Stellar

Rescue

Cash

USDC

Bulk

Nonprofits and NGOs use&nbsp;<a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://bsc.news/post/stellar-xlm-cross-border-payments" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Stellar</a> because it lets them send small cash payments to thousands of people quickly, cheaply, and with a full record of where the money went. Recipients do not need a bank account or card. They receive USDC, a dollar-backed stablecoin, on their phones and can cash it out locally.&nbsp;
The model has now moved past testing. In July 2026, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) signed an agreement to turn Stellar-based payments into a standing tool its country offices can use through the end of 2027.
<h2 id="span-span-strong-what-problem-are-aid-groups-trying-to-solve-strong-span-span">What Problem Are Aid Groups Trying To Solve?</h2>
Cash is often the most useful form of aid, but delivering it is hard. Circle estimates the global humanitarian system moves about $38 billion a year while still relying on slow, older banking rails.
Aid groups run into three recurring problems:
<ul>
 <li>Cost: Fees and intermediaries take a share of every transfer before it reaches the recipient.</li>
 <li>Access: Many displaced people have no working bank account, and carrying physical cash can put them at risk, especially when crossing borders.</li>
 <li>Tracking: Donors want proof that money reached the right people.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="span-span-strong-why-do-aid-groups-choose-stellar-strong-span-span">Why Do Aid Groups Choose Stellar?</h2>
Stellar was built for payments and asset issuance rather than general-purpose computing, which makes it a practical fit for bulk transfers.
<h3 id="span-span-strong-low-fees-and-stable-value-strong-span-span">Low Fees And Stable Value</h3>
Stellar lists its aid processing fees at around 1 US cent per 10,000 transactions. Because network fees are paid in XLM, their dollar cost moves with XLM's price. These are network fees only, since SDF does not control fees charged by independent organizations in the payment flow, such as cash-out partners.
Funds land in a hard-currency stablecoin that holds its value until the recipient decides to cash out, either all at once or in smaller amounts. This matters in countries with weak currencies. In Argentina, UNHCR used the setup for refugee entrepreneurs partly to protect grant value from local currency devaluation.
<h3 id="span-span-strong-cash-out-without-a-bank-strong-span-span">Cash Out Without A Bank</h3>
Recipients can exchange digital dollars for local currency at MoneyGram locations worldwide. In crypto terms, this is an "off-ramp," the point where digital money turns back into spendable cash.
<h3 id="span-span-strong-a-record-of-every-payment-strong-span-span">A Record Of Every Payment</h3>
Every transfer is logged on a public blockchain. A UNHCR program quote published by SDF says the system provided full traceability across multi-purpose cash, rent support, and gender-based violence assistance. The network's steward, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), is itself a nonprofit, which aligns its stated mission with that of aid groups.
<h2 id="span-span-strong-how-does-the-stellar-disbursement-platform-work-strong-span-span">How Does The Stellar Disbursement Platform Work?</h2>
The core tool is the Stellar Disbursement Platform (SDP), an open-source system for bulk payments. Aid groups access it through a product called Stellar Aid Assist.
The process runs in four steps:
<ul>
 <li>An organization checks eligibility and uploads recipient details.</li>
 <li>It launches a single batch payment that can reach thousands of people.</li>
 <li>Staff monitor disbursements, registered recipients, and queued payments through a dashboard or REST API.</li>
 <li>Recipients cash out at a local partner.</li>
</ul>
At launch in 2022, Circle held funds on behalf of aid groups, with plans for more custodians and a self-custody option. The same tool supports payroll and government social payments, not just aid.
<h2 id="span-span-strong-what-has-unhcr-achieved-on-stellar-strong-span-span">What Has UNHCR Achieved On Stellar?</h2>
The UN Refugee Agency was the first major adopter, launching a pilot in Ukraine in December 2022. It started in Kyiv, Lviv, and Vinnytsia, with recipients using a Stellar-based wallet called Vibrant. The International Rescue Committee ran a parallel pilot.
To limit risk, UNHCR's treasury team removed send and receive functions from the wallets, so they worked only for cashing out USDC, mainly at MoneyGram. The pilot won the "Best Impact Project Award" at Paris Blockchain Week in March 2023.
According to UNHCR's 2024 reporting, the Stellar program had sent $4.6 million since December 2022, mostly in Ukraine, with the rest going to Argentina. In Ukraine, the money covered rent, food, medical care, and winter heating.
<h2 id="span-span-strong-what-did-the-undp-pilots-show-strong-span-span">What Did The UNDP Pilots Show?</h2>
The UNDP's work provides the most recent and broadest evidence. Over 16 months, it researched digital payments in 17 countries, ran live pilots in Haiti, Syria, Kenya, Guatemala, and The Gambia, and built prototypes in Colombia and Papua New Guinea.
<h3 id="span-span-strong-results-from-syria-and-haiti-strong-span-span">Results From Syria And Haiti</h3>
Two results stand out:
<ul>
 <li>Aleppo, Syria: Cash-for-work stipends paid digitally and recorded onchain cut the estimated distribution cost from about 10% of funds to about 2%, and every participant received and cashed out their payment.</li>
 <li>Haiti: A pilot built for weak connectivity kept a 100% success rate even when the cellular network failed entirely during testing.</li>
</ul>
Across all pilots, programs gained a traceable record of where the money went, which they had lacked before.
<h3 id="span-span-strong-from-pilot-to-standing-capability-strong-span-span">From Pilot To Standing Capability</h3>
The July 6, 2026, agreement shifts focus from testing to building the rules, onboarding, and safeguards that country offices need to use the tool routinely. It will extend the same setup from humanitarian response to social protection and financial inclusion programs. It is designed to end with a scaling playbook and a formal handover, so the capability outlasts the partnership.
