Fidelity’s Charity Arm Raised $7 Million in Bitcoin Donations in 2016

Fidelity Charitable, the public charity arm of mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments, raised $7m in bitcoin donations last year.

The organization launched the donation option in November 2015, enabling contributions from customers by way of their donor-advised funds. Fidelity Charitable has utilized Coinbase as a payment processor to handle bitcoin-to-dollar conversions.

New statements from Fidelity Charitable indicate that those efforts have paid off.

The organization said today:

“To support strategic giving and as part of a broader expansion in November 2015, Fidelity Charitable began accepting bitcoin, resulting in an unprecedented $7 million in contributions in 2016 made from donors across the country. These donors were able to maximize their contributions with Fidelity Charitable efficiently monetizing the bitcoin for grant-making.”

While the organization didn’t go into further detail, the results seem to confirm hopes that the bitcoin option would spur new methods of donating. When the option was launched in 2015, Fidelity Charitable senior vice president Matt Nash positioned the move as another way to engage with the group’s network of 100,000 donors.

"Enabling donors to contribute bitcoin to their donor-advised funds is the latest example of Fidelity Charitable's commitment to making it as easy as possible for donors to support the charities they care about with the assets at their disposal,” he said at the time.

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