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The 411: Investment Opportunity - AI-Powered fundraising solution aiming to help nonprofits increase donations.
Found on: https://www.seedinvest.com/fundraise.up/pre-seed
We aim to help nonprofits increase their online donations by reducing "donor friction".
When potential digital donors come to a nonprofit's website and feel inspired to give, they are not prepared to jump through hoops and deal with complicated donation flows. Digital donors are used to the high standards set by companies like Apple and Google. They have a short attention span. Long, outdated forms scare them away.
We believe currently, the online giving sector is behind the times when it comes to simplicity and convenience. Too many fields to fill out. Too many clicks. Too many questions to answer. When it comes to mobile experience, it is even worse. Result? Digital donors run. Out of 7 people who start the online donation process, only one completes.
Here is where we come in. Fundraise Up fixes the online donation flow and reduces donor friction.
We focus on helping the digital donors complete the transaction. We guide them through each step of the process. With the same number of donors clicking the button, we believe we can help nonprofit organizations collect 2-3 times more than the traditional online forms.
We have developed an online donation widget that caters specifically to the digital donor. We offer our widget to nonprofits without any monthly or setup fees. We make money by taking 2% of the transaction. Twenty three nonprofit organizations have added our widget to their donation page – and we are in talks with many more.
Product & Service
Problem
6 out of 7 potential digital donors who get inspired to give and click into the Donation page, abandon the giving process. We believe this is due to 'donor friction'. Distractions, privacy concerns, too many fields to fill out, the suggested donation amount not matching the donor’s psychographic – all these factors work against the emotion that has motivated the donor in the first place. That is a lot of money left on the table! Even in the case of lager nonprofits, only 33% of people who click on the Donate button, end up completing the donation. It means that $180B worth of online donations to nonprofits go uncollected each year in the U.S. alone.
Solution
We guide the donor through each step of the process and reduce that friction. We believe happy donor = more revenue for the organization .
- 3-Tap donation
We break complex forms into simple, easy steps.
- AI-suggested giving amounts
Choosing the suggested donation amount can make or break the campaign. Ask for too little – and nonprofits will miss out on revenues. Ask for too much – and many donors won't give at all. We use artificial intelligence to suggest the maximum amount comfortable specific to each donor.
- Desktop, tablet and mobile
Digital donors are picky and impatient, they are used to UX standards set by Apple, Google and Facebook. Responsive design is no longer enough. Different devices require different used experience that is native to the device. We provide that.
- Multiple payment options
People have personal biases and favorite payment methods. We support credit cards, Bank Debit (ACH), Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Paypal is currently in Beta and we plan to make it available for all customers by April 16, 2018.
- Automated matching donations
Many corporations match employee donations – however, each of them has a unique process that is typically very time-consuming and labor-intensive for the nonprofit. Because of that, only very few nonprofit organizations choose to pursue this revenue stream. Fundraise Up partners with Amply to automate company matching through our widget. This will enable our clients to collect this additional income effortlessly – which may increase their online revenues up to 20%.
Roadmap
- Internationalization
Many larger nonprofits have international websites and take donations in multiple currencies. Internationalization is a major factor for them when they consider switching to our online giving solution. It's critical for us to not only have the widget in local languages and currencies – but also cater to the local payment methods and issue appropriate tax receipt documents.
- Third-party Integrations
One of our competitive advantages is that we have built our widget so that it can 'sit on top' of the nonprofits' current donor management systems. It's important for us to integrate with common donor management systems such as Blackbaud, Network for Good, NeonCRM, Bloomerang, etc. Additionally, we need to do the same with accounting programs such as Quickbooks (we are already integrated with Salesforce). This is one of the major frictions we currently have in signing up larger nonprofits.
How We Are Different
We define our competitors as organization-centric. They focus on helping nonprofits with donor management, major gifts, crowdfunding, ticketing, outreach, mailing, kiosks, campaign pages, events, giving pages, and all-in-one platforms. Within the universe of nonprofit fundraising, a lot of transactions are still taking place offline (by U.S. postal) which is where these competitors are mostly focused. They supply an online option as an add-on to their real offering.
We are digital donor-centric. We live and breath digital donations and we know what motivates digital donors to complete the process. Our flow babysits the digital donor toward the completion of the transaction. We guide the donor through each step of the process and reduce friction.
Business Model
We take a 2% fee on each transaction. Additionally we make 15% off the revenue sharing partnership with Amply on each donation they match. We process payments through our partnerships with Stripe & PayPal with their marketplace programs. We do not bill nonprofits but rather get our percentage directly from Stripe & PayPal.
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