PUBLISHED: Sun, Dec 21, 2025, 9:47 PM UTC | UPDATED: Mon, Dec 22, 2025, 12:21 AM UTC
The $592 Billion Nonprofit Fundraising Machine (And the New Channel That Could Make It Bigger)
American Nonprofits Are Really Good at Raising Money
Let's start with something that doesn't get said enough: American charities are incredibly effective at raising money.
In 2024, U.S. charitable giving hit $592.5 billion. That's billion with a B. Even more impressive, 66% of that total came from individual donors. Regular people opening their wallets, year after year, to support causes they believe in.
The ASPCA is a prime example of what works. Their advertising returns are among the best in the nonprofit sector. The Sarah McLachlan "Angel" campaign became legendary, raising $30 million in two years. It was so successful that the ASPCA's communications VP called it "unprecedented for a non-profit promotion." The organization generates over $370 million in annual revenue.
The Ad Council, which creates public service announcements for causes like drunk driving prevention and childhood literacy, receives $1.8 billion in donated media value every year. Their campaigns have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Their "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste" campaign for the United Negro College Fund has raised $2.2 billion over its lifetime and helped 400,000 students graduate.
This is no small accomplishment. Convincing millions of Americans to give away their hard-earned money, every year, to support organizations they'll never directly benefit from? That's remarkable.
So this isn't a story about "fixing" nonprofit fundraising. It works.
But what if there was a way to add a completely new channel to it?
The Fundraising Treadmill Never Stops
Every successful nonprofit runs on a predictable cycle. Build awareness. Ask for donations. Thank donors. Show impact. Repeat next year.
This model has generated nearly $600 billion annually, which is incredible. But the data reveals some friction points:
Industry research shows that 70% of first-time donors never give a second time. That means if a nonprofit convinces 100 new people to donate this year, only 30 of them will return next year. The other 70 have to be replaced just to stay even.
And finding new donors is expensive. Really expensive.
Industry data shows it costs nonprofits $1.00 to $1.50 to raise each dollar from a new donor. That's not a typo. Many organizations lose money on first-time donors and only break even if those donors keep giving for years.
The math gets worse when you look at specific channels:
Direct mail campaigns cost $1.00 to $1.25 per dollar raised
Social media ads return just 57 cents per dollar spent
Charities have to keep running expensive campaigns just to replace the donors who stopped giving. The ASPCA pays outside contractors $78-81 million every year for "donor acquisition" and "donor engagement." That's money spent finding new donors, not helping animals.
POS (point-of-sale) donation systems have helped. According to NPR, nonprofits raised $749 million from checkout donations in 2022, up 24% from 2020. That's a meaningful new channel that developed over the past decade.
DAFs are a similar story with assets more than doubling from $152 billion in 2020 to $326 billion in 2024 according to the DAF Research Collaborative. DAFs now receive roughly one-sixth of all individual giving in the U.S. and granted $64.9 billion to charities last year.
But what if there was another channel? One where people don't have to be asked to donate at all? Enter crypto.
What Actually Went Wrong with Crypto and Charity
Before we talk about what's possible now, we have to be honest about what went wrong before.
The FTX Collapse Destroyed Trust
In November 2022, FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange valued at $32 billion, collapsed in 9 days. An $8 billion hole was revealed in their accounts. Sam Bankman-Fried, who had positioned himself as a charitable philanthropist committed to "effective altruism," was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
FTX spent $1.13 billion on celebrity endorsements. Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen appeared in Super Bowl ads. Stephen Curry, Larry David, and Shaquille O'Neal promoted the platform. When it collapsed, a class-action lawsuit was filed against all of them.
The FTX Future Fund, a charitable organization bankrolled by Bankman-Fried, had committed $160 million in grants. When the collapse happened, the entire team resigned. Charities that had been promised funding were left wondering if they'd ever see it.
This wasn't just bad for crypto. It was a disaster for anyone trying to connect cryptocurrency with charitable giving.
The SEC Enforcement Wave Created Legal Fear
Between 2023 and 2024, the SEC brought 46 cryptocurrency-related enforcement actions, a 53% increase from the prior year and the highest number since they started tracking in 2013 (all of which have been dropped since the new administration began in 2025).
