The NFT Space is booming

Over the past year, the NFT (Non-Fungible Token) space has gained visibility through digital art and collectibles. As the space matures, new use cases begin to emerge—one of which is charity-focused NFTs or options for allocating funds to charity when purchasing NFTs. 

Charitable NFT collections enable communities to leverage NFT technology to facilitate transparent, charitable giving. In August 2021 alone, NFT projects raised over $23M for nonprofits. Since then, Solana projects have continued to bring communities together to give back to causes they believe in. From Belugies raising $240K+ for nonprofits like the Beluga Whale Alliance to Autonomous Scoop Shop donating ongoing royalties to the International Child Art Foundation—projects in the Solana ecosystem have prioritized making an impact from day one. Most recently, the Fisker by hand: OCEAN NFT collection allocated 50% of its sale proceeds and 5% of secondary sales to non-profit organizations supporting their ESG principles. 

It is clear that the Solana NFT community has made charitable giving a high priority, with creators streamlining contributions by introducing donations directly into smart contracts. However, the notion of giving back extends beyond just creators and has opened the door to Solana-based platforms giving back. Last week, Formfunction donated 100% of its transaction fees to support Ukraine in response to the platform’s creators raising over 300 SOL in one week for the cause.

Much like the platforms and creators on Solana, Metaplex also believes in using NFT technology to do good. As an open-source protocol, Metaplex Studios maintains an inclusive environment for all communities, supporting an ecosystem that has over 85,000 community projects. As we continue to build new smart contracts and continue on the shared vision of charitable giving, we choose to partner with organizations that can help us build a better ecosystem for all. This is why we partnered with Change: a strong advocate for passionate communities and charitable giving with over 200,000 nonprofit custodial wallets, making royalty splitting for charity easy. Together, we’re building more opportunities to support charitable causes with NFTs.

The Change x Metaplex partnership has already helped bring success to charity NFT projects. Recently, a Lunar New Year NFT collection was released for 2022 to support Welcome to Chinatown’s Longevity Fund, which quickly raised over 44 SOL for their community.

When the NFT collection was minted on Metaplex, Welcome to Chinatown’s wallet was added as a creator split for both primary and secondary sales. Through viewing the NFTs on Solscan, the nonprofit’s creator address is publicly verifiable and all charitable contributions were transparently handled by the fund. With verified nonprofit addresses, communities are confident that the charitable NFT collection is routing funds to the end nonprofit safely in perpetuity.

With Metaplex x Change, we’re thrilled to introduce a streamlined approach for a new generation of fundraising. By processing donations through Change, nonprofits receive consolidated donations once a month as grants from Our Change Foundation, a 501(c)(3) donor-advised fund. With the help of Our Change Foundation, nonprofits are relieved of donor management logistics like issuing tax receipts and can focus on making an impact.

Change and Metaplex have come together to lay the foundation for minting charitable NFTs transparently. Both creators and communities can now rely on verified nonprofit splits in the smart contract and track all contributions on-chain. It’s never been easier to supercharge your community and support the cause of your choice with NFTs. 

Want to get started giving back? Here are some instructions on how to get started, and feel free to pop in the Change Discord or if you have any questions!