Circle employees and an appeal to the greater Web3 Community will provide grants to boots-on-the-ground organizations in Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, and Illinois
BOSTON, SAN FRANCISCO — DECEMBER 16, 2021 — Circle Internet Financial, LLC, announces a collaboration with Endaoment to create a disaster relief fund to help the communities impacted by last weekend’s deadly tornadoes. The fund will simultaneously be launched to Circle employees and the broader Web3 community with a goal of raising $1M in grants to support the American Red Cross and local, boots-on-the-ground non-profit organizations and includes a commitment from Circle to match employee donations. Endaoment is providing the platform to facilitate Circle Impact Disaster Relief Fund donations and will deploy them to the agencies in need.
The Circle Impact Disaster Relief Fund is part of Circle's recently announced Circle Impact initiative and will be a long-term tool for making simple, easy, non-profit disaster relief donations. From the fund page, minimum donations of $20 may be made via USD Coin (USDC) or other cryptocurrencies via connected crypto wallets. Fiat currency donations in any denomination may be made using a credit or debit card.
Endaoment is the first fully on-chain 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to creating a faster, documented, more transparent giving experience and mobilizing more efficient payments. Raising funds and sending donations on an open-source blockchain gives unprecedented clarity to Endaoment’s audit trail and increases donation efficacy. With its innovative donor-advised fund model and low fee structure, Endaoment is able to grant out more value to the grant recipients than other organizations.
“Our employees asked how Circle could help the communities devastated by this weekend’s storms,” said Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle. “We knew Endaoment could help us create a funding mechanism that would put aid in the hands of communities faster and provide the donation platform to extend donation opportunities across the Web3 community. They have been a tremendous and fast collaborator in this initiative.”
Endaoment will distribute funds in intervals of $20,000 to a rotating list of organizations which will include: Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund, Center for Disaster Philanthropy, Team Rubicon, All Hands and Hearts, Midwest Food Bank NFP, American Red Cross and Mutual Aid Relief. Each organization will have the option to receive their grant as US Dollars via a bank wire or USDC via the organization’s cryptocurrency wallet.
“When Circle’s team approached us about helping with disaster relief efforts, it was an easy and obvious ‘Yes!’,” said Robert Heeger, Founder and CEO of Endaoment. “It is through incredible partners like Circle that we have been able to grant more than $11 million worth of donations to nearly 300 nonprofits this year. With Circle’s support, we are able to expand our reach and continue to empower the community to autonomously allocate charitable gifts to causes in need of funding.”