Upland Launches NFT Fundraiser

Upland, a metaverse platform closely tied to real-world locations, is launching an NFT-based fundraising campaign to assist a US nonprofit organization in constructing playgrounds in historically underserved neighborhoods.

KABOOM!, a nonprofit with a track record of building and renovating over 17,000 play areas, has partnered with Upland for this initiative. According to Danny Brown Wolf, Chief of Staff at Upland, addressing the issue of unequal access to play spaces resonated strongly with Upland’s user base.

Some members of the Upland community are actively involved in real-world fundraising efforts for KABOOM!, which facilitated the collaboration between the two organizations.
In Upland, various in-game assets are represented as map assets, which are equivalent to NFTs. These assets can include land, homes, apartments, and virtual decorations for users’ digital living spaces.

To support KABOOM!’s mission, Upland is selling a collection of NFT playgrounds, comprising 1800 NFTs. The proceeds from this sale will be directed to KABOOM!, with Upland retaining a 10% transaction fee.

The minting process for these NFT playgrounds will begin shortly, with the first sales scheduled to commence soon after.

The collection, designed by an Upland community member who is a graphic artist, features five distinct playgrounds. Once purchased, users can place these playgrounds in their virtual properties within Upland.

This isn’t the first charitable endeavor for Upland. In December 2022, they launched a fundraising campaign in collaboration with UNICEF Brazil to support a youth program focused on teaching metaverse and Web3 skills to young adults. This initiative involved the sale of virtual ornaments and winter-themed items to decorate users’ virtual homes in sync with the seasons in Upland.

Upland’s past charitable efforts have demonstrated the potential for metaverse-based fundraising, and they aim to further expand this use case, envisioning it as a broader trend within the metaverse.

Danny Brown Wolf considers these initiatives as proof of the metaverse’s legitimacy and its future as a viable business model, comparable to how impact organizations utilize social media and crowdfunding platforms for fundraising in the real world.