Swiping for a Cause

We don’t often associate new technology with helping to build sustainable organizations. Nor do we think of debit cards as the vehicles by which change happens. But here’s a seemingly wild claim: your local food bank, daughter’s sports team, or father’s favorite senior center can benefit from the fees generated at the intersection of legacy finance and future-forward technology.

Community-based organizations are essential social infrastructure upon which many of us depend for a range of services and fellowship. We’re all familiar with these groups — churches, sports leagues, cultural organizations, and health clinics. Many people participate in this ecosystem, whether as a donor, volunteer, member, or service recipient. And although the functions of these organizations vary, they are united through a similar struggle: to create a financially stable and sustainable organization with an engaged stakeholder base. To many, this is not news. What is news? BCard can help to fatten the piggy bank while also giving members a say in how the organization operates.

BCard was developed to help digital-first communities — read web3 — become more sustainable by redirecting a portion of debit card transaction fees (known as interchange fees) to an organization the user chooses to support. Digital-first communities are just like any other community-based organization with the exception that they use blockchain-enabled digital assets, known as tokens, to help them further their mission. 

That said, there’s no reason why traditional, offchain organizations can’t benefit from interchange fees too. In fact, these fees can serve as a much needed source of recurring revenue while also helping to foster alignment between the organization and its stakeholders. Each time a member uses their org-branded BCard, it reinforces their commitment to the organization while also directing funding to it, a rare win-win where economic and social incentives align to further sustain the organization.

Of course, unlike web3-native communities, traditional organizations don’t have an associated token, and that’s just fine. The important part for most organizations is that each time a member of the community uses the card, the fees that would normally go to the bank go to the organization instead. In a world where these fees amount to hundreds of billions of dollars, the benefits quickly add up. 

If an adventurous soul were interested in tokenizing their community, BCard offers additional incentives. Moving your community onchain enables BCard users to also receive a portion of the interchange revenue in the form of the organization's cryptocurrency token. These tokens are typically used as a form of voting weight, enabling members to have a say in running the communities about which they care so deeply. This symbiosis creates even deeper alignment between the organization and its stakeholders, as these people are helping to create a more sustainable community through card usage while also helping to shape the organization’s future as active decision makers. To that end, BCard is working with partners to be able to help you easily tokenize your community. 

BCard is a community largely made up of impassioned, volunteer contributors; we understand the problems and possibilities that both traditional and digital-first organizations face. We see the work you do to create a better world and we want to help you succeed in your mission. 

Sustainability is more than a mantra; it’s a vision that aligns with the good work you do every day. Having a recurring source of revenue is but one piece of building sustainable organizations, but it’s the focus of BCard, and with your help, it can become a source of inspiration for your members to swipe more, to dream more, to be part of the change they seek to make.

Author Bio

Hiro Kennelly is a writer and shippoooor at IndyPen CryptoMedia, builder at Black Flag DAO (soon), Governator at DAOplomats, and a lover of people, Moloch, and degenerative cryptoeconomics. 

Editor and Designer Bio

trewkat is a writer, editor, and designer at IndyPen CryptoMedia and a builder at Black Flag DAO (soon). She’s interested in learning about web3, with a particular focus on how best to communicate this knowledge to others.