31 July 2014 / Fundraising.co.uk – The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is to test accepting donations by Bitcoin, the digital currency. It claims to be “the first major charity in the UK or Ireland to accept Bitcoin”.

The test involves creating a dedicated Bitcoin online donation page. If it proves successful, then the charity might integrate it into its standard donation pages. There is, however, no budgeted target income.

Leesa Harwood, RNLI Deputy Director of Fundraising and Communications, explained that she believed that “accepting Bitcoin will result in donations we may not otherwise receive, as well as connecting us with new types of supporters.”

She added:

“From our research into future trends, it looked likely that we would receive digital currency as a donation or as part of a legacy at some point and we wanted to be prepared for that eventuality. So a project team was founded to look at the feasibility of accepting Bitcoin, which has led to the pilot scheme we are launching today”…… Read more

http://www.fundraising.co.uk/2014/07/31/rnli-accept-donations-bitcoin/