With this capital, Classy will expand its engineering and design teams to better help nonprofits of any size migrate to the cloud, generate new revenue streams and ultimately scale the impact of their programs. In addition to its best-in-class fundraising suite - which includes crowdfunding, peer-to-peer fundraising, online donations and event management, all under one roof - Classy will continue to invest heavily in four main areas of opportunity:
“Social enterprises are tackling some of the world’s biggest problems and our goal is to give them the very best technology to accelerate the pace of their impact,” said Scot Chisholm, CEO and co-founder of Classy. “The partnership with JMI will allow us to do just that by delivering new features and products that help organizations grow their online fundraising and automate operations so they can remain focused on their relationships and their program results.”
As part of the Series C financing, Brian Hersman, General Partner at JMI Equity, will join the company’s board of directors.
“The fundraising market is increasingly moving to online and mobile channels as a way to drive increased revenue and improve the donor experience,” said Mr. Hersman. “Classy is one of the most secure, supporter-centric and fastest-growing fundraising platforms in the world and is well positioned to capitalize on this trend. We look forward to partnering with Classy to support its continued product innovation in the years ahead.”
Since Classy’s fundraising platform launched in 2011, the company has focused on making it easy for any social enterprise to create beautiful and powerful online fundraising campaigns and events. Now, in any given moment, the Classy platform powers thousands of campaigns that are helping to change the world. A few recent examples include:
“Classy started as a group of friends looking to raise money for cancer research. What we found was a lack of modern and mobile-friendly tools that could help social enterprises mobilize and empower their supporter base,” Chisholm said. “So we created Classy, a technology platform built by fundraisers, for fundraisers. Today Classy powers over 2,500 social enterprises that raise hundreds of millions of dollars every year to help solve the world’s toughest social problems.”
Classy’s customer-base is on pace to grow over 200% in 2016, and ranges from fast-growth startups like Barbells for Boobs, Pencils of Promise and Team Rubicon, to well-established nonprofit organizations like Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Oxfam and Teach for America. The $30 million Series C funding adds to the $23 million of Series A and B funding received since 2011. This announcement also comes on the heels of other notable company announcements including:
