UNICEF, the international charity focused towards benefiting children, issued a press release on October 9, 2019 in which is announced the establishment of a new fund called ‘UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund’.
This fund was created to facilitate the acceptance of both bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) tokens from interested donors, and is currently limited to the USA, Australia, France and New Zealand.
“If digital economies and currencies have the potential to shape the lives of coming generations, it is important that we explore the opportunities they offer.
That’s why the creation of our Cryptocurrency Fund is a significant and welcome step forward in humanitarian and development work.”
Henrietta Fore (UNICEF, Executive Director)
UNICEF pledges that the contributions raised for its new cryptocurrency fund will be allocated to open source technology projects which meet its core ethos of helping children and young people, in what it calls “a first for United Nations organisations”.
Once crypto funds are donated, they are held by the charity in the same currency – before being distributed to chosen partner organisations, in the same cryptocurrency. No funds are converted at any point.
Ethereum Foundation is to be the first donor to the fund. This donation is to be divided between three projects supported by the UNICEF Innovation Fund, as well as the GIGA Initiative (which aims to “to connect schools across the world to the internet”).
“Together with UNICEF, we’re taking action with the Cryptofund to improve access to basic needs, rights, and resources…
We aim to support the research and development of the Ethereum platform, and to grow the community of those that benefit from a technology that will better countless lives and industries in the years to come.”
Aya Miyaguchi (Executive Director, Ethereum Foundation)
Recent activities from UNICEF of note include ‘providing more than 300,000 children with education supplies to help keep them in school‘ and working with the Government of the Bahamas to ‘bring 10,000 displaced children back to school‘ taking place in September this year alone.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in the United Kingdom is another notable example of a charity which accepts cryptocurrencies, and claims to be “the first major charity in the UK or Ireland to accept Bitcoin”.
Beyond charity news: Japanese Minister of Internal Affairs ruled this week that financial regulations would not apply to political donations made to ministers in the country.
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