Lumens for Charity - Donate XLM directly to Global Charities

Chirag175

SUMMARY

Lumens for Charity aspires to create a simple and easy way to contribute to some of the Noblest and Radical Charities and Non-Profits throughout the world using Stellar Lumens, regardless of whether the organization has a Stellar Wallet.

GOALS

◊ Create a Central Platform for Users to Donate to Global Charities and Non-Profit Organizations using Stellar Lumens.

Below is a screenshot of the central platform where donators can choose the charity they want to contribute to and then proceed with the transaction.

◊ Enable Donations using Lumens disregarding the Necessity of Organizations to have a Stellar Wallet.

Stellar focuses on global payments, and making sure that the currency can be sent easily without thinking of in-between complications makes it simple for the donator and the organization to only think about the cause and how they’re contributing.
This is made possible by ensuring proper integration of a User-friendly Instantaneous Cryptocurrency Conversion System in the platform that converts Lumens to the Organization’s preferred cryptocurrency or (in the future) FIAT.
This means that adding more charities and non-profits on the platform is simply a process of choosing a genuine organization with an important cause instead of limiting our choices by selecting only the ones that explicitly accept Lumens or any other Cryptocurrency.

◊ Encourage Organizations to Understand the World of Digital Currencies.

While it is crucial to develop a streamlined pathway for donators to proceed with Stellar Transactions (without caring about the minute details of the payment procedure) through the use of crypto conversions, it is also equally important to take one more step and encourage organizations to use digital currencies and accept donations directly in that format.
As with every form of currency, the more there are ways to earn and spend it, the more it’ll flourish and get adopted. So, organizations accepting Lumens will help us create a new use-case along with a more crypto-positive environment.

Why did I created Lumens for Charity?

Earlier, the only way to donate to charities and non-profits using Lumens was through finding which organizations accept it. Then among the few that currently do, the donator would’ve to go to each organization’s website and then find the donation address. Thanks to Lumenthropy, we have an updated list of organizations that currently accept Lumens, which helps donators to skip a step towards making donations. However, to skip multiple steps and significantly increase the number of charities, non-profits, and causes that we can preferentially choose and contribute to, it is essential to have a user-friendly crypto-donation system that helps take our mind out of the technicality of the process and instead, let us put our heart in. This is why I created Lumens for Charity, which is my answer to this problem and hopefully, will be our answer to solving critical issues around the world.

Why is this project valuable for Stellar?

First of all, the reason for opting for any form of cryptocurrency in my project is that Donations and Contributions were, and will always be about sharing what you have with others without any expectations or recognition. Hence, it goes hand in hand with paying via cryptocurrencies as they’re completely anonymous. Secondly, projects like Lumens for Charity provides a new use-case for digital currencies and help us remove some misconceptions and stigma surrounding cryptocurrency by associating itself with noble and trustable organizations. Due to the high transaction speeds of Stellar transactions and the belief of the Stellar Development Foundation in a borderless and open network, it is ideal for my project and allows for spontaneous international donations. Also, it is one of the suggested product and service ideas mentioned in the Developer Guide - Things to Build which expresses this project's need to exist.

What is the future for 'Lumens for Charity'?

The 2020-Beginning Project Timeline looks like this:

✔ Create a Simplistic yet Informative Donation Platform.

✔ Choose a Few Charities and Non-Profits initially.

✔ Integrate a way to perform Stellar Lumen Donations directly to Organizations.

⌛ Enable User Nomination for adding New Charities and Non-Profits to the platform.

🕐 Streamline the User Interface by adding integrated APIs.

Not only this, but features like "Receiving Donation Receipts" and "Viewing Donation History" are also being considered.

The 2020 Project Timeline consists of:

🎯 Be the Mainstream Central Platform for Lumen Donations.

🎯 Invent New Ways for Contributions and Fundraising.

An example could be of Subscription-based Donations.

🎯 Collaborating Directly with Organizations for added User-Benefits.

Similar to how organizations like Coin Center provide donators with gifts of appreciation, which is only possible if the donation could be tracked from the originating source to the end and the donator is verified. It is only possible through deep collaboration with the charity or non-profit.

How and Where to Access it?

Link - lumensforcharity.tech

The Website is available at the link above and can be accessed using most Web Browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc. on Desktop and Mobile Devices.

