Our vision is simple, yet ambitious — to be the most helpful place in the world for people and organizations. To accelerate progress toward our vision, we wanted to find the best partner that is focused on nonprofit organizations. I’m honored to share that today we announced GoFundMe has entered an agreement to acquire Classy, a leading fundraising software platform that enables nonprofits to connect supporters with the causes they care about.
Why Classy? The philanthropic market is about $500 billion annually in the U.S. alone and right now, online giving is a small fraction of that. While we are proud of the combined $20 billion the GoFundMe and Classy communities have raised for people and organizations, we recognize the unique opportunity we have to make an even bigger impact — both in the U.S. and around the world — if we do this together. Classy is a rapidly growing giving platform that has a robust product offering, a customer base of thousands of nonprofits, talented leaders and a great team of forward-thinking individuals, and significant growth potential.
The combination of our two trusted brands will further establish our global leadership position in giving. GoFundMe and Classy are focused on vital, complementary parts of giving and by coming together, we will operate at a larger scale to reach more people and nonprofits across the world.
Building a powerful giving network: The opportunity provides GoFundMe donors the ability to discover new causes and organizations to support through a personalized and expansive giving experience, while introducing Classy’s nonprofit customers to new donor audiences. This could mean that someone who makes a donation to an individual seeking relief from a natural disaster, could then be connected to a nonprofit that focuses on addressing the underlying causes of climate change.
GoFundMe and Classy both started in San Diego around ten years ago and have similar values and focus on delivering purpose and profit at scale while remaining true to the company’s mission, culture and history. I look forward to working with Classy CEO Chris Himes and his team to lead these important brands through the next era of giving and together, we will help people help each other.
To learn more, read our press release and Classy’s blog post.
