February 1, 2011
Fundly raises $2 million for social funding
A Kickstarter meets 33needs, Fundly helps nonprofits and educational organizations raise money
Social fundraising startup Fundly closed a $2 million seed funding round led by several Silicon Valley investors, including Mitch Kapor and Stephen DeBerry of Kapor Capital, Trevor Kienzle of Correlation Ventures, George Zachary of Charles River Ventures, and Jeff Fluhr of AngelHub.Crowdsourced fundraising can be one of the most powerful methods of making money for a cause, as evidenced by the rise of services like Kickstarter and GoFundMe. Fundly claims that 74.6 percent of donors are more likely to give if asked by family or friends and donations are generally 52 percent larger when friends ask friends to donate.
Like another startup I wrote about recently, 33needs, Fundly wants to empower individuals to make microinvestments in nonprofit organizations. Current nonprofit customers include the likes of Special Operations Warrior Foundation, provider of financial aid and educational counseling, and Protect Massachusetts Children, an organization fighting child abuse and neglect in the New England state.
Unlike 33needs, however, Fundly is also open to educational and political organizations that could also benefit from crowdsourcing fundraising efforts. Customers in these sectors include schools like Boston College and candidates for office from both Democratic and Republican camps.
Fundly says it has so far helped its customers raise over $200 million from hundreds of thousands of individual donors. Its success comes from turning each “giver” into a “gatherer,” meaning that donors are strongly encouraged to invite their contacts on Facebook and Twitter to also donate, suppodely creating a ripple effect in fundraising.
From the Fundly dashboard, administrators can track the fundraising progress, manage contacts and transactions, and send automated emails to volunteers and followers.
Ease of use, personalization, social engagement, real-time collection of funds--these are the features Fundly hopes will attract organizations that need funding.
With the standard version of Fundly, which lets clients raise an unlimited amount and monitor the fundraising progress, the company charges nothing upfront. They do take 2.9 percent from every transaction. The pro version of Fundly comes with a bevy of extra features, like advanced analytics and API access.
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33needs enables everyone to invest in social enterprises (AKA, companies solving the world's biggest needs). The internet shifts power from institutions to you. We're pioneering the idea of "people-powered investing" and flipping the standard funding model on its head.
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