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For the fifth episode of The Web3 Nonprofit, we’re excited to highlight the work of DirectEd Development Foundation, a not-for-profit delivering evidence-based, highly scalable, and cost-effective training in coding and entrepreneurship to high-potential students right after secondary school around the world, starting in Kenya and Ethiopia. Today we welcome to the podcast Simon Sällström, CEO at DirectEd Development.

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Key Takeaways

• Verifiable credentials will be a gamechanger for education by creating a more trustworthy system for student credentials, while also preserving the privacy of the student. At the same time, it enables the easy traceability and auditability of funds paid out to students through DirectEd Development’s programs.
• Smart contracts can help nonprofits automate their services while also enabling greater consistency and transparency. In the case of DirectEd Development, they are using smart contracts to automatically payout stipends to students based on the completion of specific milestones.
• The common thread throughout the conversation is transparency. Blockchain can enable radical transparency in the charitable sector that can help ensure the responsible use of funds, while helping build trust with donors.

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Follow Simon & DirectEd Development

Simon - Twitter

Simon - LinkedIn

DirectEd Development - Twitter

DirectEd Development - LinkedIn

Website

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Curious about how Web3 could support your nonprofit’s mission? 💡

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Episode Time Stamps:

03:10 - To start things off, I’d love to hear your story. How did you end up working in the nonprofit sector?

05:20 - Can you please introduce listeners to the mission of DirectEd Development?

13:00 - There’s a quote from your Lite Paper I’d like to share – “By pioneering the use of blockchain technology and decentralised identifiers to facilitate stipends, we enable meaningful transparency, full traceability and accountability at scale.” I’m very interested to learn more about your use of decentralised identifiers, and the creation of verifiable on-chain credentials.

19:50 - Another innovative way you’re looking to use blockchain, is setting up learning-milestone-based smart contracts, that pay out stipends to students based on milestones being achieved – tell me more about this.

22:55 - Tell me more about how you’re using tokens to deliver your programming.

26:05 - I understand that you are building on the Cardano blockchain. Can you please introduce listeners to Cardano, and tell me more about why you chose to build on this protocol?

33:05 - I understand that you will soon be launching a digital art collection to support your fundraising efforts. Tell me more about this.

39:25 - For nonprofit leaders who are skeptical about getting involved with Web3, what advice would you give them?

43:45 - In your litepaper, you estimate the cost-benefit return to be $66 for every $1 donated to your cause. Tell me more about this, and the impact that donations will have.

46:15 - What’s the best way for listeners to learn more and support DirectEd Development?

47:10 - To end on a note of inspiration – is there a recent success story or win at DirectEd Development Foundation that you can share with the audience?

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