Please describe your proposed solution.
Following the Beirut blast, international aid flooded into the country to provide humanitarian relief. Many surveys were conducted in affected areas to compensate victims and help rebuild the destruction, however the execution of the funding was left to the local community. Given the lack of oversight and transparency, an influx of NGOs popped out of the blue to get a share of the donations yet quickly disappeared after providing little -to -no benefits. Of the significant amounts of funds received the money distributed to locals was minimal. Moreover, food and other donated goods were found on supermarket shelves and in stores being sold. Our solution was born from experiencing this real life event.
Canadian Case Study - inflation consequences
Problem
NGOs are still working as centralized entities which lack transparency and accountability.
Many NGOs use exorbitantly expensive Web 2.0 proprietary softwares that achieve varying and often limited success in reaching donors, driving event attendance, increasing digital engagement or inspiring new volunteers. (e.g Almabase) This approach not only reduces the success of the NGOs by limiting their ability to deliver the essential services they provide, it also breeds a lack of trust among individuals or entities looking to donate.
Solution
We are researching how to integrate DAO with NGOs. By building a DAO, we are pushing NGOs to behave better. When NGOs are on the blockchain, donors have insight into their finances, voting records, and behavior, which provides them with complete transparency. As a result, this would reduce the mismanagement of funds and potential fraud. By bringing NGOs to the technology space, donors will benefit from the best of both worlds.
Methodology of research
- Documenting donors' experiences via interviews
- Understanding NGOs internal procedures prior, during and after receiving funds through participant observation.
Impactful Research Results
The findings of this research will be utilized in the execution of our primary Dapp solution.
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
Our research will bridge the gap between NGOs and DAO. We will use our results to find ways on how to include DAOs with NGOs. And later stage, we will create a DAO tool to be used publicly with an open source.
What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
As our focus is not solely on the people within Cardano, but people outside the blockchain as well and how to onboard them, the challenges we might face along the way to create a platform that connects donors to NGOs in a transparent way are the following:
Risk 1: Some NGOs won’t believe in the efficiency of blockchain or don't have enough knowledge/information about blockchains, investing the time to educate individuals about the blockchain
**Mitigation 1:**The mentioned challenges above lie in the decentralized nature of the project, therefore we need to approach NGOs professionally and prove to them that the blockchain can help them restore donors’ trust, along with making the process of receiving payments easier and much faster.
Risk 2: Donors/NGOs will not be interested in interviewing for research purposes
Mitigation 2: We will engage with donors/ngos already engaged in blockchain. Additionally, we will incentivize individuals for their time.
Risk 3: We aren't asking the right questions
Mitigation 3: We will work with organizations and individuals who have already successfully created DAOs in their communities to ensure we are covering all of our bases in terms of the data we plan to gather.