GIVING WITH STEEM : A Quick Survey of Charitable Initiatives on Steem
Since my early days on Steem one of the elements of the platform that has most captivated me has been the potential for charitable giving.
This led me back in 2017/18 to set up the A Dollar A Day project which raised funds by small daily donations from members of the community.
The project ran for about 8 months and in that time it raised over $5000 that was donated to a number of charitable and humanitarian projects that were represented on the Steem blockchain like @schoolforsdg4, @scholarsph, @littledisciples and @thegreens.
@adollaraday was a great project that really showed the power of the Steem community.
As I have been compiling the Steem News over the past few weeks I have been enthused to find a growing number of posts about charitable activities from members of the Steem community.
Community Led Charity Initiatives
Of the various initiatives I have seen on the blockchain there are two that are organised at a community level that show great potential.
The most advanced is the Steem for Better Life program (@steem.amal) set up by the Steem SEA community.
This is led very effectively by Program Manager @el-nailul, and it has already completed its first round of fundraising and donations to three beneficiaries.
The program collects funds through direct donations and through encouraging community members to set @steem.amal as a post beneficiary.
@el-nailul posts regular progress reports which is very good for encouraging donors and giving confidence in the project...
The other community led charity program is the SL-Charity being run by the Sri Lanka community.
The project, coordinated by Country Rep @randulakoralage, raises funds through encouraging community members to set @sl-charity as a beneficiary on posts.
It has recently reached its initial funding target and is now planning charitable events in Elpitiya, Balangoda and Monaragala...
@madhumunasinghe has just posted plans for the first event providing equipment to a school in the Balangoda area...
These are two great examples of how individual Steem communities can work together to raise funds for charitable and humanitarian causes.
It will be good if other communities can set up similar projects.
Individual Charitable Initiatives
There are also a growing number of individuals who have taken personal initiatives to raise funds through Steem to help others.
One very notable current example is @sultan-aceh's project to build a new house for @tailah.bayu in Indonesia...
@sultan-aceh has received direct donations from many generous Steemians to help with the project.
Steem Women's Club, led by @svm038, has been running a 'Chain of Goodness' event.
This has brought up some great examples of individuals doing good deeds in their local communities.
Three good examples are from @rosevillariasa, @steemitcebu and @bisayakalog all in the Philippines...
STEEM WOMEN CLUB "Chain of Goodness Event" || Feeding Children in Olango Island
Giving Back the Support From Steemit Community to the People | Truly a Chain of Goodness
STEEM WOMEN CLUB COMMUNITY: Chain Of Goodness Event| Visiting A Student Who Stoped Going To School
Other examples of individually led projects are @hope.venezuela feeding underprivileged children in Venezuela...
And @elkezaksek's work helping poor families in Uganda...
I am sure there are many more examples of individuals on Steem doing good work like this in their communities. Please let me know in the comments of any you know of.
I have picked up news of the TeamMangos project in Venezuela but don't have much information about their work yet.
Charity Organisations on Steem
There have been in the past been a number of charitable organisations operating on Steem like School For SDG4 in Bangladesh (@schoolforsdg4), Daily Bread Foodbank in Malaysia (@gtpjfoodbank) and Papillon Charity in South Africa (@papilloncharity).
It was these that the @adollaraday project mainly worked with.
Only a couple are still active on the platform now - namely @littledisciples and @thegreens.
More recently @fundacorazon in Venezuela has joined Steem.
Steem is an ideal home for charity organisations to raise awareness and to raise funds. Hopefully more will find their way here soon.
As these projects demonstrate Steem has great potential to do good in the world.
The current rising price of STEEM should give all the more impetus to explore ways to share the bounty the platform provides.
Thank you
[ graphic by @pennsif ]