BidPal Targets Growth ‘Beyond The Ballroom’
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe chief executive officer of Indianapolis-based BidPal Inc. says he believes the future of charitable giving means "expansion beyond the ballroom." Steve Johns says a recent $6 million round of funding will add 15 workers and help boost development of applications that meet people "where people are," which includes on smartphones at walks, runs and rides for causes. The company was launched in 2008 and has since evolved from what Johns describes as a pioneering mobile platform that replaced pen and paper giving into online and text-based technology and now onto the next phase: mobile fundraising and mobile giving.
During an interview with Inside INdiana Business Television, Johns discussed reaching the next generation of philanthropic donors. "Nonprofits don’t have the budgets, necessarily, to invest in technology like commercial entities and so they really look to us to be the tech budget or the offshoot of their tech budget. So they really look for us for innovative solutions for that next generation," Johns said. "And what we see for the next generation is that Millennial generation and moving to mobile and helping our clients shift to mobile."
The company says the additional employees will bring its headcount to 100. BidPal’s next phase of growth, Johns says, will also involve testing "new ground in terms of scalability."
The mobile philanthropy space is growing in Indianapolis. On Thursday, Givelify LLC also announced expansion plans. The startup says it could add up to 40 employees over the next three years.