Endaoment, a blockchain-based community foundation and the first on-chain 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity, announced a partnership with the Stand With Asians (SWA) grassroots movement to provide critical support to end Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community discrimination and violence. Through this partnership, Endaoment has launched a first-of-its-kind Community Fund, distributing crypto donations based on community decisions of those closest to the cause.
The Endaoment Stand With Asians Community Fund has raised US$700,000 in crypto donations and distributed grants to more than 20 recipient organizations, including Asian Americans United, Center for Asian Americans for Self Empowerment (CAUSE), and Sakhi for South Asian Women, among many others.
“We are proud to partner with Stand With Asians and stand up against the oppression of the AAPI community,” said Endaoment President and CEO, Robbie Heeger. “It’s gratifying to realize that, through Endaoment’s technology, we can provide cryptocurrency donations in a simple and efficient way to groups that are in need of timely assistance.”
Impact with Blockchain
The launch of Endaoment’s community fund concept establishes a new, more collaborative giving structure within the blockchain industry, where a group of individuals that are experts in or work closest to the cause at hand, collectively decide on the organization´s best fit to receive donations and drive social impact.
The group acts as advisors to the fund and together, identify and vote on grant recipients. After the group has collectively decided on the beneficiaries, Endaoment honours its recommendations and executes the distribution of funds. In the spirit of transparency and trust, which have long characterized the DeFi space, grant recipients are required to provide a three-month report of the grant’s impact on the community they serve.
“We would like to identify the groups that can make an immediate impact within the AAPI community,” said Tian He, co-founder of SWA. “We have a preference for smaller non-profits and grassroot organizations, as they are more likely to be underfunded and can act more quickly to identify the areas of greatest need.”
Crypto Funds
Endaoment’s Stand With Asians Community Fund grant recipients include organizations supporting AAPI women, children, and families, cultural preservation and celebration, community building, and education, to name just a few. The full list of grant recipients can be found on Endaoment’s website. The fund will remain open and continue to accept donations and recommend the distribution of US$25,000 grants to the AAPI community.
“Uniswap is defined and made possible by our community–and the outpour of participation for this initiative was truly inspiring,” said Callil Capuozzo, design lead at Uniswap. “We’re honoured to be working alongside Pplpleasr, SWA, and Endaoment to ensure these funds go to providing crucial support to AAPI non-profit and grassroots organizations fighting discrimination across the country.”
The Stand With Asians Community Fund was seeded by an initial donation of 263.5 ETH from Pplpleasr’s recent NFT auction of the Uniswap V3 trailer. This initial donation, plus additional contributions from the general public are distributed via Endaoment as US$25,000 grants to 25 non-profit organizations serving the AAPI community.
“There is a lot of money in the cryptocurrency space right now so if there is anything I can do to help funnel some of that to help those in need, it would be my way of showing allyship as well as inspiring positivity towards the NFT space,” said Pplpleasr.
Founded in 2020, Endaoment leverages blockchain technology to allow individuals and organizations to make efficient, tax-deductible donations in more than 150 cryptocurrencies to any registered non-profit in the US. Since its inception, it has provided more than 1.5 million organizations with the infrastructure to process digital asset donations.
Endaoment
Endaoment is a California Public Benefit Corporation based in San Francisco, federally tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3), serving as decentralized finance’s Community Foundation. It provides Donor-Advised Funds through its web-application, enabling users to donate any major crypto to nearly any US non-profit.
#StandWithAsians
Stand with Asians is a grassroots organization that drives awareness of the challenges facing the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. It was formed after a friend of co-founder Tian He was brutally stabbed in the back in Manhattan’s Chinatown simply for being Asian American.
Channelling their hurt into action, a group of friends decided to organize a day of action on March 26, which activated elected officials, influencers/celebrities, and business leaders across the nation with 12 hours of live streaming content and 24 hours of audio content.
Pplpleasr
Pplpleasr is a digital artist known for her collaborations with DeFi protocols such as Aave, Sushiswap, Yearn Finance, and more. In the past, she has worked on movies such as Batman vs. Superman, Wonder Woman, as well as the Diablo IV cinematic. Most recently, she is known for her work on the Uniswap v3 animation.
Uniswap
Uniswap is a protocol for trading ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum. It removes intermediaries and unnecessary forms of rent extraction, allowing for fast, efficient trading. Prioritizing decentralization and security above all, the protocol has facilitated over US$135 billion in trading volume and is the most popular application on Ethereum (by transaction count). Uniswap ranks as one of the largest cryptocurrency spot exchanges in the world.
