por Ramón Salinas
In recent years, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have faced a growing challenge: managing donations they receive globally in a transparent and efficient manner. The diversity of countries, regulations, currencies, administrative structures, and internal processes can generate friction, delays, unnecessary operating costs, and, most importantly, a lack of traceability in the flow of resources.
However, the emergence of new collaborative and decentralized technologies has opened a path of profound innovation in the social and humanitarian sphere. DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) are emerging as a key tool for strengthening trust, transparency, and coordination among the multiple stakeholders of an international NGO.
An illustrative case is how an organization like Amnesty International could leverage a DAO to transform the management of donations and resources in all the countries where it operates.
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What is a DAO and why does it matter in the world of NGOs?
A DAO is an organizational structure based on blockchain, where the rules of operation are encoded in smart contracts. This allows decisions, transactions, and operations to be recorded on a distributed ledger, impossible to modify without consensus.
Instead of relying on a central authority to manage funds, the DAO:
- Distributes responsibility among its members.
- Ensures absolute traceability of all transactions.
- Automates processes to reduce administrative costs.
- Strengthens trust, as everything is auditable in real time.
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The Amnesty case: a DAO to coordinate global resources
Imagine Amnesty International implements a DAO to manage donations and financial operations for its various chapters worldwide. Each regional office is part of the DAO and can:
- Receive funds.
- Allocate budgets.
- Fund local projects.
- Justify expenses through reports directly linked to verified transactions.
Key benefits:
Benefit Description
Total transparency Every donation is recorded on the blockchain from its origin to its final use.
Global Traceability: You can see how resources are distributed and used in each country.
Operational Decentralization: Each subsidiary has autonomy, within common rules codified in the DAO.
Reduced Administrative Costs: Less bureaucracy and manual audits.
Strengthened Trust: Donors, auditors, and beneficiaries can verify the use of funds.
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The Role of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science
Once operations and finances are structured in a DAO, all transactions become clean, normalized, and organized data. This is the perfect input for applying Data Science and generating strategic information.
What kind of insights can be obtained?
- Identification of donation patterns by region, campaign, or donor profile.
- Detection of deviations or anomalies in resource use (fraud, inefficiencies, duplication).
- Budget optimization based on the measurable impact of programs.
- Predictive models to understand which campaigns have the greatest fundraising potential.
- Visualization of complex dynamics that are not immediately obvious.
By applying data mining and machine learning techniques, it is even possible to detect:
- Emerging social trends.
- Humanitarian needs before they become crises.
- Early indicators of political or social risk.
In other words, the shift from manual and fragmented management to decentralized, traceable, and analytical management allows organizations like Amnesty International to make better decisions, faster, and with fewer resources.
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Conclusion
The combination of blockchain + DAOs + Data Science is not just a technological innovation:
it is a structural transformation in how global organizations can manage resources with transparency, trust, and efficiency.
In a context where legitimacy and public trust are essential, DAOs offer NGOs like Amnesty International a new foundation for operating in a way that is:
- More open
- More auditable
- More collaborative
- And profoundly intelligent
The future of global humanitarian aid will depend not only on goodwill, but also on the ability to manage resources with precision, transparency, and collective intelligence. DAOs are paving the way.