How VIVE Church builds a legacy of innovation by accepting crypto donations

Soon after VIVE Church started taking cryptocurrency donations, crypto donors helped them reach their fundraising target to purchase a new building and increase their community reach.

Mission

VIVE Church is a locally focused, globally connected ministry led by Pastors Adam and Keira Smallcombe. They’re based in Palo Alto, CA, where VIVE mobilizes the members of their global community with the mission of “awakening people to the reality of Jesus.”

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One of the major pillars of culture at VIVE Church is generosity. One way that congregants can practice their generosity is by giving financial contributions back to the church.

When a member of the church community asked if they could give stock options, which had never been done before, the team at VIVE looked into it. They wanted to accommodate the donor, so they carved a path through uncharted territory and made the donation work. But it got them thinking about other assets people might want to donate, like cryptocurrency.

A board member reached out to The Giving Block in order to start accepting crypto donations. Adding this new way for community members to live their generosity paid off quickly, and now the future of crypto fundraising looks bright for VIVE Church.

Onboarding with The Giving Block

One of the key factors that led VIVE Church to be successful with crypto donations is their policy of maximizing the value of each gift by converting it to cash.

When someone makes a crypto donation, VIVE Church immediately sells it for its market value. The Giving Block’s donation form automates the process, so organizations don’t have to worry about doing it themselves.

VIVE’s fundraising team communicates this policy clearly to any potential crypto donors. It’s important because the crypto market can be volatile, and donors want to be reassured that their gift won’t lose any value. That encourages more crypto donations, which are made with the utmost confidence in VIVE Church.

“There’s a stigma around crypto that it’s not reliable or trustworthy. But regardless of what the media thinks, it’s still an asset that can be used for generosity. We’re doing everything we can to give crypto a platform of reliability. This is a way to be generous, and making crypto donations makes people feel good.”

Aaron Williams, Finance Director, VIVE Church

Platform features that simplify admin tasks

Accepting crypto donations has been simple, smooth, and effective for VIVE Church. The team was able to seamlessly integrate their crypto donation revenue stream from The Giving Block into Overflow, an online stocks donation platform for churches and nonprofits. (It’s one of 5,000+ available integrations with The Giving Block!)

Additionally, VIVE Church is set up to receive automated deposits from The Giving Block every Friday which takes one more to-do item off of their team’s weekly list. The icing on the cake is the number of cryptocurrencies that people can donate to VIVE Church through The Giving Block. By supporting donations of leading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDC (and many more), VIVE Church attracts new crypto donors, brings in as many crypto donations as possible, and establishes a foundation for future success.

Defining success: $300,000+ in crypto donations

VIVE Church ran a fundraising campaign to buy an 80,000 square-foot building in Palo Alto that could seat 2,000 people in the auditorium. They had to raise $12M for a down payment on the property, but 45 days before the campaign ended, they were only at $6M. After a strong push to tap into donor networks outside of their community, VIVE Church was able to close the gap and purchase the building.

Thinking they might receive around $10,000 worth of crypto donations to support this campaign, they ended up receiving $300,000 worth, including a few single gifts worth over $50,000. For VIVE Church, this new building will stand as a symbol that means more impact, outreach, and positive change in the community. And it will stand as a symbol that was funded, in part, by crypto donations.

Regarding the enthusiasm of crypto donors, Williams said:

“Crypto is the only asset class that people seem to be super passionate about. I get phone calls and texts about it constantly from donors. I didn’t expect as much passion around it. But I believe that their passion drives generosity.”

As VIVE Church looks towards the future, it’s working to establish non-campaign specific crypto donations and encourage more crypto giving from their supporters.

Get started with crypto fundraising

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