UNICEF Venture Fund Joins Lido Impact Staking With Support From GSR Foundation
Stockholm, Sweden, June 11th, 2025, Chainwire
The UNICEF Venture Fund, a global leader in funding early-stage, open-source technologies developed in low and middle-income countries, has joined Lido Impact Staking (LIS) as a new impact recipient. This will enable ETH stakers to donate their staking rewards directly to support the Fund’s investments in frontier technologies that improve the lives of children and their communities.
This listing was made possible by GSR Foundation, which became the first institutional donor to deploy ETH for impact via LIS by directing staking rewards to the UNICEF Venture Fund. The move marks a significant step forward for institutional philanthropy in Web3, showcasing how long-term ETH holders can sustainably fund social innovation without liquidating their assets.
The partnership brings a novel funding mechanism to the Venture Fund’s portfolio of tech investments. By becoming a recipient on Lido Impact Staking (LIS), UNICEF can now receive a stream of staking rewards from individuals and institutions who wish to stake their ETH for social good.
“This new pathway gives crypto-native supporters an innovative way to fund technologies that improve the lives of children,” said Sunita Grote, Lead, UNICEF Ventures. “From AI to web3 tools that are digital public goods, we support frontier technologies, and now we’re embracing frontier funding models.”
Staking ETH, Supporting Innovation for Humanity
Through Lido Impact Staking, ETH holders can stake their tokens and direct any share of the rewards to approved social impact organizations. The principal remains untouched, while the staking yield, generated through staked Ethereum, is automatically routed to initiatives like those supported by the UNICEF Venture Fund.
This creates a sustainable and transparent flow of capital to fund innovation in health, education, climate, financial inclusion, and humanitarian response. For donors, it’s an easy, non-custodial way to give, without giving up ownership of their assets.
“UNICEF is a visionary in both tech and impact,” said Rajesh Sinha, COO at Lido Impact Staking. “Their monumental work makes them an ideal partner for LIS and we’re thrilled to make it easier for the crypto community to support their mission”.
Why It Matters
The UNICEF Venture Fund has invested in over 150 startups and UNICEF country office initiatives across 85+ countries, targeting solutions in AI, blockchain, XR, and data science. By accepting staking rewards, the Fund is tapping into a fast-growing, Web3 donor base aligned with its open-source, digital public good ethos.
The support of GSR Foundation further validates impact staking as a credible and scalable funding model. As more institutions follow GSR’s lead, a new wave of sustainable, yield-based philanthropy is emerging, powered by Ethereum.
About UNICEF Venture Fund
The UNICEF Venture Fund is the first of its kind in the UN system, offering catalytic, non-dilutive capital to early-stage startups building open-source solutions for children, youth, and vulnerable populations. The Fund identifies technologies with the potential for global scale and equitable impact, investing in frontier areas like blockchain, AI, and digital identity.
About Lido Impact Staking
Lido Impact Staking (LIS) was born out of Ethereum’s move to Proof of Stake, championed by Launchnodes, a company founded in April 2020 to help individuals and institutions run their own Ethereum validators while maintaining full control over their assets. Launchnodes has been a key player in advancing self-custodial staking infrastructure.
In 2023, the Lido Ecosystem Grants Organization (LEGO) awarded Launchnodes funding to develop a specialized middleware layer that would route staking rewards toward high-impact causes. Built on top of Lido’s robust staking infrastructure, this innovation laid the foundation for what is now known as Lido Impact Staking.
Today, LIS partners with leading NGOs, development agencies, foundations, and socially driven investors to enable a new form of giving: one that turns ETH staking rewards into a long-term funding stream for digital public goods and humanitarian innovation. It’s a crypto-native, sustainable model of philanthropy.
To direct the staking rewards to the UNICEF Venture Fund and support open-source tech for children, users can visit:
https://unicefventurefund.impactstake.com
Contacts
Innovation Specialist
Sanna Bedi
Unicef Venture Fund
sbedi@unicef.org
CMO
Andrei Druta
Lido Impact Staking
andrei@impactstake.com