Charity Crowdfunding Startup Classy Raises $30M

San Diego-based charity crowdfunding startup Classy secured $30 million to provide its software-as-a-service offering to nonprofits that need help raising online donations and keeping donors engaged over time.

Classy assists 501c3 or other nonprofit organizations with running charity crowdfunding, increasing awareness, fundraising events as well as online and mobile campaigns, TechCrunch reported. The platform works with more than 2,500 organizations and is integrated with enterprise app Salesforce.

Classy CEO and cofounder Scot Chisholm told TechCrunch the company will use the new funding to increase hiring, development and global expansion. The company also has plans to invest in both artificial intelligence and marketing automation systems to help optimize nonprofit and charity crowdfunding campaigns.

“We have always been very campaign focused. That’s because campaigns are top of the funnel, revenue generation for our clients,” Chisholm said. “But we have also begun to focus on retention because the elephant in the room for nonprofits is that the average churn is 60 percent to 70 percent in a year. That’s really bad and we can use technology to improve that.”

Chisholm confirmed that Classy is expected to hit a $1 billion run-rate on donations made on its platform by 2018.