An award winning pro bono collaboration
It was a proud moment, when in 2019, we were able to say: We supported a strong partner network in building the first completely transparent donation system in Austria for Wiener Hilfswerk: Token 4 Hope. Token 4 Hope is a lighthouse example (1) for how digital tools can really benefit non-profit missions and (2) for how the right partners can realize complex and radical innovation.
Wiener Hilfswerk and BearingPoint present "Token 4 Hope" in cooperation as part of the collaborating network!
Why transparency is key for non-profits
The equation is simple: Creating transparency is key for non-profits – especially those that rely on donations. A core asset for them is donor trust – and trust can be underpinned with re-assuring information. With transparent documentation that funds are used as promised and as effective as possible as regards helping beneficiaries, the organization’s credibility is strengthened.
How can non-profit organizations document best how they spent donations?
The approach we took with Token 4 Hope was to build a “Human2Human” donation system., which works based on blockchain technology. Donated money is converted into so-called humanity tokens. Humanity tokens are a digital substitute currency. The clue: The beneficiaries of the Wiener Hilfswerk – mainly families in need – receive these tokens via paper wallets and can use these as means of payment in dedicated social markets and second-hand shops. In April 2019, the project partners demonstrated how purchasing with the "tokens" works in real operation.
Key success factors
With the help of the digital and decentralized blockchain technology from our partner Decent, Peer2Peer trading in the form of tokens is made possible. The donated money is distributed to the beneficiaries via "paper wallets" (in this case the SOMA ID card), and the digital tokens contained therein can be used to make purchases as with a voucher card.
Christoph Zinganell (Managing Director at Collective Energy)
Such a project requires a diversity of skills
Token 4 Hope is not a result of only one player’s work. In fact, we now can say: the right partners were brought to the table and all of them contributed key skills and knowledge. Token 4 Hope is collective impact projects enabled with Wiener Hilfswerk (the non-profit that enabled a use case for the technology), Collective Energy, Decent (providing the applied blockchain technology), Blockchain Austria and BearingPoint.
We are very pleased to be the first to apply this innovative and future-oriented technology. We can thus increase our transparency even further. Every euro that is donated is passed on directly and in a traceable manner.
Sabine Geringer GF of the Wiener Hilfswerk
We are very proud to be able to accompany this pilot project together with the Vienna relief organization to implement the first completely transparent donation system in Austria. That will be the system of the future - with it an organization can prove to me, as a donor, that my money has actually arrived.
Andreas Unger, Partner BearingPoint
