Donr secures second round of investment funding & helps charities raise over £1m in donations
Melanie May | 5 May 2020 | News
Tech for good company Donr has secured its second round of investment funding, and has also now helped charities to raise over £1m in donations through its text donation service.
The investment funding, worth £350,000, comes from equity investment from the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Northstar Ventures, and from Angel Investor, Andrew Robson. Northstar previously invested £300,000 in the business in Q2 2019.
Donr also recently hit the milestone of helping its community of 2,500 charities to raise over £1 million in aid of their causes, less than 18 months after launching the text-to-give service.
Increased usage of the service during the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a 400% increase in donations for the platform, with one charity, Newcastle Dog and Cat Shelter, which has made text giving a key part of its emergency coronavirus appeal, so far receiving donations from over 5,000 supporters.
Donr’s platform has also supported FareShare’s fundraising activities during its Covid-19 response campaign, which saw donations from over 25,000 supporters received and processed in a couple of weeks.
With the backing of a second round of investment, Donr plans to focus on product development.
Chris Newell, CEO of Donr said:
“On average, we check our smartphones every 12 minutes – they’re always in our immediate reach. Text giving is a really simple and accessible way for anyone to make a one-off or monthly donation to a charity in less than a minute.
“We’re really proud that we’re in a position to help charities continue their fundraising efforts during this difficult time and will now look to expand our platform further. We’re happy that both Andrew and Northstar share our vision of the critical role that text giving can play in securing donations for so many brilliant causes.”
Richard Charnley, Investment Manager at Northstar Ventures, said:
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“We firmly believe in the power of tech-for-good and the significant role that mobile giving will play in a more flexible, more digital future for fundraising. We continue to support Donr on their mission – particularly during this challenging period of uncertainty the sector is facing.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.