San Diego State University is now accepting bitcoin donations after a former undergraduate student donated about $25,000 worth of BTC in October and advocated for the school’s continued acceptance of the peer-to-peer money.
SDSU said in a statement that The Campanile Foundation, an official tax-exempt auxiliary of the university dedicated to increasing SDSU’s private funding, had created an endowment fund to coordinate the new donations vehicle, the Montezuma & Satoshi Cryptocurrency Endowment, after the initial bitcoin donor requested continued acceptance of bitcoin donations.
“The donor envisions a future where both donors and students understand the value and utility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in supporting SDSU, including receiving and spending on campus,” said Rajah Gainey, an associate director in the University Relations and Development (URAD) Office of Housing Administration, per the statement.
SDSU said the donor also requested the university to keep its gifts in bitcoin instead of instantly converting them to cash in an effort to increase the donations’ value over the years. The Campanile Foundation’s CFO, David Fuhriman, said that “if the value of bitcoin goes up, then this endowment could last forever.”
“We believe over the long run that this could be a really good benefit to SDSU,” he added.
The Montezuma & Satoshi Cryptocurrency Endowment will keep most of its bitcoin donations denominated in the P2P currency, as Fuhriman explained the endowment will draw off 1% of its holdings each quarter for one or more campus programs to “explore uses and discover how SDSU could interact with cryptocurrency and Bitcoin specifically.”
SDSU said it leverages cryptocurrency exchange Kraken for its Bitcoin-related efforts.
