Lisa Munter is about to release a new software platform she says is like the QuickBooks of philanthropy.
The Knitt platform is meant to help donors and nonprofits keep track of financial and other donations, she said.
It’s primarily meant for individual and company donors that give to multiple organizations multiple times each year.
These types of donors and foundations have an annual budget for donations, but there’s often not a great system for keeping track of where and how quickly it’s spent, which could mean they overspend or underspend. The platform shows where they’ve given, how much they’ve given and more.
“Most donors sometimes have these conversations after the fact, which is why it kind of gets frustrating, so we're trying to get them to think ahead of the game so it's more strategic and more impactful that way," Munter said.
Her husband’s company, Munter Enterprises, is an example that she looked at during development.
“They're very philanthropic in our community. They get inundated with requests on a monthly basis, and they're just trying to kind of keep up with it. There's some frustrations around that because they don't really have a formulated plan," Munter said.
The platform allows donors to connect with nonprofits whose missions align with what they want to support. From there, nonprofits can view the profile information of those specific donors and begin forming a relationship.
Munter has been volunteering for about 15 years in the Capital Region nonprofit community, including as board president for the Dake Foundation.
She has noticed some common problems that nonprofits face when seeking donations. For smaller nonprofits, that could include too few resources to adequately solicit donations.
“So many nonprofits are fighting for the same dollar from the same philanthropic donors that are within the community," she said.
Munter learned in 2016 that there were 152 nonprofits in Saratoga County that year, much more than she had thought, which she suspects is a common assumption. Knitt can introduce donors to nonprofits they may not have known existed, she said.
The platform is free to use under a certain threshold of dollars managed, and then the pricing is on a tiered system for now. It’s $50 for nonprofits to join because the startup verifies that every organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and in good financial standing. The highest monthly cost is $120.
“Even at the high end, being $120 – when we were researching and asking our donors – was like a drop in a bucket for what their ROI would be from Knitt," Munter said.
The software was designed based on feedback from dozens of nonprofits. Participants during the beta phase included donors Contractors Sales Co., Adirondack Trust Bank, Druthers, Polyset, Saratoga Eagle and others. Nonprofits included Habitat For Humanity, Franklin Community Center, Northeastern Association of the Blind Albany and others.
“Every feature and function that is on our platform is based off of the wants and needs of the people that we're hoping to help and make a difference with.”
The first release, expected this September, will focus on high-wealth individuals and companies in the Capital Region and Adirondacks, she said.
Besides money, donors and nonprofits can connect about volunteering, in-kind donations and more.
Munter has raised $500,000 from angel investors, which has allowed her to hire two full-time employees, and she likely will seek additional investment in the future.
