ensure total propriety and dollar-tracking for their donors, but this in turn creates an overbearing administrative cost that charities must, by their nature, use donor funds to cover. It’s a huge problem, but it’s a problem that DeVO, using the blockchain, solves. The mix of blockchain with milestone-based funding guarantees results and sends money directly to the cause.

Reducing Advertising spend and Recruitment Costs

It’s an unfortunate fact that charity organizations need to advertise their cause to find volunteers. There are an infinite amount of good causes in the world, but there is also an infinite amount of human goodwill to help those causes — if only it were easier. Causes must currently compete for attention in traditional advertising space, and even people actively seeking to give might not find causes they care about through all the noise. Volunteers also don’t know where to go to give their time easily to causes they care about. They may participate in ‘general’ volunteering for charity, perhaps working at a shop, but there is a disconnect between their labour and the direct change they are making.

The DeVO platform will be a better way for charities to recruit and retain volunteers. It will empower volunteers to work directly for the causes they care about and be rewarded for it. Together, it will mobilise the boots on the ground that are the lifeblood of the charity sector, and ensure those volunteers are rewarded when working directly for the causes they choose.

Increasing Volunteer Retention

Volunteers will also be rewarded through ecosystem benefits that come from the $DVO token, with a portion of the yield generated in their liquidity pools being distributed to the volunteer pool. Volunteers will participate directly in causes they care about, increasing their retention. Particular donors may also be happy to pay skilled and motivated volunteers directly out of their funds, all stipulated within the smart contract, so social enterprise can also flourish on-chain. This, too, will increase volunteer retention.

Established charities can quickly tap into a diverse ‘new’ pool of volunteers they wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach. They too can utilise DeVO’s platform to secure a footprint in web3 and gain access to volunteers on the ground floor who can help them get new initiatives off the ground or port successful initiatives from other locations by using DeVO’s volunteer base. An NGO can use donors funds transparently to instantly recruit a willing army in places they previously had no connections. This has the chance to make large charity organizations with a global reach and massive funding to launch broad-scale initiatives in multiple localised areas quickly and cheaply, with seamless deployment of funds in a safe and transparent manner into the hands of people doing the work at the local level.

Empowering Local Causes

The DeVO protocol, using the blockchain, better facilitates volunteering on a micro-community and peer-to-peer level. Micro causes that would otherwise struggle for funds can solicit donations through smart contracts and find donors who can provide directly to their cause. Moreover, the donor would be assured of no impropriety of funds as so often is the case with micro-causes — even when its leaders mean well. Volunteers from that community or outside will be able to browse various smart contracts on the platform that represent these charitable causes and quickly become involved in the cause, without that cause having to spend advertising dollars.

All of this adds up to the smallest micro community suddenly having the administrative firepower and access to donors and volunteers that the largest charity organisation has, meaning change at a grassroots level can truly blossom. DeVO will empower local communities with state-of-the-art management systems delivered through the total transparency of the blockchain.

Decentralized Volunteering to Redefine Philanthropy with DeVO

Decentralized volunteering has the capacity to change the world. DeVO is committed to leveraging the blockchain to provide the perfect platform for local and large-scale charity work. The chance to give institution-grade security and fundraising at a fraction of the cost to even the smallest micro project will have fantastic knock-on benefits throughout the charity sector.

DeVO is akin to GoFundMe, but on the blockchain. The blockchain negates many of the issues that plague influencer giving and put donors off — including the misappropriation of funds. Something which is impossible on the DeVO protocol. It creates a complete record of giving for donors and volunteers, and further rewards both for being involved in the philanthropy sector as a whole. The entire sector, from the largest charity to the individual cause leader, stands to benefit.

DeVO will bring decentralised volunteering to the mainstream, and help boost the efficiency and trust of the philanthropy sector as a whole. It will get donor money to exactly where it needs to be, and empower volunteers to support the causes they truly care about. Charity begins at home, and its home on the blockchain is DeVO.