A Newcastle-based company who provide the UK’s fastest-growing text donation service has secured a second round of investment funding worth £350,000.
Tech-for-good firm Donr received the 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 of 2019.
The platform, which is directly integrated with the UK’s five main mobile networks, allows individuals to easily make a donation to their chosen cause via SMS.
Donr also recently hit the milestone of helping their community of 2,500 charities to raise over £1 million in aid of their causes, less than 18 months after launching their text-to-give service.
The platform has been well-placed to assist charities’ response to the COVID-19 crisis, as fundraisers have very quickly had to turn to more digital methods to fundraise. Increased usage of the service has resulted in a 400% increase in donations for the platform.
One charity who have made text giving a key part of their emergency coronavirus appeal are Newcastle Dog and Cat Shelter, who have so far received donations from over 5,000 supporters in response to their social media campaign.
Donr’s platform supported FareShare’s fundraising activities during its COVID-19 response campaign which saw unprecedented public awareness and engagement. Donations from over 25,000 supporters were receivedand processed in just a couple of weeks.
With the backing of a second round of investment, Donr plans to focus on product development, creating innovative new products and tools to help charities fundraise.
Chris Newell, CEO of Donr says: “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: “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”.
