Okay-12 faculties throughout america face a persistent problem in fundraising: development groups battle with fragmented instruments, outdated donor experiences, and restricted sources to handle every little thing from annual giving campaigns to reside auctions. Whereas increased training establishments and nonprofits have entry to stylish fundraising platforms, the 130,000 Okay-12 faculties nationwide have been largely underserved, forcing small groups to cobble collectively a number of techniques or depend on generic options that don’t meet their particular wants. Increase My College addresses this hole as the one fundraising platform purpose-built solely for Okay-12 development groups, consolidating workflows for annual giving, reunions, auctions, golf outings, and giving days right into a single, intuitive system. The platform combines partaking fundraising pages with trendy fee choices like Apple Pay, Venmo, and PayPal, whereas options like reside leaderboards, remark partitions, and sensible donor suppression improve participation and simplify marketing campaign administration. Over the previous college 12 months, a whole lot of colleges utilizing Increase have raised greater than $100M throughout 100,000 donors, reaching a 98% retention charge and an 85 web promoter rating that demonstrates sturdy product-market match on this specialised vertical.
AlleyWatch sat down with Increase My College CEO and Founder Holman Gao to study extra concerning the enterprise, the founder’s journey, current funding spherical that brings the corporate’s complete funding to $10M, and far, far more…
Who have been your traders and the way a lot did you elevate?
Increase My College has raised an $8M Sequence A led by Excessive Alpha with participation from Allos Ventures, Far Out VC, and strategic angel traders akin to Scot Chisholm, founding father of Stylish, which was acquired by GoFundMe in 2022. This Sequence A brings complete firm funding to $10M.
Inform us concerning the services or products that Increase My College provides.
Increase My College is a fundraising platform particularly designed for Okay-12 development groups. Colleges elevate extra money with Increase by offering a extra partaking and simplified fundraising expertise to their donors. The Increase platform streamlines workflows for a wide range of fundraising initiatives, together with annual giving, reunions, auctions, golf outings, and giving days.
What impressed the beginning of Increase My College?
I constructed the primary model of Increase after I wanted to jot down a test to donate to my highschool’s math crew. From there on, our mission has been to create a better means for faculties to interact their communities and fundraise extra effectively.
How is Increase My College completely different?
Increase is differentiated by our focus as the one fundraising platform purpose-built for Okay-12 development groups. There are already a ton of platforms constructed for increased ed and non-profits, however none for Okay-12 development, although they’ve fewer sources than their bigger counterparts, but face the identical expectations to fundraise in a personalised means. Increase permits smaller groups to do extra by one system by having extra out-of-the-box options and hands-on college assist.
What market does Increase My College goal and the way massive is it?
Increase’s present focus is the 130,000 Okay-12 faculties within the US, and our platform is finest suited to faculties with at the very least one full-time development skilled on workers.
What’s what you are promoting mannequin?
Increase operates on a subscription and platform payment mannequin. Okay-12 faculties every have their very own distinctive wants, so we provide three completely different plans so faculties can use Increase for all or any of their giving, occasions, and auctions.
How are you getting ready for a possible financial slowdown?
We really feel grateful to be comparatively insulated from a possible financial slowdown. Colleges will at all times be round whatever the financial local weather, and our platform is straight tied to high school income, which is why we’ve by no means had a down month in Increase’s historical past.
What was the funding course of like?
Our funding course of got here collectively easily — we went from sharing our deck to a signed time period sheet in two weeks. We attribute this success to assembly traders earlier than we began actively elevating and being extremely clear with traders on how we see Increase rising. This allowed us to floor the traders who have been actually excited by Increase’s story earlier than we even began elevating.
What are the largest challenges that you simply confronted whereas elevating capital?
Our greatest problem whereas elevating was that, much like different CEOs, elevating capital was primarily an extra full-time job, and it required me to step away from the enterprise quickly. We’re grateful to have an ownership-driven crew, which meant that productiveness didn’t drop whereas I used to be out of pocket.
What components about what you are promoting led your traders to jot down the test?
In line with our lead investor, Excessive Alpha Accomplice and Co-Founder Mike Fitzgerald, Increase’s focus and success in a single market was a crucial issue of their funding resolution. This story confirmed by our metrics, together with spectacular ARR, 98% college retention, and 85 web promoter rating, which all signaled clear product-market match.
What are the milestones you intend to attain within the subsequent six months?
The current funding will probably be used to scale Increase’s go-to-market initiatives and broaden our product breadth for Okay-12 development groups.
What recommendation are you able to supply firms in New York that should not have a recent injection of capital within the financial institution?
In Increase’s historical past, we’ve at all times benefited from the worth coming from sticking to a slim focus, no matter how a lot capital Increase has had. Focus and prioritization are typically my high suggestions for up-and-coming founders.
The place do you see the corporate going now over the close to time period?
Increase is at the moment serving over 250 faculties, serving to them elevate over $100 million final college 12 months. Our close to time period objective is to proceed doubling our college base and rising a powerful presence in all 50 states by subsequent 12 months.
What’s your favourite summer time vacation spot in and across the metropolis?
I’m an enormous fan of outside sports activities & actions! I really like enjoying out of doors pickleball or volleyball within the metropolis in the course of the summer time, or taking the ferry to Rockaway Seashore for a getaway.
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