$22 Million: Bitcoin Price Gains Spike Fidelity Charity’s Donations in 2017
The charity arm of mutual fund giant Fidelity has raised over $22 million in bitcoin this year.
Fidelity Charitable, the donor-advised charitable trust fund run by financial giant Fidelity Investments, has seen donations in bitcoin swell to $22 million so far in 2017. While the fund raised $11 million up to November, a marked uptick in December doubled that figure in the past fortnight, as per a CNBC report. The $22 million figure is up from $7 million in 2016.
The surge in donations this month is a part of the “giving season” from late November to December’s end, according to Fidelity Charitable SVP of donor engagement Matt Nash.
The executive added:
“People are getting smarter about donating appreciated assets, and bitcoin is the epitome of appreciated assets this year.”
Using Coinbase as a payments processor, the charity trust converts the bitcoin into cash that is deposited into benefactors’ funds. The report suggests that bitcoiners are in a charitable mood in order to avoid the capital gains tax that would be incurred if they cashed out their bitcoin. In making ‘gifts’ of their bitcoin instead to a charity, investors can collect a charitable giving deduction for the year’s taxes.
Fidelity takes two to four days to process due diligence on bitcoin donations and continues to accept the cryptocurrency up to December 22 for this year’s donations.
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