The three main benefits to community members in an Upstream Collective are increased 1) transparency, 2) efficiency, and 3) accountability.
Today, a person running a community collects money through a hodgepodge of Paypal, Venmo, bank transfers, cash, and checks. To vote on decisions, communities use a combination of Google surveys, Surveymonkey, or manually counting raised hands at a meeting. Currently, the community leader ultimately controls what the community does with its money. There is little participation, transparency, and accountability for the rest of the community.
Upstream Collectives solve these problems by providing one central source of truth on the community’s public ledger that records community decisions on the blockchain. The money is held in an ethereum wallet that can only be accessed by proposals that pass a majority vote.