NFT Art for Good: Humanitarian Efforts

We saw in our previous blog (NFT Art for Good: Charity Efforts), that NFT (Non-Fungible Token) art has started to make a huge impact on charitable and philanthropic causes around the world. The same might also be said for NFT art being used as a force for good in terms of humanitarian efforts. In short, humanitarian efforts are concerned with improving people’s lives and reducing suffering on a global basis. They often arise in response to specific events such as national health emergencies, natural disasters, and displacement of refugees by war and conflicts.

In general, they involve efforts to provide humanitarian aid to help children and refugees in poverty stricken and war-torn countries around the world, as well as feeding the world’s hungry, and the provision of assistance in health emergencies arising from conflicts, disease outbreaks, and natural disasters. One of the most notable recent instances of NFTs being used for humanitarian efforts is NFT art and the Ukraine crisis, brought about because of the Russian-Ukraine war.

The media has highlighted how Ukrainian artists have been turning to NFTs to tell their stories, with a view to supporting humanitarian efforts (Freethink 2022). Specific NFT art campaigns to support Ukraine include ‘Vandalz for Ukraine’, ‘Forza Ikonia’, ‘ArtWaRks Ukraine’, ‘UkraineDAO’, ‘Waone Interesni Kazki’, and ‘Holy Water’ (Creative Bloq 2022). The decentralised nature of NFTs, combined with the use of online promotional platforms, has helped to rapidly accelerate the speed at which these types of humanitarian campaigns can be developed and delivered online.

For example, it was noted that ‘Reli3f’, a Web3 initiative that consisted of over 37 NFT artists and leaders formed to provide global humanitarian aid, managed to raise over $1 million for Ukraine within 30 seconds of selling NFTs online (ONE37pm 2022). Wow, that represents such a fantastic humanitarian fund raising effort through the use of new technologies! These types of online efforts have also been extensively supported by third party service providers.

For instance, The Giving Block set up a non-profit crypto fundraising campaign called the ‘Ukraine Emergency Response Fund’ to facilitate crypto donations provided to support humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine (sponsored by the American Renaissance Charitable Foundation). What is a great about this service, is that it provides people with a huge range of choices of charities and non-profit organisations (e.g., ActionAid USA, Direct Relief, Save the Children,Hearts & Homes for Refugees) working to provide humanitarian and other support to Ukraine.

In May 2022 ‘RedKiteNFT’, a fine art NFT platform, launched a group NFT art show entitled ‘Humanity’ in collaboration with 33 traditional and contemporary NFT artists, in order to raise funds to support the current global humanitarian crisis and refugees (see below). It was confirmed that funds raised from the sale of 256 NFTs would be donated to UNICEF UK Children’s Emergency Fund, The Refugee Council and the Voices of Children Foundation. This type of online NFT art fundraising effort highlights the huge potential that NFT art, NFT artists, and NFT art collaborations, can contribute to a broad range of future humanitarian-focused efforts.

Humanity, RedKiteNFT, 2022