Bright Funds provides a Software-as-a-Service platform that connects employees to causes and enables personalized giving portfolios of individual nonprofits or curated funds focused on issues like poverty, education and the environment. The enterprise platform integrates with payroll and HRIS systems to automate vetting nonprofits, managing employee contributions, company matching, issuing payments to charities, and organizing and tracking volunteering. The service supports US and international giving, high-impact disaster relief, robust reporting, and tools for employees to track the progress and impact of their giving. Led by CEO Ty Walrod, Bright Funds currently serves over 30,000 people at more than 25 companies. The company plans to use the new capital to expand marketing and sales, enhance enterprise platform features, and hire staff in key areas as its customer base scales. Bright Funds offers a platform that bundles groups of 10–15 vetted nonprofits into themed “mutual funds,” letting users build personalized giving portfolios across causes. At launch it focuses on four areas—poverty relief, water, education and the environment—and allows donors to allocate dollars across facets or pick individual nonprofits. The company curated an initial set of roughly 50 nonprofits using research from GiveWell, Charity Navigator, Philanthropedia and the American Institute of Philanthropy. Donors can give one‑time or recurring amounts, receive tax‑deductible receipts, and use one‑click tax reporting; accounts are free to open and maintain. Bright Funds charges nonprofits a 7.5% fundraising fee to cover processing and transaction costs. Product features include a streaming feed for nonprofits to report outcomes, social sharing, and an employer-facing payroll integration; the startup plans to add bank‑account payment support in the coming months and two additional funds plus new nonprofits beginning in 2013.

Total raised

$2M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Jun 2015