American Red Cross opens up to bitcoins

ATLANTA: BitPay, a bitcoin payment processor, is supporting the American Red Cross by helping the organization accept bitcoin donations through a BitPay hosted webpage, as it shared.

BitPay will be processing the bitcoin donations without any fees, so the Red Cross will receive 100 per cent of the bitcoin donations made using BitPay’s webpage.

“Introducing the American Red Cross to the bitcoin community is really going to showcase the generosity of this new group of consumers,” said Elizabeth Ploshay, who heads up nonprofit outreach for BitPay. “Bitcoin users are extremely passionate people who are looking to put their bitcoin towards good causes. I’m sure the community will be excited to have such an established charity to donate to.”

The Red Cross is one of the largest and most recognized humanitarian organizations, as explained there. The organization has multiple and varying ways for individuals to donate, but this will be the first time they will be accepting bitcoin donations using BitPay. BitPay also enables bitcoin donors to donate varying amounts, including small donations, opening up a new way to give for people who may be on limited budgets, it explained.

“The Red Cross is thrilled to partner with BitPay to offer a different way for generous donors to support our humanitarian mission,” said Jennifer Niyangoda, executive director of Corporate and Foundation Programs at American Red Cross. “This gives a new generation of supporters the opportunity to help people in need.”

The Red Cross, as added in the note, will also be participating in the newly established bitcoin tradition called 'Bitcoin Black Friday' – a day for bitcoin users to take advantage of bitcoin-specific sales opportunities.