Working for a nonprofit sometimes means putting a cause above making money, but that doesn’t imply that these groups are free from financial pressures. Raising funds is key to any nonprofit's success.
Adam Martel learned that during his time as a fundraising officer, working to drum up donations for social good organizations. He thought there had to be a better way to tackle fundraising, so he teamed up with co-founder Rich Palmer and started Gravyty in 2016.
Gravyty uses artificial intelligence to help organizations "supercharge" their fundraising efforts, and recently the company has raised some major funds of its own. On Monday, Gravyty announced it raised $21 million from K1 Investment Management to help boost its business.
The Boston-based startup’s AI leverages data already available to nonprofits about their donors, such as information from previous donor interactions, and combines it with public sources like social media. It can then predict which donors are most likely to donate new funds and what the most effective form of outreach for these individuals might be.
The company has also built tools such as “First Draft” — an AI tool that generates automated emails to send to donors — and “Gravyty Stewardship” — which follows up with donors after they give to thank them and maintain a personal relationship.
“Nonprofits have so much data about donors, but they haven’t been leveraging data well,” Martel previously told Built In. “So we solved the problem ourselves.”
The new investment will help Gravyty develop new products and fund its go-to-market strategies. The company is also hiring across the board, for roles in sales, engineering, marketing and operations.
Gravyty is used by thousands of fundraisers from nonprofits, colleges, universities, hospitals and healthcare organizations.
