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Our mission

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Project Giving intends to create the Steemit Platform’s first fully accountable Non-Government Organization (NGO) which will bring financial resources and exposure to local charitable initiatives around the world. Through funding these initiatives, we will empower them to make influential social development in their local communities and surrounding environment, all thanks to the power of the Steem Blockchain.

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Read our full Whitepaper/Initial proposal here

A basic outline: What will Project Giving achieve?

Project Giving's primary motive as the Steem blockchain's first NGO is to use the power of the Steemit platform as a tool to provide meaningful assistance to people and projects in need around the world. To achieve this, our Project Giving team does the following:

• We find small-scale Charitable Initiatives anywhere around the world which actively work to overcome some of the UN Development Goals such as reducing poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring the well-being of all.
• The Project Giving team then collaborates with these charitable initiatives to create Steemit blogs on the @projectgiving page highlighting the humbling stories and experiences which they have to share. These include;
• How does their initiatives create impactful social development?
• What global issues existed in their communities or country that motivated them to start this initiative?
• What have they achieved so far & what challenges have they faced?
• How would their initiatives benefit from Steemit based financial assistance?
• 100% of all author rewards from these Steemit posts are then donated directly to these initiatives in order to facilitate genuine social development, all thanks to the influence of the Steemit community and Steem blockchain.
• Project Giving has developed a thorough and transparent accountability process in order to ensure to all who donate that their funds will be sent directly to the initiatives they have helped (this will be expanded on further in the post).

Therefore, through Project Giving, all Steemians from minnows to whales, have the opportunity to use their influence on the Steemit platform to improve the lives of people around the world who need our assistance. By sharing these stories with the Steemian community, Project Giving also increases exposure to global issues such as poverty, environmental threats and inequality, while sharing the stories behind the people who are trying to tackle them.

Finally, we at Project Giving believe that our project stands as the perfect advertisement for the real world practicality of Steemit and the Steem blockchain as powerful tools for positive social development. In this way, Project Giving will bring both increased membership to Steemit, but also improve its legitimacy around the world, thus benefiting us all!

Why I started Project Giving - Introduction by @tristanoliff

As the founder of Project Giving, I wanted to share my story of how this NGO developed from a dream to a reality on Steemit. As a student of political science and international development with a history of working with NGO’s in Africa, I have been enthralled by the idea of starting an NGO. My motivation has always been grounded in helping others and using my life's work to improve people's social situations around the world.

When I first joined Steemit at the beginning of 2018, I was immediately blown away by the practical and communal aspects of the platform. I realized that Steemit provided the perfect foundation for creating awareness and raising funding for important causes around the world. My experience in Africa led me to formulate a dream of creating a project which would act as a link between the Steemit community and people around the world who are trying to enact positive social change.

However, while this idea sounded fantastic in theory, I knew that a project of this size would be hard to launch and implement by myself. At first, I looked for help outside the Steemit platform. I wrote a 7 page proposal in March of 2018 to distribute to potential investors but quickly learned that it was extremely difficult to explain to non-Steemians how fundraising could successfully take place on the platform. Ultimately, I realised that if Project Giving were to succeed, it would have to take place fully through the Steem Blockchain and the Steemian community.

This is where @sndbox and the 2018 #SndBoxSummerQuest came to the rescue. As a Steemit based creative projects incubator, SndBox helped to give Project Giving a chance to succeed on the platform by encouraging me to post an initial proposal for Project Giving on Steemit. The project was then voted on by other SndBox summer quest members and won a place as one of their supported 2018 projects. This has given Project Giving the resources that it really needs to take flight. Through SndBox and other members of their summer quest, Project Giving was able to create an incredible team of Steemians from all around the globe to make our NGO a reality.

Over the past few weeks, our international team of Steemians has been hard at work developing initial ideas into our official Whitepaper/Initial proposal , creating logos, finding initiatives to support and developing our accountability structure. Ultimately, with the help of @SndBox and our incredible team, Project Giving has been able to develop from a dream idea to a fully integrated charitable NGO, all through resources available on the Steem Blockchain!

