Endaoment uses USDC to pioneer a new digital fundraising model
THE OPPORTUNITY
Connecting crypto donors with worthy organizations
The crypto community has largely focused on building new economic infrastructure based on its values of financial inclusion, collaboration, and efficiency. Those same values are also shaping the community’s approach to giving back. Robbie Heeger, who founded Endaoment in 2019, is at the center of this movement. Inspired by the Donor-Advised Fund model offered by many traditional financial institutions, Heeger established a blockchain-native version that eliminates the paperwork, disbursement delays, and many of the costs while improving audit trails and visibility of fund movements.
To turn this vision into reality, Heeger needed infrastructure to bridge the gap between the blockchain world and the traditional banking system. After evaluating the landscape, he chose to build Endaoment with Circle’s Payouts API and USDC.
THE SOLUTION
Lower costs, faster payouts and easier compliance
To date, Endaoment has raised more than $10 million from donors and paid out more than $7 million to hundreds of verified organizations that have applied for grants. USDC is transparent, stable, and trusted by donors and recipients, making it the perfect way to transfer value over the internet.
USDC also helps by significantly reducing costs, simplifying processes, and increasing transparency. Raising funds and sending donations on an open-source blockchain gives unprecedented clarity to Endaoment’s audit trail and helps staff do more with less. Since its overhead expenses are so much lower, Endaoment can pass more of its donations directly to recipients.
“USDC is enabling a brand new form of online giving that’s just not possible with checks and ACH. It’s helping us capitalize on the altruism that pervades the entire digital asset ecosystem. We’ve raised and paid out millions of dollars to foundations committed to doing great things.”
- Robbie Heeger, CEO, Endaoment
Circle is also central to Heeger’s global ambitions for Endaoment. The infrastructure works around the world, and in addition to Ethereum is interoperable across Algorand, Flow, Hedera, Solana, Stellar, and TRON, with additional integrations planned.
“We send most of our funds to organizations that aren’t familiar with digital currency. When they see how easy it is to receive USDC and put it to work in the real world, they are blown away and want to know more.”
– Robbie Heeger, CEO, Endaoment
Endaoment is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity that encourages and man...
detailsEndaoment is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity that encourages and manages the charitable giving of digital assets and provides a wide range of philanthropic financial services. Its Donor-Advised Funds and Community Field-of-Interest Funds are powered entirely by smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, making it easy for cryptocurrency holders to donate their coins and for organizations to apply for grants. It’s a new kind of community foundation, with values and functionality aligned with and rooted in, crypto.