Giving and getting back — the xHumanity philanthropy perspective

The first known use of the term charity came up around the 13th century, in the meaning defined as the benevolent goodwill toward or love of humanity. This translates into today’s wide-spread notion of organizations helping people in need or, in terms of behaviour, being kind and sympathetic to others, giving help.

However, it may not always be as easy as it sounds to immediately transfer your benevolent goodwill or love to others, especially when they most need it.

First of all, where do you begin? Who do you trust? How to choose who is in real need of your help? Is your help really going to reach those in need? How long does it take for your help to reach them? And how much does it all cost?

If you’re looking to give back, donate or help someone, you may be pondering all these questions. A donor using the xHumanity Charity Platform is likely to experience fewer challenges than one using current traditional models, though both may be looking to help a beneficiary directly or give to charities of their own preference.

Whether you’re a donor, a beneficiary looking for help or a charitable organization looking to streamline the process of charity intermediation, you too can make use of the new emerging technologies and systems in order to get or receive help.

Here’s how the xHumanity Charity Platform plans to help you: with equity and trust, which are deeply embedded in the core system itself. The Charity Platform aims to act as a virtual venue to mediate charity activities between donors, beneficiaries or charities. It has the potential to transform the charity processes and our current ways of approaching charity, by providing the framework needed for philanthropists and philanthropic institutions to enable all people to contribute to the betterment of our world.

Rather than giving the same amount of resources to all people in need, how about providing the right resources, in the right amount, based on people’s actual needs?

The platform facilitates all parties involved in philanthropy to use their privileges or experiences in order to transform the present-day contexts that may be hindering their efforts or attempts at charity.

Think of the Charity Platform as the accessibility ramp to the door you need to be open. As not everyone can walk up the steps or go straight through the door, the platform becomes the ramp full of resources available for people to engage in charity or benefit from it.

Charity requires trust, which manifests both at a personal and system level. Trust in a system emerges when everything seems to be in a coherent order. It is an inherent characteristic of xHumanity and the Charity Platform, which promises high transparency for donors. They can see where their money goes and if it reaches the cause they want to contribute to. Donations are 100% transparent and traceable all the way through to the end beneficiary. As the rules governing the donor — charity/beneficiary interactions can be set using smart contracts, high transparency is ensured, as well as honesty which leads to better coordination between parties.

Also, donors can choose the cause (project) they want to donate to. The structure of the platform offers new opportunities to engage supporters directly in addressing causes of interest, while no need for affiliation with any entity will be necessary for donations.

The level of trust donors invest in their chosen charities will enable the latter to use the platform as a pool for philanthropists. The more trustworthy a charity using the platform is, the more donors it could potentially attract. On behalf of beneficiaries, charities can post projects on the platform which can be easily seen by donors, gaining easy access and higher visibility. Charities can then manage the cause to provide its beneficiaries with the necessary resources (construction materials, food, transport). However, the variety of assets that can be donated is far wider, ranging from physical to digital (photos, presentations, videos, documents) and totally intangible donations (intellectual property and goodwill). As the platform is not tied to any particular geography, it is easier and cheaper to move assets across borders than it would be otherwise. For people or charities operating in challenging locations where infrastructure is lacking and corruption prevails, the platform could provide the means of getting help where needed.

With trust, beneficiaries get more resources or donations because the structure of the platform ensures that donations reach their actual beneficiaries and are not abused by fake charities. Beneficiaries can request funds by registering and submitting the details of their cause to the platform (usually for smaller projects where only funding is needed) and the cause would then be checked and validated before being added to the Projects list to be seen by donors.

But how secure is all of it? All processes on the platform are automated and secured by smart contracts and expenses are tracked and registered on the blockchain. The platform aids digital fundraising through blockchain and enables charities and beneficiaries to accept payments in a secure, highly transparent global environment.

By using the platform, giving and getting back feels right. With fewer intermediaries and lower costs, resources and funds can be allocated appropriately. Declining trust in institutions has led to people becoming less reliant on traditional third parties, creating an opportunity for charities on the platform to gain increased trust. Also, since charities themselves are intermediaries between donors and beneficiaries, disintermediation of charity transactions may lead to change the current model and the emergence of new governance models with a new focus on our peers.

At the heart of xHumanity lies the will to implement a system with a high degree of transparency and trust, which the Charity Platform aims to attain by facilitating access. Access to charity depends on people making a conscious choice to provide the necessary resources and in order to do so, we need to feel that the system we are using is trustworthy and fair.