Julee Laurent
A new startup company in Salt Lake City has launched an app to help nonprofits find funders.
Local entrepreneur Julee Laurent launched Givaxis in August, offering nonprofits access to over 90,000 prospective funders, including foundations, corporate sponsors, corporate foundations, community foundations, hospital foundations, CRA banks and credit unions, and other sources for funding.
“A corporate foundation and a corporate sponsor aren’t the same prospect,” Laurend said in a release. She is founder and CEO of Salt Lake City-based Eowyn Technologies, which developed Givaxis. “Neither is a community foundation, a hospital foundation or a bank with Community Reinvestment Act funding. They have different opportunities, different decision-makers and different reasons for supporting a nonprofit. Development and fundraising professionals need to know those differences.”
Over a career of more than 20 years, Laurent has raised more than $50 million and built funding strategies that have encompassed grants, corporate partnerships, sponsorships and major gifts.
“I remember being new to fundraising and nobody telling me who to call or where to find the dollars I needed,” she said. “I was just told to figure it out. Over the years, I learned where to look, who to approach and how to determine whether a funder was a good fit. I realized there are so many people entering nonprofit fundraising or changing careers because they want to do meaningful work but who don’t know where to begin to find funders. I wanted to give them a head start, so they can spend less time figuring out where to look and more time building relationships.”
The app allows users to search for funders geographically by state and county and provides information intended to help nonprofit professionals research prospects before beginning outreach. Records can include resources like EIN information, specialized searches and direct links that help users determine whether an organization is a potential fit.
“Fundraising is about relationships,” Laurent said. “Technology should help us figure out who we need to talk to and give us information to make that conversation worthwhile.”
Users pay according to the number of searches they make in a given month, ranging in price from $39 to $150. Givaxis was introduced in September to the Utah Nonprofits Association and is set to be presented to the Colorado Nonprofit Association on Oct. 16. More info available at www.Givaxis.com.