Flourish Change Acquires RoundUp to Make Charity Donation Swipeable

Dallas’ Flourish Change Acquires RoundUp App to Make Charity Donation Swipeable

Both micro-donation platforms allow users to take leftover change from a purchase and give it to their favorite cause. But, with the acquisition, Flourish Change will add the SEO power of RoundUp to extend its reach to more nonprofits and donors, targeting socially conscientious and social media savvy millenials.

Two companies that help you turn virtual pocket change into global change are joining forces.

This week, Flourish Change, headquartered in Dallas, announced the acquisition of the RoundUp App.

Both companies make giving an easy part of every day, with each swipe of a debit or credit card. The two companies work with 501c3s to turn “electronic change” into donations.

In short, if you buy a $3.50 cup of coffee, you can give 50 cents to your favorite charity through the micro-donation platforms.

The average monthly donation from rounding up is around $15, and donors can set limits if they wish. In 2019, both companies distributed funds to more than 500 nonprofits, from health and human services to animal shelters and religious organizations.

Flourish Change says the concept began with a simple question: “How can people of all ages—particularly the younger generation—give to and engage with the organizations, and causes, they care about?”

While millenials make up more than 25 percent of the U.S. population, they account for only 11 percent of giving. With more and more transactions happening online or by card, the two apps can together help users give daily support to the causes they care about.

“Bringing together the features, clients, and innovation of RoundUpApp and Flourish results in a very compelling value proposition for nonprofits,” Braden Fineberg, Flourish Change CEO, told The Statesman. “We are super bullish about bringing best-practices and new services to both organizations and donors.”

Since the company was founded in Austin two years ago by Fineburg and Zach Morrow, Flourish Change has offered nonprofits a variety of services, including delivering text messages to supporters, developing targeted social media campaigns, and the Flourish Change app rounding up donations. Some services involve a monthly fee while the app takes a percentage of the donated amount.

The RoundUp App, previously based in Chicago but now in Austin, is a market leader in SEO, ranking No. 1 in Google for 30 different keywords, generating a steady flow of clients each month. At the end of each month, the RoundUp App adds up donations to each charity and makes a direct deposit to the nonprofit’s account.

According to a blog post on the RoundUp website, the company founder and CEO Grant Hensel will serve as an adviser during the transition. Both websites and apps will remain active for now.

Boston area firms Rough Draft Ventures and Dorm Room Fund, both targeting student-led startups, provided part of the seed money for Flourish Change. A capital raise for further expansion is planned for this spring, per information from the RoundUp App. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.