New fundraising method combines art, crypto and global health

A nonprofit, a NYC-based illustrator and a Crypto Barista walk into a café. What happens next? A creative collaboration begins to raise money for cervical cancer prevention through the sale of an NFT (i.e. original digital artwork). 

Crypto Baristas is a side project of Coffee Bros, a NYC roastery owned by brothers Dan & Nick. Profits from the sale of their digital barista characters (image below) support the world’s first NFT Funded Café and other sustainable coffee projects, including our work and One Tree Planted. All Crypto Barista NFT owners also receive discounts on café drinks, beans and merch.  

Coffee Bros has partnered with Grounds for Health since 2020 and we were excited when Dan offered a new fundraising idea for our #bethereason summer campaign: to create and sell an NFT to cover HPV self-screening costs for 100 women. 

“What excites us most about this collaboration is that it will positively impact the people behind the coffee we all love to consume. As a small business of two, it is tough to have boots on the ground to contribute to the positive change we ultimately want to see. As individuals and a company that takes from these countries, we want to ensure we are doing everything we can to give back,” said Dan. “The women’s health in coffee-growing regions is paramount to coffee’s survival as a crop, considering how much women contribute to the processing of coffee.” 

Before we dive in too far, I am here to explain what an NFT is—for those who aren’t caught up in the ‘crypto meets art world’ craze. 

What is an NFT? 

A non-fungible token. Think of it as a digital trading card (such as Pokémon or baseball) that you can buy and trade while using a crypto wallet. You cannot buy an NFT without one, as all NFTs are part of the blockchain (most commonly, Ethereum). In other words, each piece is ‘minted’ as an original artwork on the blockchain. 

But what is it, exactly? 

An NFT is anything digital including a photo, video clip, illustration, music or even an online article, including The New York times adding their first column to the blockchain. 

According to an article in The Verge, “NFTs are designed to give you something that can’t be copied: ownership of the work (though the artist can still retain the copyright and reproduction rights, just like with physical artwork). To put it in terms of physical art collecting: anyone can buy a Monet print. But only one person can own the original”.

There has been a lot of media attention on NFTs in the last couple of years, with massive sales including digital artworks “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” by Beeple that sold for $69.3 million and “The Merge” selling for $91.8 million at the Art Basel festival in Miami. 

With every new phenomenon there is criticism, such as the amount of energy used to sustain the block chain or that NFT sales are “just another Ponzi scheme” for the rich and famous. However, those who create and purchase NFTs see it as an innovative platform for artists to sell their work.  

For our NFT project, we worked with Maithili Joshi, an illustrator based in NYC. When we saw her beautiful portraits of women on Instagram, we knew she was the one (and so thankful she said yes!) After describing Grounds for Health and our summer HPV self-testing campaign, she sent sketches inspired by farmers in Ethiopia, holding kits in their hands. 

For the final NFT, we decided on a powerful portrait of a coffee farmer sans kit. Crypto Baristas is selling each artwork for $27, to cover the full cost of screening one women. There are 100 NFTs up for grabs and we’re hopeful the crypto and coffee community will jump on this exciting opportunity to support women at origin and own a beautiful artwork on the blockchain. 

For those without a digital wallet, you can still #bethereason and donate any amount this month, in good old-fashioned dollar currency.  

Thank you for your support, 

Sarah Annay 

Communications Coordinator, Grounds for Health