Fundraising agencies and platforms developments in July 2025
Howard Lake | 10 July 2025 | News
This month’s round-up features £1.55 million of grants to charities in multiple countries, an AI agent to help prospect research fundraisers, a donor-advised funds product for the 99% that don’t yet use them, and an expansion to the USA for a UK crowdfunding business.
Dataro launches ProspectAI
AI-powered fundraising platform Dataro has introduced ProspectAI, an AI Agent that is designed to support major donor fundraisers in researching and understanding potential major donors. In particular it should help them reduce the time they spend on prospect research.
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Operating as a “virtual research assistant,” ProspectAI is an autonomous AI Agent that scans the web in real time, identifying publicly available information on prospects and compiling rich, executive-ready donor profiles in just minutes.
ProspectAI uses large language model (LLM) technology to scan and synthesise publicly available information, including biographical details, wealth indicators, philanthropic interests, affiliations, and news articles for due diligence.
“Fundraisers shouldn’t have to spend hours trawling through Google or outdated databases to understand their prospects,” said Tim Paris, CEO and Co-Founder of Dataro.
“We’re spending a lot less time searching, and more time in conversation with the right people,” added Jess Walker, Philanthropy Manager at ChildFund Australia.
Access Group donates £1.55 million to global causes
UK-headquartered global software development company The Access Group has raised £1.55 million for its chosen charities around the world in the past year.
Operating in the UK, Ireland, the USA and Asia Pacific, the company supported nine charities across the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Romania, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, the US and Malaysia.
Young Lives vs Cancer was The Access Group’s UK’s charity of the year for 2024/ 2025. The group committed to supporting the charity in its mission to help children, young people (aged 0-25) and their families find the strength to face whatever cancer throws at them.
Throughout the year, a combination of employee fundraising, matched funding by the business and grants from The Access Foundation has raised £1 million for the charity.
Notable fundraising activities throughout the year have included two charity galas in the UK and Romania, which raised £85,000 and 168,000 Lei, respectively. In the UK, 26 employees also raised £87,000 on a London to Amsterdam cycle, and others took part in a 130km trek around Loch Ness raising £84,000.
GoFundMe introduces Donor-Advised Funds to its 200 million users
Online fundraising platform GoFundMe has introduced the tax-deductible giving tool Donor-Advised Funds (‘DAFs’) to a broader audience in the form of its new product ‘Giving Funds’.
This provides users with a centralised place in which to plan, invest and grow their funds, track progress, and manage all aspects of charitable giving, on one simple annual tax receipt.
GoFundMe has launched the tool in partnership with GoFundMe Giving Fund, an independent 501(c)(3) public charity and DAF sponsor.
DAFs have proved popular with many donors in the US, with over $250 billion deposited in them for charitable purpose. However, they are controversial because the vast majority of those funds have not been distributed to nonprofits.
GoFundMe is aiming to overcome this issue with its Giving Funds, presenting them as “an everyday giving tool designed to get more funds to nonprofit organizations so they can have a greater and more immediate impact”. To date fewer than 1% of Americans use a DAF.
There are no management fees or minimum balances, and donors can choose from 1.4 million charities on the platform. Anyone in the United States can open a Giving Fund for free and start supporting the causes that matter most to them with donations as low as $5.
Tim Cadogan, CEO of GoFundMe, said:
“We built Giving Funds to give everyone a simple way to manage their charitable giving in one place – without the fees or barriers that once kept donor-advised funds out of reach for most people… Giving Funds expand GoFundMe into a full-service destination for generosity – empowering everyone to discover causes, support individuals and nonprofits, and find new ways to connect and give, all through a platform they know and trust.”
- Meet the GoFundMe campaign organisers who made a difference (12 August 2016)
The introduction of Giving Funds follows the launch of other new tools and function, including Profiles, Live Fundraising, and a range of AI-powered tools. In May the company announced that it had raised over $40 billion globally, and last week it was named on TIME’s list of the 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025 for its work to generate more charitable giving.
GoDonate integrates with Beacon CRM
GoDonate, the UK-based online charity donation platform, is helping charities to reduce manual data processing and other administrative tasks by launching a new CRM integration with Beacon CRM.
The partnership with the charity specialist enables fundraisers to transfer data relating to donations made through their website, via goDonate, from the platform to Beacon CRM, simplifying the process and ensuring accurate donor records.
Crowdfunder expands to the USA
Crowdfunding platform site Crowdfunder has expanded to the USA. It will focus on enabling people to support American community projects, local businesses and grassroots initiatives.
It announced the expansion by highlighting the story of an American-led crowdfunding campaign to help save a 327-year-old Dorset pub.
When the Elm Tree Inn faced closure earlier this year, locals launched a Crowdfunder campaign to buy and save their community’s heart. They were then wholly surprised by an outpouring of support from the USA that would ultimately inspire a major business expansion.
The “Friends of the Elm Tree” campaign went viral on TikTok, capturing hearts worldwide with its combination of community spirit and heritage preservation.
Of the $750,000+ raised to purchase the pub, “an extraordinary proportion” came from American supporters who had never set foot in the village but were moved by the cause. In total 1,697 Americans donated to the campaign.
“The Elm Tree campaign was a lightbulb moment for us,” said Simon Deverell, Co-CEO of Crowdfunder.
“Watching Americans rally around a pub they’d never visited, in a village they’d never heard of, simply because they understood its importance to community life – that told us everything we need to know about American values and their appetite for supporting grassroots causes.”
“Americans get it,” added Dawn Bebe, Crowdfunder’s Co-CEO. “They understand that some places are more than just buildings – they’re the beating heart of a community. Whether it’s a village pub in Dorset or a corner diner in Ohio, these spaces matter. Americans get community – and that’s what we’re launching in US – to give them a place to come together to do good stuff in the community for the community”.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.