Steps to Donate:

Select the Charity or Non-Profit of your choice from the currently available options and click on "Donate".
You will be able to read a summary of the organization and the cause they're working towards. At this point, if you wish to proceed with the donation, you can do it through one of the two ways depending on whether the organization has a Stellar Wallet:
A) Direct Donations to Stellar Wallets: Click on the Pay or Withdraw option from your Stellar Wallet. Either Scan the QR Code or Copy-Paste the Stellar Address as your Destination Address. If there's a memo given alongside the QR Code, copy-paste it in the Memo section. Enter the amount of XLM to donate and proceed with the transaction.
B) Donate via Changelly: Enter the amount of XLM to donate. You will be able to see the real-time converted amount in terms of the organization's preferred currency. Proceed to the next step where you only need to enter your Email Address and Verify it. Do not change the Destination Address or the donation wouldn't reach the organization. Now, all that's left to do is send the requested amount of XLM through your Stellar Wallet (similar to step A) and complete the transaction.

Short Note

Thanks a lot if you made it till this point, and It's good to see that you're just as well invested in contributing and making a difference in the world. I'm looking forward to starting my UnderGrad studies and develop more technically advanced projects like the rest of the community. However, I'm a firm believer in "Giving the best you can irrespective of your skill level and competition."
Finally, I want to say that it will only be possible together that we make a change, and I will require your help in making this project a highlight of this SCF Round. If you cannot donate, at least vote this proposal, so that more people will be able to know and contribute.

magofox

Hi! As most people know, I've been running Lumenthropy.com for a year now and naturally I find your initiative quite interesting.

I think there are some good things in here that build on what Lumenthropy.com has been trying to accomplish. That is great!

However, there are a few areas that I think important for you to know or think about.

Lumenthropy.com is not just an updated list of nonprofits that officially accept lumen donations. The vast majority of those nonprofits are on the list because I have been in commutation directly with the nonprofits. Many times it's three months or more of back and forth communication with the head of their donations department. Often it's emails and other outreach with no reply.
It was an active choice to not list the wallets of each nonprofit on Lumenthropy.com. This is so people can go directly to the source and make sure their donations are making it to the nonprofit. A few of the nonprofits have changed course and changed their wallet, from a non-custodial wallet to an exchange, or vise versa. By having the wallet listed on lumenthropy.com, I would have to manage those decisions and ensure I had the most updated wallet info. That's just not practical.
On the same front of the decision to not list the wallet on lumenthropy.com, I think it's bad practice to get people used to donating to a nonprofit wallet that isn't sourced at the nonprofit's official site. It's way too easy for a scammer to say that it's a nonprofit wallet when it's not. People impersonate nonprofits all the time, even in the old world of knocking on someone's door and asking for cash or check.
While I like the idea of being digital currency agnostic, there are inherent efficiencies in using Stellar directly. More for the mission and excellent for micro donations. We can already give donations to any non-profit via visa or mastercard, but with that comes high fees to middle entities. Therefore, I believe it's important to be supportive of other ways to donate, but be mindful that some ways are simply better than others for payments. Therefore, in the long term benefit of nonprofits, I think the extra effort of creating the direct exposure to the benefits of Stellar is worthwhile.

I also have questions about how you would use the funds from any SCF winnings. Would those funds go to non-profits, or would they go to development costs?

Lastly, on a personal front, I think it would have been cool for you to first try to collaborate with me to help build and make better something I have put a lot of time into with essentially the same mission, to increase adoption while also helping people around the world. Everyone in this space keeps reinventing solutions to solve the same problems. The existence of 1,000 different cryptocurrencies is proof. For example, Facebook should have just worked with Stellar or another project already in flight rather than try to rule it themselves with Libra. /soapbox rant over.

Chirag175

First of all, Thanks a lot for taking the time to share your thoughts and write such a detailed comment.
Before I move forward, I want to be clear on the personal side of things as relationships and this community matters to me just as the professional aspects of my business. The reason I didn't reach out to you with a collaboration proposal is that despite having similar interests, my point-of-view and approach to this problem are fundamentally different.
I want to create a central platform for Lumen donations where donators can find the charity they wish to donate to and do it without much hassle. I don't want them to visit every charity they just want to know a brief about, before finally deciding to donate to one or a few specific ones. At this point, they can visit the charity website through the link provided on the platform to know as much as the organization's website has to offer, but they don't have to waste more of their time finding the right donation address. I want my platform to be simple and accessible to everyone despite their level of technical knowledge. It is just a matter of entering the on-screen details located in a single and consistent place and proceeding with the transaction.

Now, as you said, some people might have concerns about the on-screen details and their validity.

magofox I think it's bad practice to get people used to donating to a nonprofit wallet that isn't sourced at the nonprofit's official site.

An organization is built upon trust, so this matter is very crucial to me. Hence, to address this, let me tell you the things I have done:

I have provided the Stellar Wallet Address for charities or non-profits that accept lumens directly alongside their website's direct link where the destination address could be easily verified. This eliminates the possibility of having illegitimate wallet addresses as it can be checked.
Users perform Stellar Transactions through their preferred wallets and can clearly see the destination address and the amount of lumens they would have to send beforehand. This eliminates the possibility of server-side address changes.
For donations performed through Changelly, the Wallet Address of the charity or non-profit's preferred cryptocurrency is completely visible and modifiable inside the widget. Again, a direct link to the organization's website on the platform confirms that the Wallet Address indeed belongs to the Organization. This, as said previously, eliminates the possibility of having illegitimate wallet addresses as it's just a matter of seconds before it is verified and called out.

