GiveCrypto Monthly Update — December 2019: Phase 4 RCT Details, Experimenting with Local Financial Services & Donor Dinner Summary
By: Joe Waltman
Tags: Nonprofit, Fundraising, Financial Services, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

With 2019 coming to a close, we’re evaluating what we’ve done in the last year and laying the framework for a successful 2020.

We’re understanding the ways cryptocurrency can impact our recipients through our randomized controlled trial (RCT), looking for new ways to improve local financial infrastructure, and working with donors to ensure secure funding.

Setting up our Phase 4 RCT

We’ve spent the past few months getting ready for Phase 4 of our Venezuelan Ambassador Program, which will launch in January. Phase 4 includes an RCT that will compare the impact of our program across three different payment modalities and a control group:

Cryptocurrency basic income — $10 of crypto per week for 20 weeks

— $10 of crypto per week for 20 weeks Cryptocurrency lump sum — $170 of crypto paid up front, plus $10 per follow-up survey

— $170 of crypto paid up front, plus $10 per follow-up survey Cash basic income — $10 worth of bolivars per week for 20 weeks

— $10 worth of bolivars per week for 20 weeks Control group — small incentive to complete surveys but no other payments

Each group will consist of 630 people. All participants will be asked impact questions at the beginning, middle, and end of the program. These questions will focus on:

Food security

Psychological well-being

Food expenditure and consumption

Household income

Designing and running an RCT in a place like Venezuela is challenging. Due to diplomatic tensions, we aren’t able to travel to Venezuela, so we need to rely on a combination of technology and local contractors to manage issues on the ground.

Beyond travel logistics, fraud is also a big concern. To date, we have implemented a number of controls and processes to identify and prevent fraud. We will closely monitor fraudulent activity in Phase 4 and update our fraud prevention infrastructure accordingly.

The RCT will leverage a network of ambassadors to target people in need. To ensure that study groups can be compared with one another, we need to make sure that our ambassadors are giving consistent instructions to recipients. We are using a combination of instructional videos, comprehensive FAQs and checklists during onboarding steps. We will also call a subset of recipients to make sure they have received similar instructions.

To collect impact data, we will be using a combination of mobile web forms and telephone back-checks. Our primary data collection will be via surveys administered through our web application. To back-check the veracity of these data, we will randomly select a subsample of participants to call via phone and then probe their answers. If needed, we will also back-check answers with select in-person questioning.

Our RCT design compares cash with crypto transfers. To experiment with these payment methods, we need to develop a system for transferring cash to hundreds of Venezuelans, which is logistically challenging. For security reasons, we will wait until after the program ends to give details on how we are transferring the cash. But we have already done a number of tests and have multiple back-up plans in the event of unforeseen difficulties.

Experimenting with Leapfrogging Financial Services

I began my career building wireless networks in Latin America. This is when I was first introduced to the term “leapfrogging”, which describes how the new wireless networks impact voice and data connectivity in these developing countries.

Prior to the wireless networks, these markets were usually served by the existing wireline telecommunications companies. These companies were (and most still are) a combination of corrupt, monopolistic and incompetent. Invariably, the service they provided was overpriced and inadequate.

The wireless networks that we installed provided state-of-the-art connectivity. In many places, these networks were better than the ones that we had in the developed world.

I believe that we have the opportunity to do something similar to financial infrastructure in developing markets using blockchain technology. Just like the inadequate connectivity provided by incumbent telecom providers, financial services are, perhaps, in an even worse state. Financial services that we take for granted in the developed world are inaccessible to the vast majority of people in these developing countries.

We are currently at the beginning of this process and can’t pretend to know what these new services will look like. But we are excited about their potential and want to play a part in helping to define them. We are already starting to experiment with some early tests of these financial services and will share updates in 2020.

Lessons Learned from Our Second Donor Dinner

We are a charity and need to raise funds from donors to cover operational and program expenses.

Most of GiveCrypto’s funds were raised during a dinner held in 2018, where 25 people donated $4.2 million to our vision.

In an attempt to replicate the success of this initial dinner, we decided to host another dinner in October 2019. We invited about 200 crypto insiders (of which 80 attended) and tried to stick to a similar format: provide food/drinks, share information about the work, and ask for donations. Unfortunately, our second dinner wasn’t as successful and the funds we raised barely covered the costs of hosting the event.

The informational portion of the dinner

In retrospect, we made a number of critical mistakes.

First of all, we weren’t sure how to position the dinner. We debated whether to call it a “donor” dinner or an “annual update” dinner. We ended up defaulting to an update dinner, fearing that calling it a donor dinner would scare people away. This ambiguity confused guests, and some of them were understandably surprised when we asked for donations at the dinner. Moving forward, we will be more clear about our intent to ask for money in addition to setting clear fundraising goals for every event. We plan to create a host committee for next year’s event, with individuals and gifts that we can leverage to maximize donor participation.

Another thing we can improve on in 2020 is donor cultivation. We didn’t do a good job of keeping in touch with the people who expressed interest but didn’t donate. In the future, we plan to cultivate donors with regular touch points throughout the year so each person understands how their dollars are being used and are more likely to give in the future.

We now understand that a mission focus is critical to the success of any fundraising strategy. We have done a good job highlighting new applications for cryptocurrency, but have failed to convey the impact of the dollars raised on the individuals we serve. Using photos and videos in our presentations and collateral is a high priority for next year.

During the dinner itself, we made a rather vague ask at the end of the presentation. We could have made more specific asks, with thresholds and recognition for each threshold.

While we are not happy with the results of the dinner, we are grateful for the continued support of our donors and this opportunity to improve. We are treating this as a learning experience and have already made improvements to our fundraising efforts. We are following up with all dinner attendees (and previous donors) and scheduling 1:1 phone calls to discuss a GiveCrypto donation. These initial calls have already generated almost 40x what was raised during the October dinner.

For future events, we are planning more intimate events with a targeted group of potential donors. Not only will this have a target-rich guest list, but there will also be very different dynamics at an 8 or 10 person dinner vs. an 80 person event.

Staying Connected

As always, we love to hear from our donors and supporters outside of our updates and events. Please follow along on Twitter and our blog for updates on the Venezuelan Ambassador Program and other exciting GiveCrypto developments in 2020.