Classy Makes Moves To Improve Donor Giving Experience
Classy, a giving experience platform, has made a commitment to streamline giving and connect more donors with appealing causes with new innovations, a new hire to lead that product development and two internal promotions.
The San Diego-based B Corp recently announced the first step of its product development investment to which the company committed as part of a $118 million Series D funding round. Upgrades that will improve donors’ giving experiences include:
- Integrating Venmo and Paypal with Classy Pay by fall.
- Adding the ability to embed a checkout form directly on a nonprofit’s website to streamline a supporter's checkout journey and increase conversion.
- Creating recurring giving innovations, like biweekly, weekly and daily recurring frequency options.
- Building a more robust virtual and hybrid events platform with Campaign Templating, event day transaction and participant engagement management tools and communication tools.
"At Classy, we design every experience from the perspective of the donor," Chris Himes, Classy CEO, said. "Our new product offerings will make the donation journey more intuitive, ultimately driving more social impact for nonprofits."
Eric Pannese | Credit: Classy
To lead these new product launches grounded in donor giving experience, the company hired Eric Pannese as senior vice president of product management and design. Pannese previously worked at Medallia, a SaaS-based customer experience management platform, and brings more than 20 years of technology experience, including 13 years working with SaaS products across a wide range of verticals from finance to retail to hospitality.
"I am thrilled to be a part of Classy, furthering our commitment to customer-forward product development," Pannese said in a statement. “User experience is sometimes overlooked when making decisions on a tight nonprofit budget, but it is key to attracting and retaining the donors that will help our customers better meet the needs of the communities that they are serving."
Shantanu Bose | Credit: Classy
Soraya Alexander | Credit: Classy
Classy also recently shared two internal promotions — with Soraya Alexander being elevated to chief operating officer and Shantanu Bose being promoted to senior vice president of engineering.
Alexander joined Classy three years ago, helping nonprofits raise $1 billion in 2020—$44.4 million of which occurred on Dec. 31 on the largest giving day in the platform’s history.
Since joining Classy in 2019, Bose has led the engineering team through a significant growth phase on sustainable practices while continuously augmenting and building on nonprofit software solutions.
