When I first encountered Melody Song, she was a wiz prospect researcher willing to demonstrate relationship mapping with NodeXL to the Prospect Research Institute’s ad hoc working group on the subject.
A few career iterations later she is doling out grants at the razor’s edge of philanthropy, leveraging blockchain to democratize giving at Popcorn. This is not the kind of philanthropy just anyone can handle.
“Only participate if you know what you are doing.”
-Popcorn website
Decentralized finance is complex and the Popcorn website sometimes reads like it’s written for a graduate level study in economics. In other words, sometimes it reads like it’s in a different language!
Thankfully, the ever articulate Melody Song provides us with an intelligible and delightful explanation of how Popcorn helps investors make money and uses its management fees to fund social impact.
Melody has the privilege of working on the team to create this philanthropic endeavor, which is organized much like a giving circle. Popcorn investors have tokens, which provide them with voting rights to determine how the foundation money is distributed.
Of course, Melody says it all so much better. And at the end of the interview, she shares some interesting demographic information that sounds like multiple different opportunities for nonprofits to benefit by doing good…
Resources Mentioned
Giveth
“Our intention is to support and reward the funding of public goods by creating open, transparent and free access to the revolutionary funding opportunities available within the Ethereum ecosystem.”
The Giving Block
A platform to help nonprofits to accept crypto donations and allow donors to quickly identify crypto-ready charities.
Ethereum
Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It’s a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today.
Solana
Solana is the fastest blockchain in the world and the fastest growing ecosystem in crypto, with over 400 projects spanning DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and more.
Decrypting Crypto for Nonprofits—Bitcoin Donations and Beyond, with Alex Wilson
The Nonprofit Hero Factory Podcast | 2021
Cryptocurrency and Philanthropy
Fidelity Charitable | 2021 | Article summarizing the results from a survey conducted by Fidelity Charitable
Sam Bankman-Fried: The crypto whale who wants to give billions away
Magazine by Cointelegraph | 2021
The future will be decentralized
Charles Hoskinson | TEDxBermuda | 2014
Nonprofits & NFTs Explained: A New Vision for Charitable Fundraising
The Giving Block | Undated
Giving USA: What does it mean for the global SVP community?
Social Venture Fund International | 2021
Cryptocurrencies Resource Link List
Aspire Research Group | Elisa Shoenberger | undated
