Crypto Rising
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(This article is adapted from the forthcoming book, Generosity: Giving, Getting, and Managing Philanthropy Preeminently)
The Rise of Tech-Enabled Giving: Opportunity or Obstacle for the Future of Generosity?
A quiet transformation is underway in American philanthropy. One that most donors, nonprofits, and community leaders have not yet fully grasped. In the past month or so alone, news outlets have reported dramatic increases in crypto-based charitable giving, new digital platforms promising real-time philanthropic transactions, and a surge in “instant generosity” driven more by technology than by traditional stewardship.
One leading crypto-donation platform recently reported nearly $100 million in donated digital assets in the past year. That’s a figure unimaginable just a decade ago. At the same time, the philanthropic sector is wrestling with economic headwinds that have left many nonprofits strained, understaffed, and bracing for greater demand. This tension between swelling digital generosity and shrinking nonprofit stability presents one of the most important questions we can ask at this moment: Is tech-enabled giving ushering in a healthier era of philanthropy, or are we drifting toward a model of giving that is fast, transactional, and dangerously thin on trust?
As someone who has spent many more decades in high-net-worth fundraising, impact finance, and preeminent philanthropy, I want to explore this emerging shift honestly for its promise, its pitfalls, and what it means for donors who aim not just to give, but to provide brilliantly.
The Promise: Fast, Flexible, and Expansive
There is no denying that technology has brought extraordinary advantages to the philanthropic world.
First, speed. Digital platforms allow donors to act the moment they feel compelled, during disasters, humanitarian crises, or community emergencies. Funds can be sent across states or continents in minutes.
Second, flexibility. Crypto-based donations can unlock wealth that would otherwise remain idle. Donors sitting on appreciated digital assets can support charitable work without the tax implications of liquidation.
Third, expanded reach. Digital giving is especially attractive to younger donors – Millennials and Gen Z, who expect instantaneous, mobile-first engagement in every area of life. For nonprofits seeking the next generation of supporters, digital platforms offer clear opportunities.
There is something undeniably exciting about these trends. They represent innovation. Dynamism exists here with a chance to diversify charitable capital in ways that could redefine what’s possible for social impact.
But there is another side to the story.
The Trade-Off: When Fast Giving Displaces Deep Generosity
If technology speeds up giving, it also risks compressing the relationship between donor and mission.
Philanthropy, at its best, is relational, informed, and accountable. It is built on trust, due diligence, shared values, and ongoing collaboration. It relies on transparency and a willingness to measure outcomes, not just intentions.
But tech-enabled giving often encourages the opposite: Transactional generosity. “Click, gift, done.” Move on. No follow-up. No partnership. No learning.
This is generosity without stewardship: volatility and uncertainty.
Crypto donations may arrive at one value and be converted to another. Nonprofits often lack the infrastructure or confidence to manage this risk.
Obviously, then, a widening gap begins to emerge between donors and nonprofits. The digital tools that make giving easier can also make donors feel like passive participants rather than critical partners in social change.
In a year when small donor participation is declining and many nonprofits are reporting financial stress, this is no longer a theoretical concern. It is a structural challenge with real-world implications. Tech-enabled giving can open doors, but it can also hollow out the connection between the giver and the mission, weakening trust at the very moment our civic fabric needs strengthening.
The Danger in Skipping the Hard Work
The rise of digital generosity is also raising provocative questions about whether ease is replacing excellence.
Preeminent philanthropy demands clarity, strategy, and accountability. It requires asking:
What impact will this gift generate?
Who is responsible for results?
How will success be measured?
How will the donor and the nonprofit grow together, not apart?
Technology can empower these conversations, but it can also erase them.
If we are not careful, we will drift toward a philanthropic landscape defined more by immediacy than intentionality, and more by transactions than transformation.
Where Do We Go from Here? A Better Model for Tech-Enabled Giving
The solution is not to resist technological innovation. It is to integrate it into a more thoughtful model of generosity.
Here are the principles of a better path forward:
1. Build Trust First, Tools Second
Technology should amplify trust-based philanthropy, not replace it. If the relationship is weak, fast giving makes it weaker.
2. Adopt Guardrails for Crypto and Digital Assets
Families, foundations, and donor-advised funds should evaluate risk, liquidity, conversion timing, and compliance. This is not guesswork; it requires policy and planning.
3. Reintroduce Engagement After the Gift
A digital gift can start a relationship, but not sustain it. Nonprofits must follow up; donors must stay involved.
4. Use Tech for Transparency, Not Just Transactions
Blockchain can trace the life of a dollar. AI can measure program outcomes. Use tech to expand clarity – not bypass it.
5. Preserve the Values of the Generosity Compact
Generosity at its best is collaborative, measurable, relational, and accountable. Technology should reinforce these pillars without undercutting them.
The Provocative Question We Must Ask
Technology will keep changing how Americans give. That is inevitable.
The question – the one donors and nonprofits must now ask – is this: Will technology make us more generous or just more impulsive? More collaborative or more disconnected?
Tech companies or platforms will not write that answer.
It will be written by the people who give and by the organizations that steward generosity.
If we combine technological innovation with the timeless principles of transparency, excellence, stewardship, and trust, we will not merely adapt to the future of philanthropy – we will lead it.
But if we allow technology to replace accountability, we risk building a philanthropic culture that is fast, wide, and shallow.
The future of giving is here. What it becomes next depends on all of us.
