When D.C. startup founder Kate Glantz entered the Halycon Incubator in the Fall, she brought grand aspirations for developing her social good business. Previously a marketing specialist with the Peace Corp, Glantz along with a small team built Heartful.ly through the beginning of 2015.
Pitch contest time with @Heartful_ly founder Kate Glantz. #inGENuity2015 #dctech @HalcyonIncubate pic.twitter.com/KeXBZRTyB9
— Eric Hal Schwartz (@EricHSchwartz) December 2, 2015
Heartful.ly is a web-based service that works to replace traditional wedding gift giving by offering a custom-tailored, couple-specific, donation tool for money to be sent to preferred, reputable non-profits. Now, after having completed the first phase of the Georgetown-based tech incubator's program, Glantz is launching Heartful.ly "2.0," in full force, with the closed-beta done.
"Our new platform gives couples and their communities an easy, fun, and unique opportunity to give gifts with impact," said Glantz, "from a tech perspective, we’ve built a scalable fundraising platform that will have a number of exciting applications down the line, think birthdays, anniversaries, even funerals."
In the same way that couples preparing for a marriage, today, typically setup a website with dates, wedding announcements, photos and other details, Heartful.ly is an online product that connects wedding guests with a way to directly make donations to that couple's favorite charities.
Heartful.ly doesn't intended to replace but rather its an alternative to what are known as traditional wedding registries.
"Our new platform gives couples and their communities an easy, fun, and unique opportunity to give gifts with impact"
Heartful.ly's beta consisted of five couples who used the service for their weddings. "We saw $1,600 raised in donations per registry and an average donation of $81. We have another 6 couples pre-registered and ready to jump on the platform [with the] launch," Glantz told DC Inno.
The D.C.-based startup continues to establish a list of partnered non-profits to choose from and the payment process, the company claims, is both secure and instant. Heartful.ly's revenue model involves a micro-fee per donation. The total cost is made up by a 9 percent service fee on each transaction in addition to credit card fees, but there is no upfront cost for couples or nonprofits to signup.
By combing the allure of weddings with a streamlined tool to inspire donations to worthy causes, Heartful.ly hopes to catalyze funding for numerous organizations that are tackling real world problems like hunger, access to clean water, to provide medical supplies to war torn regions and for basic infrastructure in developing nations.
"The resources provided by Halcyon have been game changing ... between the incubator staff, my mentor, Kevin Alansky, and so many others, I’ve been able to navigate the crazy waters of an early stage startup with more grace and intention than I would have mustered on my own," Glantz explained.
