INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Nonprofits employ 10% of the United States workforce and generate some $2 trillion in revenue each year and yet, many charitable
organizations are still using pen and paper to track their volunteers.Civic Champs, a startup that presented onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt
However, the mobile app, which was built with React Native for Android and iOS, can be broadened over time.For instance, the company
recently launched a micro-donations feature that automatically converts volunteers to donors
The feature will integrate a number of payment options, including Stripe, Apple Pay, and Plaid/Dwolla for ACH donations.The Civic Champs
platform uses geolocation and geofences to automate volunteer-hour tracking
The seemingly simple task of checking volunteers into events and tracking their time can take a small nonprofit 10 hours per month to
manage, according to the company
Civic Champs co-founder and CEO Geng Wang says their platform can slash that task down to an hour per month.Civic Champs designed a
So they developed three ways to use the platform.Volunteers can use the Civic Champs mobile app to check in at events and track their hours
The platform has also been adapted to web-based kiosks, which nonprofits can use to make it easier for tech-averse volunteers to check in
potentially multiple organizations.With the launch of Civic Champs, Wang, who co-founded the startup with Jeffery and Ryan Underdahl, is now
solidly in serial entrepreneur territory
private equity firm Topanga Partners.For his third go around, Wang told TechCrunch he wanted to do something more mission-driven
The original idea was to create a mobile game for volunteering
traffic lights and fire hydrants using GPS and photo uploads.But that idea quickly morphed into something larger when Geng started talking
co-founders pivoted away from gamification and started developing a mobile platform that nonprofits can use to track volunteers
The company officially launched in January 2019.Civic Champs has raised $312,000 in a pre-seed round and also received $29,000 in
non-dilutive grants through the Indiana University CLAPP competition and the Indiana Technical Assistance Program.The company is still
figuring out its pricing structure
Civic Champs does have 34 customers, 24 of which are paid clients
The remaining 10 are pilots
The business model, which is set up like a Software-as-a-Service product, charges between $25 a month for its smallest customer up to $450 a
month for its largest client.The Rotary Club, Habitat for Humanity and The Audubon Society are among its customers.
