SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Classy, the leading cloud-based fundraising platform that helps nonprofits and social enterprises mobilize and empower communities, today announced several major milestones, including an $18M growth round of funding led by Mithril Capital Management, the leading technology growth capital firm founded Ajay Royan & Peter Thiel. The financing will allow the company to expand its product and bring its platform to even more organizations around the world. Michael Young, the former Chief Technology Officer at Redfin and Plumtree, is also joining Classy as its first CTO.
“Generational and technological shifts are changing the way social impact organizations attract and engage with supporters faster than ever,” said Scot Chisholm, CEO and co-founder of Classy. “Eighty million millennials will make up more than 50% of the workforce in less than five years and their overwhelming preference is to engage online and through mobile. Still, only 10% of the $360 billion that nonprofits raised in the United States last year was raised online; but this is about to change in a big way. Classy enables social impact organizations to make that technology transition, tap into this tremendous opportunity and alleviate a lot of their financial and operational burdens so they can concentrate on what’s most important - solving the world’s social problems.”
Mithril led Classy’s growth round, with investors Salesforce Ventures, Bullpen Capital, Venture51, Galileo Partners and Rethink Impact also contributing. $2M of the $18M round has been reserved for certain strategic investors.
“Millions of lives are saved, improved or enlightened by passionate people who devote their careers to creatively advancing a vital cause,” said Ajay Royan, co-founder and managing general partner of Mithril. “Simple and elegant tools can combine the resources of doers with the resources of donors to create exponential social impact. That is why the most talented social entrepreneurs, from SamaSource to Team Rubicon, from Special Olympics to Heifer International, are all fueling their missions on Classy.”
With the trend from offline fundraising to online fundraising only accelerating, Classy has seen massive demand from social impact organizations around the world:
- Classy is now working with over 1,500 of the world’s top nonprofits and social enterprises including Oxfam, National Geographic, Heifer International and Team Rubicon.
- Organizations using Classy grow their own fundraising on average by 225% year-over-year and are 330% more efficient in their fundraising efforts.
- Classy’s business is on pace to grow 3.5x in 2015 with momentum accelerating in all areas of the United States; 77% of new customers in Q2 were from outside of California.
“The Classy platform has transformed the way that people around the world support Team Rubicon veterans as we respond to natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy or the recent earthquake in Nepal,” said Jake Wood, CEO & co-founder of Team Rubicon. “The Classy toolset makes it very easy for us to get a campaign up and running in minutes and mobilize our supporter base. Because of that, our fundraising has grown 2,000% since our first year using Classy.”
The company is also attracting some of the most respected names in the technology and nonprofit sectors to help it continue to grow and serve more organizations:
- Michael Young, former CTO at Redfin and Chief Architect at Plumtree Software, has joined Classy as its first Chief Technology Officer.
- Suzanne DiBianca, president and co-founder of the Salesforce Foundation, joins Classy’s advisory board.
- Scott Harrison, CEO & founder at charity:water has also joined Classy’s advisory board.
Led by its new CTO Michael Young, Classy will use the funding to triple its engineering team and accelerate its product roadmap to meet growing demand. Michael brings to Classy a long history as an engineering leader at highly successful startups, including Redfin and Plumtree Software. Michael quickly recognized the importance of Classy’s mission, noting, “Social enterprises and nonprofits have been underserved from a technology perspective for far too long. Classy’s technology platform and feature set, in contrast, has allowed its customers to mobilize communities in ways that were not possible before. I am proud and excited to join a team that is helping organizations scale their impact, and I look forward to using my past experience to take Classy’s technology platform to the next level.”
“At the Salesforce Foundation, we are passionate about using technology to change the world,” said Suzanne DiBianca, president and co-founder, Salesforce Foundation. “Classy is another amazing example of the powerful impact that technology can have, and I’m thrilled to be joining the Classy advisory board.”
A letter from the Classy founders about these announcements can be found at: http://www.classy.org/blog/a-letter-from-classys-co-founders.
About Classy
Classy is a technology company that helps social impact organizations solve social problems faster. Since launching in 2011, Classy has helped more than 1,500 social enterprises including Oxfam, The World Food Program and National Geographic to raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Classy also hosts the Classy Awards, known as “the Oscars of Philanthropy,” to recognize today’s greatest champions of social progress. Based in San Diego, CA, Classy employs a staff of more than 80 people and is backed by investors including Mithril and Salesforce Ventures. For more information, visit www.classy.org or follow Classy on Twitter: @Classy.
About Mithril
Mithril invests in leading growth companies by partnering with teams who use technology to build transformative and durable businesses, often in industries long overdue for change. Each of these businesses is unique, but all face common challenges to unlocking long-term growth. Mithril helps navigate these critical inflection points by investing in size and with conviction. www.mithril.com
About Salesforce Ventures
Salesforce Ventures—Salesforce’s corporate investment group—invests in the next generation of enterprise technology to help companies connect with their customers in entirely new ways. Portfolio companies receive funding as well as access to the world’s largest cloud ecosystem and the guidance of Salesforce’s innovators and executives. With Salesforce Ventures, portfolio companies can also leverage the expertise of the Salesforce Foundation to incorporate its 1-1-1 model of integrated philanthropy to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce has invested in more than 100 enterprise cloud startups since 2009. For more information, please visit www.salesforce.com/ventures.
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