July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Be honest, when last have you donated to a nonprofit? Or how often have you intended to donate, but simply forgot due to a convoluted donation process?

RAZ Mobile is betting that its new mobile fundraising platform, which is launching today, could be the ticket to solving the nonprofit fundraising woes. You use its platform to make donations right from your smartphone, and it also gives nonprofits a mobile presence complete with social media integration, real-time analytics, and feedback about donors.

“The primary product today for mobile fundraising is text to give, but that’s only open to the largest nonprofits, carriers don’t tell you who people are, you can’t thank them, and donations are capped at $10,” said RAZ Mobile chief executive Dale Knoop in an interview with VentureBeat.

With RAZ Mobile, Knoop sought to fix all of the problems with text to give. The company’s platform lets you store credentials, so you can easily make repeated donations and donate to a variety of nonprofits. Donors get an email thanking them immediately, and RAZ also sends 100 percent of the donations to nonprofits. Can also share their donation on social media, potentially attracting more donations from their friends.

The company charges $29 a month to access its mobile platform, and it takes an additional charge from the total amount of donations made every month — starting at 5.9 percent for up to 1,000 donations, and 3.9 percent beyond 1,000. RAZ specifically decided not to touch the money during donation processing after banking industry officials made them aware of the additional federal scrutiny that involved.

“Even at the 5.9 percent level, RAZ offers about a 70 percent cost savings per dollar raised versus the average cost of all other donation tactics,” Knoop said.

RAZ Mobile launched in August 2011 and has so far been working with non-profits around Kansas, including the Kansas City Ronald McDonald House, Stop Hunger Now, and Love Fund for Children.

The Overland Park, Kansas-based company has raised $1.1 million in angel funding so far.

Viral video smash hit “KONY 2012″ has done what the likes of Susan Boyle, Lady Gaga, and Rebecca Black could not: amass more than 100 million video views in just six days.

Kony 2012, produced by non-profit Invisible Children, is a 30-minute, heart-wrenching documentary film designed to solicit donations and raise awareness for the arrest of Joseph Kony, a Ugandan rebel employing children as soldiers.

Posted to YouTube on the afternoon of Monday, March 5, the Kony video had racked up 112 million views from more than 750 clips on the web as of this morning, making it the fastest viral video campaign to surpass 100 million views, according to video analytics firm Visible Measures.

In light of the video’s instantaneous success (due in part to celebrity endorsements), Invisible Children, the San Diego-based not-for-profit organization behind the viral campaign, is facing scrutiny from critics who are questioning its accounting practices.

Monday, the Better Business Bureau issued a press release indicating that it had sent 18 letters over the course of six years to Invisible Children in an attempt to get the non-profit to cooperate with an official charity review. Those letters have gone unanswered, the Bureau said.

“I don’t understand their reluctance to provide basic information,” CEO of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance H. Art Taylor said in a statement. “The whole point of the effort is to shine the light of truth on a terrible atrocity, and yet they seem to be reluctant to turn that light on themselves. It’s really unfortunate, because their campaign has the potential to inspire and galvanize millions of young activists and future philanthropists.”

The Invisible Children founders consider themselves, above all else, moviemakers and storytellers, a message CEO Ben Keesey conveyed in a video response to critics.

“When we launched KONY 2012 our intention was to share the story of Joseph Kony with new people around the world, but in the process there’s been a lot of questions about us,” Keesey said in the video. “I understand why a lot of people are wondering is this just some slick, fly-by-night, slactivist thing, when actually it’s not at all.”

Keesey said the “program expenses” line item in the company’s financial statements represent the amount of money Invisible Children puts toward its causes. Program expenses in 2011 were 80.5 percent, according to the non-profit.

Financials aside, it’s impossible to argue with one obvious takeaway: Invisible Children has done a remarkable job at distributing the Kony 2012 campaign on the web. Only two other social video ad campaigns, according to Visible Measures, have ever topped 100 million views: Blendtec’s “Will It Blend” and Evian’s “Live Young.”

Invisible Children could not be reached for comment.

Photo credit: Invisible Children/Facebook

A user registers with Nadanu’s Push-K platform and then “drops coins,” which represent monetary donations from a donor’s credit card or Authorize.net, into a graphic designed to look like a traditional coin box for their favorite charity.

The eCharityBox is programmed to wait until it hits a predetermined amount; when “full,” it sends the donation on to the chosen charity.

This offering is the first of its kind to be available free outside of transaction costs, which Nadanu’s other three offerings currently charge.

Nadanu makes the majority of its money from its larger corporate clients, which enlist its tools to custom design large donation drives.

The company said it created this platform to mimic real life giving experiences in a virtual world for users and organizations.

“Historically the two options open to donors were either Paypal or Google Checkout, which are free but have no built-in tools or management, and donation platforms that either charge a monthly fee or a fee to transact on top of the credit card fees,” founder Getsy Fellig told VentureBeat. Nadanu said it is ready to take on all comers.

“We are changing that and open the space and technology to everyone. There is no reason a non-profit with a small budget should be left in the dark,” he said.

Other competitors in the $300 billion, 1.5 million charity space include BlackBaud, Network for Good, Razoo and First Giving.

Push-K also gives charities their own branded apps, with the needed functionality free or for a nominal monthly fee of $49.

For example, a church could set up a campaign with a Facebok app, iPhone app and a mobile website that allows giving secure donations.

New York-based Nadanu currently manages e-giving for over 500 charities, including organizations ranging from the Salvation Army, Jewish National Fund and the March of Dimes.

As the only company to offer an iPhone solution to accept donations not blocked by Apple, its platform also received the highest (known) single contribution on an iPhone —  $10,000 gift from a donor to a school.

Launched in January 2010, it is on course to see growth of more than 400 percent in 2011.

The company has so far raised $500,000 in two rounds from friends and family but is actively searching for its first round of funding from institutional investors.