Canadians Celebrate Giving Tuesday by Donating Crypto
On December 3, 2019, Canada and the world will take part in a growing movement known as Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday is an annual initiative aimed at promoting charitable giving and volunteering that follows the long-established traditions of Black Friday and Cyber Money. The Giving Tuesday movement hopes to be as meaningful and important to charitable giving as Black Friday and Cyber Monday are for retailers. Charities, companies, organizers, and volunteers are participating in Giving Tuesday in Canada as part of a global movement to encourage giving back to charitable causes and communities at the beginning of the holiday season.
Since its inception in 2012, the Giving Tuesday movement has grown to include over 6,500 partners. The 2019 Giving Tuesday will be the seventh incarnation of the annual event in Canada. Canadians donated over $15 million online in 2018. The GivingTuesday.ca website cites a CanadaHelps statistic that online giving made by Canadians has grown by 785 per cent since 2012, the year the Giving Tuesday movement began. In addition to financial donations, the movement also promotes other forms of giving, such as volunteering, food and clothing drives, helping local food banks, donations of blood, and general acts of kindness.
During last year’s Giving Tuesday in the United States, Facebook raised $125 million, the social media giant’s highest total ever for a single day. Total donations made on Giving Tuesday last year raised an estimated $400 million in America alone.
GivingTuesday.ca says that the movement, “harnesses the potential of social media and the generosity of people around the world to bring about real change in their communities; it provides a platform for them to encourage the donation of time, resources and talents to address local challenges. It also brings together the collective power of a unique blend of partners - non-profits, civic organizations, businesses, and corporations, as well as families and individuals - to encourage and amplify small acts of kindness. Across Canada and around the world, GivingTuesday unites communities by sharing our capacity to care for and empower one another.”
Some Canadian websites and programs offer users the option of making charitable donations in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency donations are becoming increasingly important in Canada and the rest of the world. The Canadian crypto donation platform Crypto Giving (cryptogiving.ca) says, “More and more charitable organizations are beginning to accept donations of various cryptocurrencies. Be it Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any of the many others, they are responding to a demand to give from the cryptocurrency community.”
Crypto Giving offers a comprehensive resource for people interested in making charitable donations with cryptocurrency in Canada. On the Crypto Giving website, Canadians can find a list of charities that accept crypto as payment, details about charities in the process of considering accepting cryptocurrency, as well as extra information and details to consider before making donations. The site says many charities in Canada that accept donations in the form of cryptocurrencies and will provide tax receipts for charitable contributions, allowing users to claim the deduction on their income taxes.
However, Crypto Giving representative Michael Powell warns Canadians that because cryptocurrencies are still in the early stages of development, the rules and regulations surrounding cryptocurrency use and donation have not kept up with the pace of change in technology. He says this is particularly true in terms of how the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) treats capital gains on charitable donations made with cryptocurrency.
Powell explains, "Presently, charitable cryptocurrency donations receive none of the favourable capital gains treatment that other donations of assets receive, such as traditional securities, like stocks," adding. "These securities are exempted from capital gains when given to charities. This incentivizes the direct donation of securities, which ultimately means larger donations."
In Canada, cryptocurrency donations are not exempt from capital gains taxes. Canadians are responsible for paying any capital gains taxes associated with making a charitable donation. Powell argues that the amount paid in capital gains can represent a significant amount, money that would otherwise be going to the charity if given exempt status.
Another Canadian crypto-based charity initiative to consider on Giving Tuesday is Coins 4 Clothes. The Toronto-based cause is offering to reward clothing donations made to charity in the form of Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Coins 4 Clothes also provide “education and support to every clothing donor, teaching them how they can store their coins, how to send and receive transactions, and where they can spend their Bitcoin Cash (BCH). In this way, we offer a low barrier of entry for anyone looking to get into cryptocurrency while helping provide clothing to communities across Canada.”
If you are based in Canada and looking for a Canadian Bitcoin exchange, then take a look at NDAX. NDAX is an easy-to-use, beginner-friendly exchange that can give you easy access to trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Cardano, Dogecoin, EOS and Stellar.