The major cases read like a who's who of crypto:
Binance: Sued by SEC in June 2023 for operating as an unregistered exchange
Coinbase: Sued by SEC in June 2023 (case recently dismissed in 2025)
Kraken: Settled for $30 million, forced to shut down staking program
Ripple: Fined $125 million for unregistered securities sales
Terraform Labs: Founder Do Kwon charged after Terra/LUNA collapse
Genesis and Gemini: Charged for unregistered securities through lending programs
The SEC also brought its first-ever enforcement actions against NFT issuers, applying securities laws to digital collectibles.
For legitimate nonprofits considering any involvement with crypto, this created a clear message: stay away unless you want to risk legal trouble.
NFTs Never Became a Sustainable Funding Channel
NFTs still had to be sold. Someone had to decide to buy a digital artwork from a charity. That's just donation with extra steps.
And unlike liquid markets where trading happens continuously, most charity NFTs were one-time sales. When the NFT market collapsed in 2022-2023, so did any fundraising tied to it.
NFTs never provided what charities actually need: predictable, ongoing funding that doesn't depend on convincing someone to make a purchase decision.
Enter Causecoins: Funding That Runs on Autopilot
On December 10, 2025, something different launched.
A token called $EAT went live on the Base blockchain (that's Coinbase's network). Within the first week, trading activity had already generated enough funding for 1,000 meals through Feeding America partner organizations.
When people trade WYDE: End Hunger ($EAT) on Coinbase, every trade automatically sends a portion of the fees to verified hunger relief charities. Buy $40 worth of $EAT, and you've funded at least one meal. The charity doesn't have to ask you for money. They don't have to run ads. They don't have to convince you to care.
The funding just happens.
Nobody "donates" in the traditional sense. People trade. Buy, sell, normal market activity. But every trade automatically generates funding for hunger relief organizations.
On March 7, 2024, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed a new law called the Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act (DUNA).
This sounds like boring legal stuff, but it matters. Here's why:
Wyoming has a history of creating legal structures that later become standard. They invented the LLC. They were first to legally recognize DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations). Now they've created the first U.S. framework specifically designed for nonprofit blockchain organizations.
A DUNA provides:
Legal entity status. The organization can sign contracts, open bank accounts, appear in court, and hold property. It's a real legal entity, not just code on the internet.
Limited liability protection. Members aren't personally responsible for the organization's actions. Before DUNAs, everyone who held tokens in a DAO could potentially be sued personally. The CFTC actually tried this with a project called Ooki DAO.
Governance structure. Token holders can vote on how funds are used. The law recognizes this as legitimate governance.
Tax compliance pathway. The IRS knows how to deal with DUNAs.
The venture capital firm a16z called the Wyoming DUNA "an oasis for DAOs" and committed to directing their associated projects toward DUNA status.
For a deeper explanation of how DUNAs work, see: What is a DUNA?
Why This Changes Everything for Nonprofits
Think about what this means for an organization like the ASPCA.
Currently, they spend $56 million on advertising to acquire donors who mostly disappear within a year. The cycle repeats forever.
With a causecoin model, that same advertising budget could drive trading volume instead of donations. Every trade generates funding automatically. Traders stay in the ecosystem because they're participating in a market, not responding to a charity appeal. There's no "donor fatigue" because nobody is being asked to donate.
The Ad Council already proves that media attention can be generated at massive scale. $1.8 billion in donated media value every year. But that attention currently generates awareness, not direct funding. PSAs change behavior, but they don't automatically put money into cause treasuries.
Causecoins connect those dots. Media attention drives trading activity. Speculation drives price. Trading activity generates fees. Fees fund charities. The whole thing runs continuously without anyone having to make a donation decision.
Wait, Why Haven't Charities Done This Before?
Previous crypto charity attempts failed for specific reasons. Causecoins address each of them:
Scams and fraud ruined trust. For every legitimate crypto charity project, there were dozens of scams. Projects that claimed to support causes but disappeared with investor money. Rug pulls. Fake foundations. The crypto space earned its reputation for sketchy behavior, and legitimate nonprofits didn't want to be associated with it.
Securities laws were unclear. When you create a token, are you selling a security? The SEC has gone after numerous crypto projects for selling unregistered securities. No legitimate nonprofit wants to get sued by federal regulators. The legal risk was too high.
No clear path to actual funding. Most crypto "charity" projects relied on token price appreciation. The idea was: token goes up, charity gets rich. But token prices go down too. And when they crash, the charity is left with nothing. This isn't sustainable funding. It's gambling.
NFTs didn't work either. Remember when charities were minting NFTs? Same problem. NFT value depended on market speculation. When the NFT market collapsed, so did the fundraising. Plus, most charity NFTs were one-time sales with no ongoing revenue.
