The Rise of NFT Collections, Clubs and Doing Good
A new wave of mission driven NFT collections are raising the bar on giving
NFTs have come a long way since they first exploded into the scene a year ago (March 2021) with Beeple’s art sold as an NFT for a record $69 million. Moving beyond art the current boom in this space is NFT collections and the communities around it. Collections are programmatically generated art created from a combination of traits developed by the artist thus creating unique pieces in the collection which can vary from 10 to 10,000.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) a collection of 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs was the one to set the trend on fire. Launched in April 2021, owning a Bored Ape NFT from the collection also doubled as membership to the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Holding the Ape NFT unlocked member-only benefits including real life meetups, online events, merchandise and other perks.
BAYC success led to an outburst of NFT collections, launching with a similar playbook of building a community of token owners. Some of the top selling NFT collections in this category are mission driven, with a clear purpose around which they align their communities. Also coincidently these mission driven collections are all women-led.
World of Women (WoW)
An NFT collection of 10,000 women avatars representing unique, powerful and diverse women. The collection launched in July 2021 with the mission to increase women’s participation in the NFT space and to fund nonprofits related to women empowerment. As outlined on their website, “The WoW owners are contributors and investors in our mission, which comes with unique benefits.” WoW is one of the top selling collections, with the floor price of $22.77K (lowest listing in their collection😲) and 5000+ owners (members). Their members include celebrities Eva Longoria, Reese Witherspoon, Shonda Rimes and more.
WoW’s Impact: The collection has given 7.5% from its primary sale to three causes aimed at helping women : She’s the First, Too Young to Wed, and Strange Cintia. In addition they’ve held several community events and auctions raising more funds as a community. Read more about their giving program here. WoW has also got on board a philanthropy advisor to help them identify impactful charitable projects and have extended their charitable giving to ecological projects. Wow’s second NFT collection aims to make an impact on people’s lives in the areas most affected by global warming. WoW’s creators value its community and hopes to make a bigger impact together.
Boss Beauties
A women led, mission driven collection of 10,000 NFTs that showcases unique, independent and strong women, with a powerful message, “A Woman can be Everything she wants”. Owning an NFT from this collection provides access to exclusive events and more.
Boss Beauties is on a mission to empower high school and college girls through mentorship and creating opportunities. The founder of the collection Lisa Mayer has been working on this mission for 10 years under an organization called My Social Canvas and Boss Beauties NFT collection is an extension of the work she’s be doing. By using NFT’s Lisa hopes to build a community that works together to empower, inspire and support next generation of girls and women.
The collection launched in September 2021 and was sold out within 90 minutes. Boss Beauties has 5.5K members and the floor price (lowest listing in the collection) is $4.26K as of date. Boss Beauties second collection titled, Boss Beauties Role Models was launched on International Women’s Day (March7, 2022) and is the first NFT art collection to be on display at the United Nations.
Here is a great interview with the founders of Boss Beauties sharing the back story on how the collection came to being
Boss Beauties Impact: 5% from the primary sale of the collection is held back to fund scholarships to help the next generation of female leaders. Another 5% was donated to the team at Fame Lady Squad to help launch their podcast for Women in NFTs.
Read more about Boss Beauties giving program and how they are using their community and brand power to raise more funds to support the next generation of women leaders.
Women Rise
A collection of 10,000 NFTs representing women from around the world in different roles as activists, artists, scientists, coders and many others. The collection’s mission is to advance women’s rights and girls’ education and is created by a Pakistani-American visual artist, Maliha Abidi who is also an activist and author and has been using art to make an impact. Women Rise plans to engage its community of Women Rise NFT holders by forming ‘Activist Club’ and ‘Rising Women Club’ to address women and girls issues, engaging them in the grant making process.
Women Rise launched in November 2021, is completely sold out with 5.7K members with the lowest listing NFT from the collection priced at $1K as of date.
Women Rise Impact: Women Rise collection is donating 10% from primary sales. 2.5% to Malala Fund and 7.5% of sales will go to multiple organizations supporting gender equality, girls education and mental health in marginalized societies. 5% of royalties will be used to support the ‘Women Rise’ and the ‘Activist’ club through which they will support multiple projects on an ongoing basis.
It’s been pretty incredible to see a trend of purpose driven NFT collections. NFTs in general have raised millions of dollars for causes. These collections with a purpose take NFT giving to the next level by not only raising funds but also bringing the power of community. In the near future I’d love to see a nonprofit build their own collection with 100% of the raise going to their cause.
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Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice.
