BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Swell Fundraising, a software company focused on helping nonprofit organizations raise more money, announced today it secured $500,000 in funding from four angel investors. Each one of the investors has experience serving on the board of nonprofit organizations and point to that experience as the main reason behind their support for Swell.
“Having been involved in volunteer activities and philanthropy for most of my life, I think that fundraisers need to make data and social networks work for them in a more creative and effective way,” said Gillian Goodrich, Board Chair and Executive Director of the Mike and Gillian Goodrich Foundation. “Swell Fundraising is poised to do that. The software has the potential to improve giving at events and overall giving and awareness in the philanthropic community.”
“Swell appealed to us because of founder Brooke Battle’s background and the strength of the product,” added Charles Goodrich. “My experience on nonprofit boards led me to believe that many were not fully capturing the donations they could – especially at events. We knew there was a need for the product.”
For Brooke Coleman, this is her first foray into angel investing and offered to do so after working with Swell Founder Brooke Battle on the board of the Women’s Fund in Birmingham and seeing the software at work at the first Smart Party.
“The technology wasn’t just superimposed on top of the typical fundraising event structure -- like so many ‘tech’ solutions are in the nonprofit world -- it was integral to the form and function of the event and enhanced the narrative: networking the organization’s supporters in real time, merging personal and collective inspiration for giving to achieve significant impact,” said Coleman. “I told Brooke that night that I hoped I would have the chance to invest in her.”
Elizabeth Pharo is the Chair of the board of directors at Momentum Telecom, an Alabama-based, cloud-based telecommunications company that provides hosted VoIP, broadband services and unified communications services. She has background in technology and start-ups and really thought the software made sense from the first time she saw it in action.
“When I went to the first Smart Party and saw the software in action it was eye opening -- it really made sense,” said Pharo. “Brooke and I are friends, so I know she understands the nonprofit community and I believe she has created something solid that can grow.”
Swell Fundraising Founder Brooke Battle plans to use the capital to expand Swell’s product offering and aggressively market to the nonprofit community.
“We love helping nonprofits take their event fundraising to a new level but most importantly positioning them to do more good in the world. Most of our business has been word-of-mouth/referral based and, with funding, we can step up our marketing efforts and really the spread the news about this platform,” said Battle.
Swell recently announced its first full-time Team Lead for Marketing – Maria Davis, Kevin Kilburn as the Team Lead for Software Development, and Haley Nock as the Team Lead for Client Services.
Learn more about Swell Fundraising at SwellFundraising.com.