The Big De-Risk and Unlock for Charities
Now here's where it gets interesting for organizations like the ASPCA or partners of the Ad Council.
The charity isn't "launching a crypto." They're accepting grants from a legally structured nonprofit organization. The same thing they do when the Gates Foundation or a corporate donor writes them a check.
But the difference is this nonprofit has a mission to fund the impact the 501(c)(3) is already actively carrying out making them natural partners.
The DUNA structure creates a clean separation between the causecoin organization and the nonprofit partners.
What the nonprofits have to do:
Accept grants (like they would from any foundation)
Optionally approve marketing materials that use their name
What the nonprofits don't have to do:
Hold cryptocurrency
Run marketing campaigns
Build donor lists
Manage crypto volatility
Deal with securities regulations
Understand blockchain technology
Stop donor fundraising in their existing channels
The charity doesn't own tokens. They don't manage wallets. They don't worry about price fluctuations. They just receive funding.
This eliminates the major risks that kept legitimate nonprofits away from crypto:
Brand risk? Minimized.
Securities risk? Not their problem.
Price fluctuation risk? Doesn't affect grant funding. Trading fees are collected continuously regardless of token price. A $100 trade at $0.001 per token generates the same fees as a $100 trade at $1.00 per token.
Scam association? The DUNA provides legal legitimacy that fly-by-night crypto projects can't match. Real legal entity in the US. Real tax compliance. Real accountability.
The Bigger Picture: Markets Are Growing Faster Than Giving
Here's the most important context:
U.S. charitable giving is substantial, but it's growing slowly. The $592.5 billion in 2024 represented a 6.3% increase from the prior year.
Meanwhile, prediction markets exploded from almost nothing.
Kalshi and Polymarket, two prediction market platforms, combined for record-breaking volume in November 2025. Kalshi alone achieved $50 billion in annualized volume in 2025, up from just $300 million the prior year. According to CNBC, analysts predict prediction markets could reach a trillion dollars in annual trading volume by the end of this decade.
These platforms didn't exist at scale five years ago. They created a new market category from scratch.
Causecoins aim to do something similar: create a new channel that adds to existing charitable giving rather than replacing it. Not replacing the $592 billion, but potentially expanding the total market by tapping into the $5+ trillion in annual DEX trading volume.
The POS Comparison
When point-of-sale donation systems first emerged, they created a new channel for charitable giving. By 2022, checkout donations at retail stores generated $749 million for nonprofits, up 24% from 2020.
POS didn't replace direct mail or major gifts or corporate philanthropy. It added a new way for people to give, in small amounts, at moments when they were already spending money.
Causecoins could be similar: not a replacement for existing fundraising, but a new channel that captures a different type of activity. Instead of asking people at checkout, it captures value from trading activity that's already happening.
If prediction markets can grow from zero to $10 billion by creating new market infrastructure, causecoins could potentially do something similar by connecting trading activity to charitable impact.
Where This Goes
$EAT is the first causecoin, focused on hunger relief. The same model could apply to other causes:
Childhood cancer research
Ocean cleanup
Animal welfare
Housing and homelessness
Clean water access
Tech and Education access
Poverty
Each would operate as its own DUNA, with its own token, its own community of holders, and its own treasury governed by participants voting on which organizations receive funding.
The goal isn't to replace how nonprofits raise money. It's to add a new funding channel that didn't exist before.
American charities are already remarkably effective at raising $592 billion per year. Causecoins offer the possibility of expanding that total by creating permanent infrastructure that converts trading activity into charitable funding.
The first causecoin launched two weeks ago. 1,000 meals funded so far. 1 billion meals is the goal.
The vision is to create what WYDE calls "the stock market for impact." A public market where trading activity funds solutions to humanity's biggest problems.
$EAT is available on Base through Coinbase. Learn more at wyde.org/eat
**About the Author **
Aaron Rafferty is a behavioral scientist and a Founding Member of WYDE, the world's first Impact Exchange. His research background includes NIH-funded work on human health outcomes, digital therapeutics, health access, decision-making and human behavior. He is now the Co-Founder and CEO of Standard labs a software holding company and applies that expertise to building market infrastructure that channels trading activity into verified charitable impact. Aaron is based in Irvine, California.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. Cryptocurrency investments involve significant risk, including potential loss of principal. Consult appropriate professionals before making any financial decisions.
