Programmable Donations: Exploring Escrow-based Conditional Giving

Chris Elsden, Ludwig Trotter, Mike Harding, Nigel Davies, Chris Speed, John Vines

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    19 Citations (Scopus)
    29 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    This paper reports on a co-speculative interview study with charitable donors to explore the future of programmable, conditional and data-driven donations. Responding to the rapid emergence of blockchain-based and AI-supported financial technologies, we specifically examine the potential of automated, third-party ‘escrows’, where donations are held before they are released or returned based on specified rules and conditions. To explore this we conducted pilot workshops with 9 participants and an interview study in which 14 further participants were asked about their experiences of donating money, and invited to co-speculate on a service for programmable giving. The study elicited how data-driven conditionality and automation could be leveraged to create novel donor experiences, however also illustrated the inherent tensions and challenges involved in giving programmatically. Reflecting on these findings, our paper contributes implications both for the design of programmable aid platforms, and the design of escrow-based financial services in general.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationCHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    Subtitle of host publicationMay 4–9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland UK
    Place of PublicationNew York, NY, USA
    PublisherACM
    Number of pages13
    ISBN (Electronic)9781450359702
    ISBN (Print)9781450359702
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2 May 2019
    EventACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2019: CHI’19 Workshop: HCI in China: Research Agenda, Education Curriculum, Industry Partnership, and Communities Building - Scottish Event Campus, Glasgow, United Kingdom
    Duration: 4 May 20199 May 2019
    https://chi2019.acm.org/
    http://chi2019.acm.org

    Publication series

    NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

    Conference

    ConferenceACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2019
    Abbreviated titleCHI 2019
    Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
    CityGlasgow
    Period4/05/199/05/19
    Internet address

    Keywords

    • Charity
    • Blockchains
    • Automation
    • Conditionality

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