I just had the good fortune of spending two days with our partners at Razoo, the DC based web company that powers GiveMN.

As many of you know, GiveMN was the brain child of the Minnesota Community Foundation - after seeing how quickly the internet was changing philanthropy, their board decided to create an online giving portal that would harness the emerging trends in technology to benefit nonprofits in Minnesota.  Just when they had started to scope out how to build a website, they met Sebastian Traeger, CEO of Razoo.  Sebastian and his team were in the process of building a platform to revolutionize online giving. It was a perfect match, perfectly timed!

Razoo’s vision is to see a world marked increasingly by generosity.  They view their work as helping people experience the joy of giving.  And everyone on the team plays a unique role in delivering that vision.  How cool is that, to think that every day you go to work your mission is to help someone be happy?

I hope that many of you have created a fundraiser page (it seriously takes two minutes!!!) or a project page and have uploaded a photo or video to help convey why you care about your organization.  If you look at other websites that facilitate giving, they are nowhere near as visual and engaging.  Razoo is onto something here - they have made it easy, engaging and fun to fundraise.

Getting to see a web development company is like pulling the curtain back on Oz - picture two rooms full of web developers in front of huge monitors writing cryptic sequences of letters that turn into new Razoo and GiveMN functionality. For example, a shopping cart that allows a donor to make several donations on one transaction (coming soon!).   And they are really nice guys to boot. 

But nobody is as nice as the Razoo customer support team - it was wonderful to meet Lisa and Diana who talk and email with nonprofits and donors to ensure that their questions are answered.  They do a pretty mean Minnesota accent too!

The BIG agenda item with Razoo was to continue planning for Give to the Max Day.  If you haven’t already, be sure to mark your calendars for November 16 for the second annual Give to the Max Day.  We will be announcing details later this month once we confirm sponsors - there are a few new elements for this year’s event that we are excited to share so stay tuned to the GiveMN Blog!

HUGE thanks to Sebastian, Varsha, Derek, Matt and the whole Razoo team for a great planning session.  We had so many HOT ideas that we broke the air conditioner and kept on going! 

It was a great visit and I assure you Minnesota, GiveMN is working with the best online fundraising web solution out there.  Their commitment to excellence, innovation and increasing generosity around the globe is second to none.