While the Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday bargains are definitely worth celebrating, we’re particularly excited that today is #GivingTuesday, a “global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration.” The charitable movement is now entering its fifth year — last year alone, over 700,000 people across the globe donated time, gifts, and money (over $1.16 million, to be exact) to national and local non-profits. Hundreds of impactful organizations around the South are participating in #GivingTuesday, but it takes more than generous donors to keep them going. So while you pitch in the spare change you saved over the weekend, meet eleven Southern companies who fuel the non-profit world through technology and innovation all year round.
- Based in Charlotte, NC, Restore Global was founded earlier this year in an effort to eliminate waste and connect people in need to those with excess. Their Access to Excess program redistributes corporate, government, medical, and monetary excess to relevant non-profits (think: extra medical supplies during natural disasters, unused furniture for families in need), and their Access to Procurement program leverages vendor contracts to help non-profits purchase supplies at a significant discount.
- Located in Charleston, SC, Text.Gives is a text message-based donation platform that enables donors to contribute to cause campaigns using a simple keyword and phone number. After setting up their campaign in a few easy steps, organizations also access web and mobile tools to promote and track donations in real-time. You may know the company from their first iteration as bidr, the #DIG2015 Wild Pitch winner!
- Also based in Charleston, inKind helps nonprofits create more personal and meaningful connections with donors. The platform simplifies the gift in-kind process by enabling non-profits to create stories around their charitable work and allowing supporters to purchase the exact items the non-profit needs to make an impact.
- Based in Winston-Salem, NC, One Donation (formerly Pass the Plate) is a mobile app that connects donors to non-profits for “Giving Made Easy.” Donors can search the One Donation database (over 1.5 million non-profits), select the amount and frequency of their tax-deductible donation, and track both in-app and out-of-app donations in one place.
- Headquartered in Austin, TX, HelpAttack! is a platform for supporting causes with social media. Individuals, cause marketers, or companies can pledge micro-donations for each Tweet, Facebook, #hashtag, or blog post, which raises both money and awareness, and helps convert “slacktivists” into donors.
- Founded in Atlanta in 2013, Zurly helps non-profits create a new and engaging fundraising experience by combining crowdfunding and mobile deals. Using the mobile app, donors make a donation to a cause or group and get rewarded with a digital packet of local deals they can use around town. The company is a graduate of the Four Athens incubator.
- Located in Austin, GivePulse is an online community that matches people and groups to organizations that want to build memberships around service and social responsibility. The platform gives users an easy way to find opportunities that match their skills, track volunteer hours, and rate their experience. Non-profits get access to a branded site that includes event registration, management tools, and data analytics. GivePulse is a graduate of the Capital Factory incubator.
- Based in Charleston, SC, Good Done Great is a cloud-based platform that makes charitable giving easier for individuals, companies, and the non-profits they support. The web and mobile platform creates a centralized place to fundraise, create and track workplace giving campaigns, track volunteer hours, compile tax receipts, and increase employee engagement. Good Done Great is a certified B Corp and the winner of this year’s DIG SOUTH Wild Pitch.
- Based in Washington, DC, PhilanTrack reduces grant transaction and administration costs with an all-in-one institutional fundraising platform. PhilanTrack’s cloud-based platform helps non-profits find new donors, get more grants, and free up resources to spend on program and service delivery. The female-founded company launched in 2011 and was acquired by Altum in 2014.
- Based in Raleigh, NC, LikeCharity uses marketing automation technology to provide Donor Recruitment as a Service to leading non-profits. The company highlights the work of their non-profit clients through emotionally compelling TV, mobile, web, and social media ads, and enables consumers to donate instantly through a simple text message or link. Since launching in 2013, over 900,000 unique individuals have donated through LikeCharity. The startup raised $1.25 million in 2013.
- If you’ve heard of Raiser’s Edge, you’ve heard of Blackbaud. Headquartered in Charleston, SC, Blackbaud provides a suite of cloud-based software that helps non-profits with everything from donor and fundraising management, to prospect research, fund accounting, school administration and ticketing. Their solutions can be tailored based on the non-profit’s need (ie: direct marketing, analytics, or constituent relationship management), or by organizational focus (think: animal welfare, healthcare, education). Blackbaud counts 28,000 active clients and has offices across the US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the UK.
Find out more about #GivingTuesday here and tell us how you’re getting involved (or if you need support) in the comments below!
