Richmond-based Totem is changing how nonprofits operate in the modern digital marketplace.
Totem built a subscription-based CRM platform available to nonprofits all over the country. The platform offers integrations and auxiliary software for functions that are crucial to a nonprofit's operation, such as volunteer management, event management, mobile bidding to fundraise online in light of event cancellations, donation services and membership planning. The platform also boasts up to 16 integrations, including Google Calendar, MailChimp, Constant Contact and different payment processors, and the team hopes to continue growing that list.
“We've had really organic growth, which to me says it's a sticky product, which is awesome.”
The SaaS-model company was founded by three UVA students who had worked in nonprofits and found that the level of technology and software available to such organizations was lacking compared to those available to for-profit companies, especially in areas of automation, user-friendliness and integration. Additionally, the name Totem was inspired by its namesake: an ancient symbol of collective identity and community.
"We truly are a platform built for nonprofits from people who have worked in nonprofits,” Megan Cox, director of business development, told Richmond Inno.
Co-founder Alan Wei now acts as CEO and CTO and co-founder PJ Harris has stepped down to a role on the advisory board, rather than staying involved in daily operations. In total, the team consists of seven people spread out over both coasts and abroad to service the clients Totem now has in 12 U.S. states.
While Totem’s CRM platform services a variety of nonprofit organizations, many of their clients fall under the categories of museums, food banks and membership-based nonprofits. In Richmond, Totem’s software is used by the Chesterfield Food Bank, American Civil War Museum, Autism Society Central Virginia, the Barnabas Center, the Collaboratory of Virginia, Lighthouse Labs, Oakwood Arts, the Forward Foundation and Startup Virginia, to name a few.
“Most of our business comes from referrals,” Cox said. “We've had really organic growth, which to me says it's a sticky product, which is awesome.”
Client fees are determined by the number of active donors in their database, as opposed to the number of constituents, which is the model for many of Totem’s competitors. The innovative pricing structure helps remove pricing as a barrier to access that many nonprofits encounter with this type of software. The lowest tier starts at $100 a month and each tier as you increase in donor count has the same access to the auxiliary programs as the lower levels.
“We’re trying to align values with values,” Cox said. “You can't really encourage nonprofits to integrate all their systems if all of a sudden their pricing jumps from $200 to $700 a month just because they dumped their 10,000 MailChimp emails into the system. Just because they increase their constituent count through MailChimp doesn’t mean all those people are donors. If we're going to be this fully innovative automated system and encourage best practices from an outreach and marketing perspective for nonprofits, we need to charge in a way that reflects that.”
The co-founders of Totem received startup funding to build the initial technology from an angel investor. In February, they closed on a pre-seed funding round that amounted to $550K. Totem is also a member of the Lighthouse Labs accelerator in Richmond and is a member of Startup Virginia.
As Totem continues to grow, Cox says they are focused on automation and building up their integration list, with potential future capabilities like content libraries, marketing automation and report generation. But as the company continues to grow their client base, ease of entry continues to be the guiding principle.
“In the past, nonprofits only had access to these complicated systems that required 800-page manuals to operate,” Cox said. “Nonprofits being able to function and operate in the way that they deserve to be will always be at the forefront of our goals.”
