ETH Denver 2024: Year of the Sporkwhale, and DAFSquatch
By Endaoment
Another year where we visited Denver for one of the world’s favorite Ethereum conferences, ETH Denver. This year proved to be even more expansive for our community, as we wandered outside of crypto and into local Private Wealth offices to share about our donor-advised funds.
What we did:
Our focus this visit was to drive awareness of Endaoment Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) & to give demos to important future partners. Robbie and Dae made it to Denver to meet with financial advisors inside and outside the blockchain industry to expand our community.
We specifically participated in events by Edge City, SheFi Summit, Schelling Point, Gitcoin House, ETH Denver and other meetups for Farcaster and LexDAO.
We sponsored an event with our legal pro friends at LexDAO called Giving, Governance, and Glass. The goal was to use the app to support live fundraising for a nonprofit the venue had a strong relationship with. We also coordinated with SporkDAO to host a live fundraise for Vive Wellness, a local organization supporting the migrant crisis in Denver.
Our Hypothesis going in:
When prepping for Denver in January we imagined the conference may be a bit quieter due to the bear market. Our focus shifted to focus less on crypto events and more on connecting with Private Wealth offices. As it turns out, the market surged and so many of our frens in the blockchain space attended the conference and invited us to dynamic gatherings.
We received a solid 40 RSVPs for our Vive Wellness fliering fundraiser, and decided to pick up coffee to make the early morning easier on community who could join.
We planned to debut our new character DAFSquatch and WTFisadaf.com , our new nondenominational educational website about donor-advised funds. Our hopes for the site were to peak the interest of our donors about how handy DAFs really are, provide a space for FAQs, and offer resources. More folks can open a DAF than ever before on our app.
ROI Metrics:
One of our favorite takeaways was how much more people know about Endaoment and what we do… plus they loved our merch! We were reminded that we have a great community and folks really are following our building journey.
We did notice week site traffic, however. We hoping that sharing about the product at these live events will encourage app visits. This was another reminder that immediate conversion is tough at conferences.
Our demos went great, generating new leads in the financial planning space. We got great time with existing partners to fuel new integration opportunities.
What went well:
The Schelling Point Impact Summit/panel was lovely and filled with like-minds. We received quality feedback on our application from an entirely new user pool of financial advisors. We also soft-launched our new friend DAF Squatch, a character we made to help educate community about Donor-Advised Funds.
There was a lot of interest in DAFs, however many people just don’t know about them. It is clear that educating about how they’re tax advantageous and about the dynamism of our DAF is where we should put energy.
What was challenging:
Timing always seems to be a bit tricky, with the conference spanning two weeks we didn’t get to go to everything we wished. Additionally there are so many hyped projects, it was hard to cut through the noise to find new substantive products.
A few folks came to help us flier. We had a lovely time getting quality face time with them. We did not, however, see much donation traffic.
What did we learn:
It is still clear that Denver is very worth it. We meet great new partners and reconnect with old friends. A key learning was that any fundraising activation must be tethered to a point-of-sale to generate donations.
Our work building good relationships and reputation in the space is clearly translating. Our internally produced events tend to thrive and get more of our people in the room with us, too.
People adored DAF Squatch, and many folks are eager to learn more about supportive finanical tools like our donor-advised funds.
Connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, or email us at partnerships@endaoment.org.
Open your own onchain DAF on Endaoment.