Robert Pasicko, who leads UNDP's Alternative Finance Lab, said the goal is to make the capability ordinary, so an office can use it with confidence rather than treating each deployment as an experiment. SDF is also a founding member of UNDP's Blockchain Advisory Group, launched on June 3, 2026, with 26 member organizations.
<h2 id="span-span-strong-what-are-the-limits-strong-span-span">What Are The Limits?</h2>
Stellar-based aid remains small compared with the wider aid system, and it faces competition from other blockchains.
<h3 id="span-span-strong-small-compared-with-total-cash-aid-strong-span-span">Small Compared With Total Cash Aid</h3>
UNHCR's broader cash operations have moved almost $5 billion to about 35 million people since 2016, which makes the Stellar share a fraction of a percent. Coincub's June 2026 analysis argues the blockchain itself was never the bottleneck. The harder parts are regulated cash-out, sanctions screening, identity checks, and making wallets usable for recipients, and these sit off the chain.
<h3 id="span-span-strong-stellar-is-not-the-only-chain-strong-span-span">Stellar Is Not The Only Chain</h3>
UNHCR's largest blockchain program, in Afghanistan, runs on&nbsp;<a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://bsc.news/post/algorand-algo-blockchain-guide" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Algorand</a> through a platform called HesabPay, which has delivered $35 million to more than 625,000 refugee returnees. UNHCR's treasurer has said the agency picks each setup by context: fast deployment in Ukraine, stablecoins in Argentina because of hyperinflation, and a tokenized local currency in Afghanistan because of banking rules.
<h2 id="span-span-strong-conclusion-strong-span-span">Conclusion</h2>
Stellar gives aid groups bulk USDC payouts, low network fees, phone-based wallets, cash-out through MoneyGram, and an onchain record of every payment. UNHCR has sent $4.6 million through it in Ukraine and Argentina, UNDP cut distribution costs in Aleppo from about 10% to 2%, and UNDP is now building the tool into regular programs through 2027.
<h2 id="span-span-strong-resources-strong-span-span">Resources</h2>
<ol>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://www.globalgovernmentfinance.com/undp-blockchain-stellar-development-foundation-standing-capability/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Report by Global Government Finance</a>: UNDP looks to scale up use of blockchain-based humanitarian payments</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://cryptobriefing.com/undp-stellar-blockchain-aid-payments/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Report by Crypto Briefing</a>: UNDP expands partnership with Stellar for blockchain aid payments through 2027</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://coincub.com/blog/humanitarian-blockchain-that-works/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Report by Coincub</a>: The Humanitarian Blockchain That Works Is the One You Never See</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://thedefiant.io/podcasts-and-videos/videos/hesabpay-delivers-unhcr-aid-to-625-000-afghan-returnees-on-algorand" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Report by The Defiant</a>: HesabPay Delivers UNHCR Aid to 625,000 Afghan Returnees on Algorand</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://www.eurofinance.com/news/unhcr-treasury-on-chain-digital-treasury-transformation/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Report by EuroFinance</a>: UNHCR – treasury "on chain": digital treasury transformation</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://blockworks.com/news/un-stablecoins-revolutionize-foreign-aid" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Report by Blockworks</a>: Can Stablecoins Revolutionize Foreign Aid? The UN Thinks So.</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/unhcr-wins-award-innovative-use-blockchain-solutions-provide-cash-forcibly" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Press Release by UNHCR</a>: UNHCR wins award for innovative use of blockchain solutions to provide cash to forcibly displaced in Ukraine</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://stellar.org/use-cases/stellar-for-aid" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Stellar Development Foundation</a>: Bulk humanitarian aid disbursements</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://stellar.org/resilientblockchain" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Stellar Development Foundation</a>: Resilient with Blockchain</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://stellar.org/blog/foundation-news/bringing-stellar-aid-assist-to-a-global-forum" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Stellar Development Foundation</a>: Bringing Stellar Aid Assist to a global forum</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://stellar.org/blog/foundation-news/stellar-aid-assist-2-year-anniversary" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Stellar Development Foundation</a>: 2 years of impact and innovation</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://stellar.org/blog/developers/explore-the-open-source-solution-for-bulk-payments-the-stellar-disbursement-platform" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Stellar Development Foundation</a>: Explore the open-source solution for bulk payments</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://stellar.org/developers-blog/how-to-use-stellar-aid-assist-and-the-stellar-disbursement-platform" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Stellar Developers Blog</a>: How to Use Stellar Aid Assist and the Stellar Disbursement Platform</li>
 <li><a style="text-decoration:none" href="https://decrypt.co/117312/un-taps-stellar-blockchain-send-war-impacted-ukrainians-usdc-stablecoins" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Report by Decrypt</a>: UN Taps Stellar Blockchain to Send War-Impacted Ukrainians USDC Stablecoins</li>
</ol>

Why Have Nonprofits And NGOs Gravitated Toward Stellar’s Network?

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