Newcastle tech-for-good platform Donr has secured its third tranche of investment and hit two key milestones as it aims to help charities bounce back from the pandemic.
The digital fundraising app, which has been used by a number of charitable appeals to help boost donations during lockdowns, has this week signed up its 5,000th charity client and also hit the landmark of helping raise £5m through its platform.
The company - picked as one of The Journal’s companies to watch in 2021 - has also secured £400,000 investment to help develop its work and create new jobs.
Donr, which launched in November 2018, specialises in text giving, which has played a key role in helping charities to generate income over the past year while other forms of fundraising have been suspended.
In 2020, almost 300,000 people donated to 3,263 charities using Donr, an increase of more than 500% on the previous year. Charities that benefitted included FareShare, the Samaritans, Chester Zoo, and the Trussell Trust, while it also helped the BBC Children in Need and John Lewis fundraising appeals.
Donr is expecting to grow again this year with the development of a number of new donation solutions which it hopes will attract more charities to sign up.
That development work follows investment from Northstar Ventures, the Future Fund and an angel investor. The investment follows previous rounds of £300,000 in 2019 and £350,000 last year.
As well as using the new funds to build up the company’s offering, Donr plans to expand its head count by seven over the next 12 months.
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Chris Newell, CEO of Donr said: “It’s a great honour to know that our technology has now facilitated over £5m in donations for 海角视频-based charities. We continue to be inspired by the strength and resilience of these organisations, as well as the generosity of their donors, over the past year.”
“As a safe and truly contactless method, text giving only continues to grow as we enter the new normal – but we’re also really looking forward to introducing our innovative new donation solutions to the platform later this year. It’s an exciting time of milestones and further growth here at Donr.”
Richard Charnley, investment manager at Northstar Ventures, said: “Digital fundraising methods have proved to be more important than ever before over the past year.
“We’re proud to continue to support Donr and their commitment to providing smart and easy-to-use donation technology to the third sector, and look forward to more innovative product releases later this year.”