Uncommon Giving Corp., a new online giving platform created by CrossFirst Bank founder Ron Baldwin, closed on a $13.5 million founders round of capital from more than 80 private investors.
Uncommon Giving was founded in 2018 as a for-profit online giving platform that connects individual donors with nonprofits by matching their interests and passions to charitable causes.
The platform facilitates giving through a digital wallet, so givers don’t have to constantly input financial information to make a donation. It allows a donor to find a charity, see its ratings and reviews, and then select an amount to give. Donations are tracked, and the system generates a year-end report to be used for tax purposes.
The platform is in a Beta release and can facilitate funding to more than 1.3 million 501(c)(3) charitable organizations. The platform is available nationwide.
“I’ve always had a big heart for people in need,” Uncommon Giving CEO Baldwin told the Kansas City Business Journal. “The more and more I get into this, the more I see everything nonprofits are doing in this country to take care of people in need. It’s incredible. But it’s a struggle right now for them to raise money. So while we’re providing an unbelievable giving experience for our customers, the beneficiaries are the nonprofits in the trenches doing the hard work to take care of people in need. That’s the heart of what we’re doing.”
Baldwin said that with the platform up and running, the company now is focused on using its capital to go to market. It will market directly to consumers, partner with wealth advisers who need generosity platforms for customers, create a workplace platform that allows for payroll deductions and a company match, and add partners for rounding up debit or credit card transactions, then designating the money for charity.
The platform charges no fee to join and requires only a $10 minimum balance.
“We’re gearing up for a big giving season,” Baldwin said. “Nonprofits are suffering with fundraising, and the needs are huge, so we think it’s a great time to launch a new, modernized generosity ecosystem that can help a lot of people.”
Baldwin is known in Kansas City for founding CrossFirst Bank (originally CrossPoint Bank) in 2005. Today, it’s a publicly traded bank (Nasdaq: CFB) with more than $5 billion in assets, making it the third-largest bank based in the Kansas City area.
In May 2018, Baldwin retired as chairman and became chairman emeritus. Before CrossFirst, Baldwin spent 18 years in Oklahoma building Bank IV into a $2.8 billion-asset bank, the second largest in Oklahoma.