MICHARITY is an online fundraising tool that collects donations and engages donors and supporters over multiple channels from a single platform.
The platform leverages powerful analytics to translate donor insights into effective fundraising campaigns. With MICHARITY, fundraisers can gain important insights to increase acquisition and retention while driving donor lifetime value.
As an active member of local community groups, Founder and CEO Rob Nour wanted a better way to bring his passion to a greater audience. His advice for the aspiring social entrepreneur? Pursue your idea with a simple and concise mission.
WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR YOUR COMPANY?
We are avid members of our community groups, churches, and neighbourhood sports teams. Our passion for technology and helping people brought us together.
We were helping two local charities find a fundraising platform but couldn’t find a single solution that could process donations, issue tax receipts, engage with donors, and manage the CRM database. The clients were combining 3 to 5 different platforms to execute a single fundraising campaign. After talking to a few clients we realized the need for a one-stop platform. We worked with 5 clients and fundraising consultants who were early adopters and worked side by side to develop our platform. While we were adding the features, our clients found the earlier stage of our platform to be as advanced and richer in features than their existing tools and became paying customers. Slowly the revenue generated from their donations funded the day to day operations of our platform.
WHAT DO YOU FIND THE MOST REWARDING ABOUT BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR?
The opportunity to work for yourself and with others. As your own boss, you also have the ability to create your own opportunities by attending conventions, networking with like-minded people online, and much more. In doing this you shape your own destiny.
HOW HAS ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEFIED OR LIVED UP TO YOUR EXPECTATIONS?
Starting a business is not binary. The first thing I did was to define what it meant to me and our team to have a successful venture. To start we focus on generating revenue, gaining customers, proving the model, and make a living for ourselves.
My objective was to experience the journey as an entrepreneur and prepare myself to handle those volatile and impactful first few months. My advice here is that you have to be willing to accept the bad days. There will be good and bad days along the entrepreneurial journey.
HOW DID YOU BECOME INVOLVED WITH INNOVATION FACTORY?
We were looking to get in touch with an Industrial Technology Advisor from the National Research Council and Innovation Factory came up based on our region. I did my research, heard many good things, and got in touch with the Client Services team.
WHat have you valued most about innovation factory’s support?
One of the biggest benefits of being part of Innovation Factory is the ability to tap into a strong network of business partners. Our mentors have been entrepreneurs themselves and, as such, have been able to challenge and help further define our vision, strategy, and roadmap.
How do you measure success?
I measure success in two ways:
1. How happy the customers are and how well we are meeting their needs.
2. How the company is growing, culturally and financially.
WHAT DIFFERENTIATES YOU FROM YOUR COMPETITION?
Our biggest differentiator is the ease of use and functionality of our platform. The value of MICHARITY is the full range of services that our clients will have at their fingertips. Clients will save time, gather funds, draw attention to their cause, promote events, and engage with donors with great efficiency. They will make the most of their staff and budget by reaching out to supporters over multiple channels from a single unified platform.
WHAT IS THE BEST RECOGNITION YOU HAVE RECEIVED?
- Validation through tractions and over subscriptions in less than 15 months.
- 59% of our client base came from word-of-mouth referrals and the fact that we have not lost a single client.
- The satisfaction that comes from knowing our technology improves the world as an agent of change so our clients can focus on what is most important; serving and engaging individuals and communities.
WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE NEXT YEAR AND BEYOND?
Our objective for next year is to breakthrough the 400+ client mark, gain some footprint/traction in the US and raise capital with the Series A round.
DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR ASPIRING ENTREPRENEURS WHO MAY JUST HAVE AN IDEA?
My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is simple: run a sanity check before pursuing opportunities with a simple but crucial question “Why do I want to do this”?
If the answer is something like “to get rich and famous,” or if it’s too complex to say in just a few sentences, then one should take pause. The best businesses (or any undertaking for that matter) are those with a simple and concise mission.
Entrepreneurs need good people around them who can passionately engage in the enterprise. That sort of durable engagement comes from a strong belief in the reasons your business should exist and the results tend to follow.
HOW CAN WE CONNECT WITH YOU?
Website
www.micharity.com
Twitter
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LinkedIn
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