Blockchain technology adoption in non-profit organizations in the UAE: a study on enhancing transparency and accountability

Abstract

The swift advancement of recent technologies has motivated non-profit organizations (NPOs) in different countries to adopt such technologies to provide better services and develop donation processes. NPOs depend on fundraising involving opaque operations, which may cause concerns that donations may not reach deserving people or be used for illegal purposes. The charity donations traceability scheme is necessary to overcome these concerns, which affect donors' trust, and ensure the transparency and accountability of donation processes. This qualitative study used exploratory research design to determine how NPOs can use blockchain technology to enhance transparency and accountability and how its adoption further advances these initiatives in the UAE NPOs. It studied international best practices and the UAE private and public sector cases to propose a policy and strategy to encourage the UAE charities to adopt such technology. It suggested a blockchain-based policy for donation traceability to allow stakeholders to track the progress of donations. The policy states facilitating all stakeholder collaboration, enhancing IT integration and expertise, developing governance architecture, and addressing NPOs’ blockchain standards, regulations, and policies. In addition, the proposed strategy encourages the UAE NPOs to determine their current stage, recognize the challenges, and try to overcome them to adopt this technology. The main challenges that may cause NPOs to become stuck in the middle are cultural barriers, regulatory uncertainty, and stakeholder alignment. The strategy leads the UAE NPOs to build a blockchain on a particular platform, where every transaction is recorded as a block of information in the chain. The blocks are accessible to all parties and immutable, enabling traceable and timely transactions.