Regardless, keeping magofox's concerns and the state of internet security in mind, I'll be focusing on keeping this platform further secure in the coming future.

These comments further validate my reason for why I couldn't reach out to you and how different our approach to the problem is.

magofox Many times it's three months or more of back and forth communication with the head of their donations department. Often it's emails and other outreach with no reply.

I understand the efforts that are needed to convince an organization to not only get a Stellar Wallet but be an early adopter. And this is the exact reason why I feel that while it's vital to encourage organizations to accept Lumens, we cannot wait until all the charities and non-profits start doing that. Think of it this way, while we must proceed to invent electricity, we cannot stop using coal for the time being and progress naturally to the next state. As you stated, the above process takes a long time and often ends up with no response. So, by creating a present use-case for Stellar Lumens by accepting them and sending it in their preferred currency, organizations would have something on paper to understand what this cryptocurrency is about and how it is making a difference already.

magofox By having the wallet listed on lumenthropy.com, I would have to manage those decisions and ensure I had the most updated wallet info. That's just not practical.

While organizations can change their Wallet Address, it is not a daily occurrence that an international organization decides to change their wallet address, which is why regular checks will prevent the platform from having outdated wallet addresses. Also, this could be the case for newer forms of digital currencies but the organizations listed on the platform have a history of donations made in popular cryptocurrencies on a specific wallet address for some time. Again, if I can't even find a solution to regularly update those, then how will I justify the use of SCF winnings? The ability to donate directly is a core functionality. I'm willing to spend on developing a solution for it.

magofox We can already give donations to any non-profit via visa or mastercard, but with that comes high fees to middle entities.

This is why I'm only accepting in Lumens and all conversions on the platform are made from Lumens to another cryptocurrency of the organization's choice. This reduces conversion and all middle-man charges to the current minimum while allowing us to donate to organizations that aren't even aware of Stellar. Which this project aims to change.

magofox It was an active choice to not list the wallets of each nonprofit on Lumenthropy.com. This is so people can go directly to the source and make sure their donations are making it to the nonprofit.

Upon going through your reply and understanding your website, I feel that you need to know and accept that our solutions are different. The choices you make need not imply the actions I take on my platform. I'm willing to work on listing and updating the wallets on the platform and create an easy way to donate directly to global causes.

magofox I also have questions about how you would use the funds from any SCF winnings. Would those funds go to non-profits, or would they go to development costs?

There was a reason why I didn't write regarding my plans pertaining to the funds from SCF Winnings. Financial matters are very sensitive and I don't want to make wrong decisions. Before I can publicly disclose the specifics of the fund allocation, I need to be certain of winning and I may have varied decisions based on the total amount of the fund. However, I will strive to be transparent with what decisions I make. Thank you for your concern.

Finally, I just want to say that without this comment, I wouldn't have been able to properly express my point-of-view, what this project is about and what it means to me. I want to apologize if you're hurt that I didn't reach out to you first. I felt that our solutions are different and deserve to co-exist like Android and iOS which also have the same goal but have different ways to achieve it. With that said, I want to make amends and it would be a pleasure to have your assistance throughout the way and I'll be happy to help you as well. Peace out! ✌️

magofox

Fair enough.

One comment, however, if people have to go to the nonprofit's website to make sure the official 54 character address matches what is listed on your website, didn't you just add steps rather than reduce them?

Chirag175

magofox
Verification of the Wallet Address isn't a necessary step. People can have faith in the platform and proceed with the donation. However, to implement transparency on the platform, the wallet address is visible and can be double-checked with the one on the organization's website.

Chirag175

[unknown] And they can have it on the platform.

Chirag175

[unknown] True. Hoping everyone is taking the right security measures. Though, I can assure you of my platform.

overcat

Anyway, this is a great idea. In some poor areas, two hundred dollars can support students to complete a year of schooling.

I also thought about building such a platform, but I cannot prove to others that I am trustable.

Good luck.

Chirag175

overcat Thanks a lot for your comment. You're absolutely true. The difference the world can make if they share some of their hard-earned money or crypto is mind-blowing! I felt there was a need to make it easy for people to do it. A lot of people are willing to make the world a better place but often, they don't know how to contribute. And I'm glad to know that you also thought about working on something like this. I'm in the process of adding more charities and non-profits that accept lumens or bitcoins. If there are any you really feel I should consider first, then please write it down and I'll definitely take them into consideration. Hoping to see you here often. Thank You!