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Development of our logo over time

Idea drawn by @anna-mi | First concepts developed by @mnallica | Final logo by @kymio

Main Components of Project Giving

What do we post and how often will you see our content?

Part of being a successful Steemit initiative is prioritizing quality over quantity when it comes to the content we post. In its initial phase, Project Giving seeks to keep to this ethos by posting no more than 3 posts per week. Here is the breakdown of these posts.

• Initiative funding posts.
• These are our main posts and serve as the manifestation of our mission statement. In them, we share the ideas and stories of initiatives and ask you to help them by donating a full power vote to these blogs as 100% of the rewards will be sent to the initiatives.
• Since we make one all-encompassing post about these initiatives, we need your help to raise as much as possible for these causes.
• We will limit ourselves to supporting and raising funds for only one charitable initiative per week. We hope this can encourage people to donate only 1 full power vote per week to our cause, and create genuine social change through it.
• Accountability posts.
• Based along our accountability process outlined below, we will make 1 post per week which showcases every transaction which was made to transfer funds raised from Project Giving initiative posts to the charities they represent.
• These post will also have a section which recognizes large scale donations and Steemians who have consistently been interacting with Project Giving.
• Finally, these posts will also outline which initiatives we will be attempting to raise funds for next.
• Miscellaneous posts.
• These posts will be rare, and will usually be created to inform the Steemian community who follows us about developments within Project Giving.
• This might include promotional content about our Project such as videos and general updates on our progress. Alternatively, these post will be follow ups with initiatives which we have sponsored.

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Explaining our Accountability Process

As the first NGO started purely through collaboration on the Steem Blockchain, we at Project Giving believe that we need to be as transparent as possible with the Steemit Community who donate to initiatives through us. One of our most important goals is to ensure peace of mind for the Project Giving’s supporters that their donations are going to the initiatives they have read about.

However, for us to effectively transfer funds between the world of Cryptocurrency to that of Fiat currency where the initiatives reside, a multitude of steps must be taken. Thus, our accountability process ensures that all Steemians can see that funds collected for initiatives make it to their final destination in their entirety.

• The accountability process will be released every week in our accountability posts once we have successfully sent funds raised from Steemit to the initiatives.
• These post will show screenshot evidence of every transaction which the funds raised go through from Steemit to the initiative.
• This includes movement from Steemit to an online wallet, then from this wallet to the Project Giving bank account (in fiat), finally, it will show proof of transfer to the initiative either through an international money transfer or Western Union. Initiatives will then send proof of receival.
• Initiatives which we find through Steemit will be easier to fund as our accountability process will only require proof of a Steem transaction!

All personal details, account numbers, private keys etc will be blurred out but steemit account names, and donation recipient names will be clearly legible. This model provides the greatest safeguarding against fraudsters, although we will be vetting all our projects thoroughly to prevent any undesirables obtaining initial funding.

Accountability process developed by @raj808

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How Project Giving brings value to the Steem Blockchain.

We strongly believe that Project Giving serves not only as an effective tool to enable effective global development, but also successfully advertises the real world practicality of the Steem Blockchain. Here are some reasons why:

• Once initiatives we support begin to gain traction thanks to the communal donations we provide from Steemit, we believe that Project Giving will be able to approach local and international press with our story. This will bring increased positive media attention to the Steem Blockchain and promote the real-world impact the platform can have.
• We also believe that Project Giving will facilitate increased sign ups to Steemit. Once initiatives accept our funding, they will use the Project Giving and Steemit logos on their media releases increasing exposure.
• Project Giving will seek to establish a presence off Steemit such as on Facebook, Twitter & YouTube. This will only be to raise awareness about the project through the sharing of our articles and will direct people directly to Steemit to see the work that we do as well as the platform which we exist in.
• Finally, we believe that Project Giving will showcase how blockchain technology can serve as a more efficient alternative to online payment systems such as PayPal.
• To donate to a regular charity, one would have to enter in credit card numbers, billing addresses and other kinds of personal information.
• This is often cumbersome, and stops people who want to donate from donating.
• Through Steemit, not only do you not need to provide any private information, but you can donate and help create societal change simply by using the power of your vote on our posts.

