Community Brands, a provider of cloud-based software and payment solutions for associations, nonprofits, and K-12 schools, has acquired SimplyFundraisingCRM. The addition will be included in Community Brands’ fundraising suite with donor management tools for schools, volunteer-led nonprofits and established nonprofit organizations alike.
The deal was announced today during the kick-off of “Experience ’22,” Community Brands’ customer event. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Community Brands will combine three fundraising tools into one fundraising management platform with GiveSmart, MobileCause and SimplyFundraisingCRM. Community Brands acquired MobileCause in June 2021.
SimplyFundraisingCRM was founded Feb. 1, 2021 by nonprofit tech industry veteran Jon Biedermann who spent 25 years at Softerware, most recently as vice president of DonorPerfect and fundraising products. “We are excited to be able to help nonprofits and schools further expand their donors’ impact and grow their outreach as a part of Community Brands,” said Biedermann.
While SimplyFundraisingCRM could still be considered a start-up, the technology behind it is somewhat unique in the nonprofit space, including a single, permanent and continuous sign-on so that users don’t have to go in and out of the program. It also has a donation processing system and artificial intelligence for system customization. The deal is what is known in the tech industry as “acqui-hire,” buying the technology and people running it.
“Bringing these solutions together as GiveSmart provides our customers with one award-winning, secure, and scalable platform,” said Steve Greanias, general manager of GiveSmart by Community Brands. “We understand nonprofits’ and schools’ need to stay nimble and engage and manage donors in new ways as fundraising regains momentum. This fully-featured GiveSmart fundraising and donor management platform offers flexibility coupled with versatile new technology to best enable organizations and schools to focus on advancing their missions,” he said.
“We are thrilled to provide new opportunities for the modern nonprofit,” said Bethany Little, managing director of Education & Nonprofit Solutions at Community Brands. “Adding this trusted solution into our already robust portfolio for nonprofit organizations and K-12 schools demonstrates Community Brands’ continued dedication to our partners’ missions, growth, and stability.”
