Two entrepreneurs with Charlotte ties are looking to better support nonprofits in their engagement with donors.
Dot Drives is a software platform that helps nonprofits establish a giving cycle and maintain relationships with donors. It integrates with Everyware's pay-by-text services and QuickBooks' accounting capabilities to achieve a seamless experience. Nonprofits no longer have to take time for multiple entries or outsource their bookkeeping.
"It came down to, what is the one thing that all nonprofits need to survive? ... They need meaningful relationships. They need to establish ongoing, sustainable, meaningful relationships, and the way that usually plays out is in the form of financial support," co-founder Sal Ferlise said.
The nonprofit industry focuses on automated transactions as the path to success, Ferlise said. He thinks it's more about cultivating relationships.
Dot Drives is targeting small nonprofits — picture an organization with two employees and $1 million in annual revenue, for example.
Ferlise and co-founder Brett McDonough have been beta testing Dot Drives for roughly two years. It works with Charlotte's Dualboot Partners on development. So far, Dot Drives has more than 40 paid clients and another 40 that participated in testing, Ferlise said.
The next step is bringing the product to the larger market.
"It's taken a long time to get to a product that we felt really had all the elements," said McDonough, who spent about 20 years in Charlotte. "We're having a lot of good momentum, but with any kind of SaaS model, you've got to get it out there and scale."
Dot Drives has been supported by all private investment, McDonough said.
The co-founders started developing the nonprofit-focused concept while on a mission trip in El Salvador, Ferlise recalled. It started as an idea to support best practices. Ferlise spent years in corporate insurance and commercial construction before shifting his career focus at age 40. He has a passion for assisting nonprofits and is now CEO at Sports Outreach, a sports ministry organization. McDonough comes from a finance background and has a desire to pour resources back into the nonprofit sector.
McDonough said Dot Drives can help mitigate stress, make operations more efficient and allow nonprofit leaders to focus on their actual mission.
Churches can underwrite the app on behalf of clients as a way to provide services if a nonprofit can't afford them, Ferlise said.
Dot Drives is looking to invest in its Charlotte operations and moving toward establishing a headquarters here. It brought on a full-time salesperson in Charlotte. It is moving its satellite office from the Movement Center on Freedom Drive to 7422 Carmel Executive Park Drive, transitioning into space with Karis Management Group, which McDonough also founded. Ferlise, although based in Lynchburg, Virginia, spends a lot of time networking in the Queen City.
"Charlotte is a hotbed for nonprofits and nonprofit startups, and that's a good demographic and market for us," Ferlise said. "We do think Charlotte, because of just it being such a hub, that it makes sense to build out the business there, so we're going to pursue that."
McDonough said Dot Drives will look for additional investment to grow. The challenge now is to make sure it can accommodate that growth and have the right developers on board. He said the long-term goal is to reach as many nonprofits as possible.
