Building Trust in Charity Donations with the Vantage Network

Every year, billions are spent on charitable donations worldwide. Yet for many people, once that money has been given to a charity they don’t know where it goes.

As a result, trust in the charity industry has dropped. A study from March shows that trust in charities is down by six per cent in the past year. The ‘Trust in Charities and the Overseas Development Sector,’ published by nfpSynergy, a not-for-profit research consultancy, revealed that 54 percent of 1,000 adults said they trusted charities “a great deal” or “quite a lot”, compared with 60 per cent a year earlier.

Trust in overseas aid and the development sector has also fallen, dropping to 36 percent from 40 per cent. However, while Baroness Tina Stowell, the new chair of the U.K.’s Charity Commission, has vowed to “rebuild trust in charities,” other forces are stepping up to provide the solution.

The Vantage Network is a contribution tracking platform that enables donors to see exactly how the money they contribute to a fundraising campaign is spent through the NEM blockchain. According to the platform’s white paper, “this level of visibility engenders donor confidence, building trust in nonprofits and ultimately yielding more money raised to help people in need.”

For a donor to make a donation to a nonprofit through the Vantage Network all that’s required is a credit card; they don’t need cryptocurrency. Similar to tracking a package, donors can then track their donations with a tracking ID. Once the nonprofit receives the donation in its Vantage Account they are able to spend the donation via the Vantage Mobile Pay app. This allows nonprofits to track their spending without needing to manage a crypto wallet or convert funds from cryptocurrency to fiat. Every purchase that is made is tracked on the Vantage Network using blockchain technology.

The Vantage Token (XVT) is a key component to the Vantage Network. From every donation received through the network, a small percentage is converted into XVT. These tokens will be used within the platform to track how fundraising organisations spend the donations they receive, as well as recording charitable donations and tracking disbursements from nonprofits for goods and services. According to the network’s roadmap, they are aiming to directly donate to charities with XVT in Q4 2019. By Q2 2020, the intention is to donate directly to Vantage Verified ICOs with its token.

By leveraging the blockchain, the Vantage Network is eliminating donor scepticism. With more money coming in to a chosen charity they can focus their attention on the impact they want to achieve and the people they want to help.

In addition to building trust in the charity sector, the platform is exposing people to the benefits of the blockchain without the involvement of cryptocurrency. At the same time, it’s giving nonprofits the opportunity to use the technology to deliver transparency without having to massively change their business model.

By providing a solution to a real-world problem that people can relate to nonprofits no longer have to compete with established international aid organisations or individual micro-campaigns on social media.

Find out more about Vantage Network and read their whitepaper.