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How we see Project Giving developing in the future.

One of the reasons why our team is so excited to introduce you all to Project Giving is that we believe our initiative has the potential to develop over time in a way that best suits the Steem Blockchain.

In the future, we hope to implement usage of the Smart Media Tokens (SMTs) which the platform has been focusing on developing lately. This would allow us to receive Steem based donations for our initiatives from people who might not have Steemit accounts. An integral part of this quest would be to maintain a strong media presence on other media sites such as Facebook and Twitter which would direct viewers to Steemit.

We also hope to build our own Website at some point so that there is an easier interface from which to see all the projects that we have funded over time, and how they have progressed thanks to our funding.

Ultimately, it is our aim to have successfully supported at least one charitable initiative in every inhabited continent on earth! We believe through efficient research and with the help of the Steemit community, this dream can be achieved!

How can you contribute to Project Giving?

Project Giving is a project created by, and is for the Steemit Community. However, our project is also fully dependent on all you Steemians. Here are the ways you can help Project Giving and those we help succeed.

Through the power of your vote.

• Simply put, we cannot raise any funds for these charitable initiatives without the support of your vote. Since 100% of author rewards go to these initiatives, you have a real chance to create impactful change with the power of your Steemit vote!
• We will only be raising funds for one initiative per week, through one blog per week. Therefore, all we ask is that you pledge one full power vote per week and help this cause.

Through reading our blogs.

• As members of the global Steemit community, we should all strive to be global citizens through learning more about other people’s realities and cultures around the world.
• Our blogs intend to share the stories of charitable initiatives around the world and the problems they solve. We believe that through reading these blogs, you might also have the opportunity to gain more knowledge on global issues.

By putting us in contacts with charitable initiatives near you which we can also sponsor.

• Finally, Project Giving relies on finding humbling initiatives around the world to support. We believe the best way for us to do this is with the help of all you Steemians. If you know of a charity or initiative in your local communities who you believe are working to improve the quality of life or the environment around them, please put us in touch with them.
• Not only will we give you credit for bringing these initiatives to us, but you will also have facilitated meaningful social development within your own community.

Introducing YOKAENSO - Our first supported Initiative

Before we end this introductory post, we wanted to share with you some information about the first initiative whose stories and social situation we will be sharing and raising funds for

To donate to YOKAENSO, follow @projectgiving and keep on the look out for our initiative post on them coming this weekend!

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YOKAENSO (Youth Kawakamo Environment Solutions) is a Community Based Organization founded in Mwanza, Tanzania. This project was started by Emmanuel Bujashi, a former street child turned social worker, to address environmental conservation, food security and unemployment in his local community. As of now, YOKAENSO has drafted the help of 12 youths to volunteer with the project.

YOKAENSO seeks to help non-educated youth gain practical skills and experience through engaging in income generating activity, while at the same time, working to reduce the amount of waste in their local community.
This is done through a four step program.

• Step 1: is door to door collection of plastic and organic waste which is done for a small, affordable fee. This reduces plastic waste and ensures it is recycled properly.
• Step 2: is the distribution of paper bags to also reduce plastic waste.
• Step 3: uses the organic waste collected to create high quality organic fertilizer (compost) to start a community farm to increase local food security.
• Step 4: is the holding of community environmental solutions workshops by YOKAENSO to improve local literacy on these issues.

From the entire team here at Project Giving, we thank you for reading through our introductory post! We want to extend a kind gratitude to our first sponsors: @SndBox for bringing us together. Finally, we also want to thank the 2018 SndBox Summer Quest Coordinators: @anomadsoul & @guyfawkes4-20 for their hard work in creating and moderating all the quests which have taken place over the last 3 months!

Make sure to follow @projectgiving and look out for our weekly fundraisers.
We will answer any questions you have in the comments below.