GSR Foundation Backs Mercy Corps Ventures with Lido Impact Staking for Philanthropic Giving

The GSR Foundation has recently announced a significant initiative as an Institutional Impact Staker by backing Mercy Corps Ventures through the Lido Impact Staking mechanism. This partnership represents a groundbreaking advancement in philanthropic finance, allowing for capital preservation while providing sustained funding for high-impact development projects.

Lido Impact Staking enables institutional capital to remain in ETH, with the staking rewards generated by that ETH directed towards funding vetted organizations addressing systemic challenges in emerging markets. By supporting Mercy Corps Ventures in this manner, the GSR Foundation showcases its confidence in this transparent and innovative mechanism for philanthropic giving, which aligns long-term value creation with verifiable impact.

Mercy Corps Ventures, the impact investing arm of the global development agency Mercy Corps, is leveraging yield-based mechanisms to support its mission of building venture solutions that enhance the resilience of underserved communities. Through its Crypto for Good Fund, MCV has collaborated with over 30 protocols and startups, reaching over 3,000,000 users and providing innovative financial solutions for underserved communities. These solutions have resulted in over $10M in on-chain transaction volume, generating significant time and cost savings for low-income populations across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The staking returns will further support the growth of the Crypto For Good Fund.

This collaboration between the GSR Foundation and Mercy Corps Ventures underscores the growing momentum behind yield-based giving, particularly within the Ethereum ecosystem. It demonstrates how financial innovation can empower global development actors while ensuring that donated capital remains productive and intact. As more institutions explore staking as a means to fund real-world outcomes, this partnership serves as a model for future philanthropy, emphasizing efficiency, transparency, and impact-first principles.

Mercy Corps Ventures is the impact investment arm of an international development agency operating in over 40 countries worldwide. MCV has made over 50 equity investments, including crypto startups such as Goldfinch and Open Forest Protocol, and has launched over 20 real-world crypto use cases through the Crypto For Good Fund.

Lido Impact Staking emerged alongside Ethereum’s transition to Proof of Stake, spearheaded by Launchnodes, a company established in April 2020 to empower individuals and institutions to operate their own Ethereum validator nodes while retaining full custody of their assets. As a pioneer in non-custodial staking infrastructure, Launchnodes has played a crucial role in making decentralized staking more accessible and secure.

In 2023, the Lido Ecosystem Grants Organization awarded Launchnodes strategic funding to develop a dedicated middleware layer that would enable staking rewards to be redirected toward high-impact social causes. Built atop Lido’s battle-tested staking framework, this innovation marked the beginning of what is now known as Lido Impact Staking. Today, LIS collaborates with global NGOs, philanthropic foundations, development institutions, and mission-aligned investors to redefine how impact is funded. By channeling ETH staking rewards into the support of digital public goods and humanitarian projects, LIS offers a crypto-native, regenerative approach to philanthropy, unlocking continuous, on-chain funding for a better world.