Classy Raises $30 Million to Help Social Enterprises Scale Their Impact

SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Classy, the world’s leading fundraising platform for social enterprises, announced today that it has closed a $30 million Series C financing round led by JMI Equity, a growth equity firm focused on investing in leading software companies. JMI Equity joins existing investors Bullpen Capital, Galileo Partners, Mithril Capital Management and Salesforce Ventures, who all participated in the round.

With this capital, Classy will expand its engineering and design teams to better help nonprofits of any size migrate to the cloud, generate new revenue streams and ultimately scale the impact of their programs. In addition to its best-in-class fundraising suite – which includes crowdfunding, peer-to-peer fundraising, online donations and event management, all under one roof – Classy will continue to invest heavily in four main areas of opportunity:

• Fundraising automation – Automate tasks and leverage intelligent data systems to enhance supporter engagement, increase funds raised, and alleviate organizational time or resource constraints;
• Recurring donation management – Build, expand, and optimize recurring revenue streams to enable greater financial stability and impact at scale;
• Internationalization – Expand client fundraising tools to include over 100 global currencies and geo-personalization options;
• Classy for Salesforce – Strengthen the industry-leading integration with Salesforce to connect all back-office functions and drive greater organization-wide efficiencies;

“Social enterprises are tackling some of the world’s biggest problems and our goal is to give them the very best technology to accelerate the pace of their impact,” said Scot Chisholm, CEO and co-founder of Classy. “The partnership with JMI will allow us to do just that by delivering new features and products that help organizations grow their online fundraising and automate operations so they can remain focused on their relationships and their program results.”

As part of the Series C financing, Brian Hersman, General Partner at JMI Equity, will join the company’s board of directors.

“The fundraising market is increasingly moving to online and mobile channels as a way to drive increased revenue and improve the donor experience,” said Mr. Hersman. “Classy is one of the most secure, supporter-centric and fastest-growing fundraising platforms in the world and is well positioned to capitalize on this trend. We look forward to partnering with Classy to support its continued product innovation in the years ahead.”

Since Classy’s fundraising platform launched in 2011, the company has focused on making it easy for any social enterprise to create beautiful and powerful online fundraising campaigns and events. Now, in any given moment, the Classy platform powers thousands of campaigns that are helping to change the world. A few recent examples include:

• Closing the gender gap in technology [Girls Who Code]
• Veteran-led Hurricane Matthew relief [Team Rubicon]
• Life-saving early detection of breast cancer [Bright Pink]
• Suicide prevention and recovery [To Write Love On Her Arms]

“Classy started as a group of friends looking to raise money for cancer research. What we found was a lack of modern and mobile-friendly tools that could help social enterprises mobilize and empower their supporter base,” Chisholm said. “So we created Classy, a technology platform built by fundraisers, for fundraisers. Today Classy powers over 2,500 social enterprises that raise hundreds of millions of dollars every year to help solve the world’s toughest social problems.”

Classy’s customer-base is on pace to grow over 200% in 2016, and ranges from fast-growth startups like Barbells for Boobs, Pencils of Promise and Team Rubicon, to well-established nonprofit organizations like Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Oxfam and Teach for America. The $30 million Series C funding adds to the $23 million of Series A and B funding received since 2011. This announcement also comes on the heels of other notable company announcements including:

• Classy named as “Rising Star” to the first-ever Forbes Cloud 100 list
• Classy named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Brilliant 100 companies list
• Classy named in Fast Company’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies for Social Good
• Classy announces 5-year partnership with Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

A letter from the Classy founders about the Series C financing can be found at:

https://www.classy.org/blog/classy-raises-30-million-series-c-led-by-jmi-equity-with-mithril-salesforce-ventures

About Classy

Classy is the world’s leading fundraising platform for social enterprises with the goal of solving social problems more effectively and efficiently. Since launching in 2011, Classy has helped more than 2,500 social enterprises including Oxfam, World Food Program USA, and National Geographic to raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Classy also hosts the Collaborative and Classy Awards to recognize excellence in the social sector. Based in San Diego, CA, Classy employs a staff of over 200 people and was recently recognized by Fast Company as one of the world’s 10 Most Innovative Companies for Social Good. Classy was also recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the 10 Most Brilliant Companies for Social Impact and listed as a “Rising Star” in the first-ever Forbes Cloud 100 list. Classy is backed by investors including JMI, Mithril and Salesforce Ventures. For more information, visit www.classy.org or follow Classy on Twitter: @Classy.

About JMI Equity

JMI Equity is a growth equity firm focused on investing in leading software companies. Founded in 1992, JMI has invested in over 120 businesses in its target markets, successfully completed over 85 exits, and raised more than $3.0 billion of committed capital. JMI partners with exceptional management teams to help build their companies into industry leaders. For more information, visit www.jmi.com.

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 Salesforce’s expertise in corporate philanthropy by joining Pledge 1% to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce has invested in more than 150 enterprise cloud startups since 2009. For more information, please visit www.salesforce.com/ventures.