GiveSignup, a purpose-built engagement platform for non-profits, has announced the closing of its Series A funding round at US$3.2 million. The event and donation platform saw a 25% boost from new investors: CloudBees Founder Sacha Labourey and former Eventbrite CFO Randy Befumo.
“We’re a kick-ass technology company well-positioned to seize the US$50+ billion US market for online giving,” said Bob Bickel, founder and CEO of RunSignup | GiveSignup and an investor in the Series A round.
“With our seasoned team of tech nerds, we were able to quickly pivot from live to virtual events in 2020; onboard 50% more non-profits annually; and deliver 2,000+ technology updates to help our customers navigate the pandemic, raise money, and engage with supporters.”
GiveSignup has entered the non-profit space by leveraging the existing customer base of its already established 9,000+ non-profits on the RunSignup platform. The non-profit platform shares the same technology and integrated payment model of RunSignup. It also features a separate ticket and fundraising platform purposefully built for nonprofits.
The company notes that… ‘The non-profit software industry is highly fragmented and characterized by intense rivalry. Primarily served by marketing and sales-driven firms, non-profit organizations often pay expensive subscription fees and are locked into exclusive contracts for antiquated technology.’
“Technology wins,” added Allison Bickel, GiveSignup product leader. “By combining a self-serve based customer interaction model with a transaction-based pricing model, we are able to offer free and flexible tools with no subscription fees or lock-in.
“This level of customer alignment means we are highly motivated to find ways to help our customers generate revenue. We engaged more than 100,000 customers in 2020 — this not only fuels our development effort but also delivers better products at lower costs to non-profits.”
Randy Befumo, the former CFO and VP of strategy at Eventbrite, is now advising GiveSignup on future financing needed to fund growth strategies. “I met Bob [Bickel] several years ago and have been a long-time fan of how RunSignup served the endurance market,” Befumo said.
“Each category within events requires a comprehensive set of tools to enable a successful event. RunSignup empowered race directors, earning their loyalty in terms of repeat activity. When he outlined the plans for moving into the non-profit space with GiveSignup, leveraging common infrastructure for RunSignup but building the critical elements necessary to make non-profits successful, I was excited.
“It is a large, fragmented market that is underserved by incumbent software vendors. The GiveSignup strategy of building a Supporter Engagement Platform based on transaction pricing for donations and tickets, while offering other capabilities gratis, provides a value-add alignment with their non-profit customers.”
GiveSignup is an all-in-one, peer-to-peer, open-API, SaaS platform. Key features include:
- No platform, subscription fees or lock-in contracts. Non-profies can save money with free websites, email marketing, open-API integrations, virtual and hybrid tools, and DIY fundraising.
- Easy-to-use and self-serve platform featuring DIY fundraising campaigns, ticket events, donation websites and forms.
- Free Facebook fundraising integration.
- Exclusive domain ownership of fundraising campaigns by designing free mobile-optimized websites with no outside advertising.
- Supporter engagement helps turn event participants into donors and advocates by producing a variety of peer-to-peer fundraising events via free digital and social marketing tools.
- Unlimited free and flexible user permissions – enable team members, volunteers and supporters to access, view, manage and export needed information.
- No more merchant reports, VLOOKUPs or chargebacks. Bundled payment processing. Report and analyze fundraising efforts through analytics on a non-profit dashboard.
