NEW YORK (March 28, 2024) — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is delighted to announce a free quarterly webinar to teach nonprofits, particularly human rights organizations, how to integrate Bitcoin into their work to challenge state censorship and confiscation.
“In a world where financial de-platforming is on the rise, especially in dictatorships, this kind of education is critical,” HRF Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladstein said. “Authoritarians everywhere, from Hong Kong to Nicaragua to Iran, are increasingly relying on freezing bank accounts, censoring donations, and confiscating the assets of NGOs and dissidents. It’s time to help civil society learn about unstoppable money.”
The first course will take place from April 22 to 26 and will consist of five hour-long lectures at 10:30 a.m. EDT, taught by world-class educator Ben Perrin (a.k.a. BTC Sessions).
The course will explore the basics: downloading a Bitcoin wallet, receiving and sending transactions, safely storing and backing up Bitcoin, and recovering Bitcoin from a seed phrase. Participants will learn how nonprofits can use this technology to receive donations and make payrolls for people in closed societies. They will also learn how to use software like BTCPay Server to safely accept donations in an automated way, as well as best practices for selling Bitcoin into local currency. The course will supplement technical 101s with case studies of activists in HRF’s network who successfully use Bitcoin to strengthen their advocacy.
Open to everyone, the course is designed for individuals with no previous knowledge of Bitcoin. It will also be equally helpful for nonprofits interested in expanding their organization’s capabilities in this area. This course may also be valuable to independent media outlets, anti-corruption investigators, and environmental and labor advocates.
Perrin is a long-time Bitcoin educator who has produced over 1,400 YouTube videos, earning more than 175,000 subscribers and helping his audience understand how to use Bitcoin software. He has published many guides relevant to nonprofits, including this guide on how to set up a BTCPay Server.
Perrin will lead the course with the help of Gladstein, HRF bitcoin development lead Alex Li, and Anna Chekhovich, who recently joined HRF as nonprofit bitcoin adoption lead. Chekhovich comes to HRF from Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, where she worked for many years in a challenging economic environment where Bitcoin was a key tool for receiving donations and making payroll.
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.
HRF’s Financial Freedom program educates activists worldwide, unites people from different industries and backgrounds, and makes grants in the service of advancing Bitcoin as a tool for human rights. To receive HRF’s weekly Financial Freedom Report, subscribe here.
For media inquiries or interview requests, please contact media@hrf.org.