The CEO of the Kimbia online fundraising platform, Daniel Gillett, will forfeit his salary for three months, and the company will donate his normal pay to groups that took part in last week’s Give Local America campaign, which was hampered by problems with Kimbia’s technology.
That was one of several steps outlined by the Austin, Texas-based company this afternoon after widespread problems processing donations during the campaign last week.
The Seattle Foundation’s one-day GiveBIG campaign, benefitting nonprofits across the Seattle region, was among those impacted by the glitches, prompting the Seattle Foundation to extend the campaign for an additional day. The Seattle Foundation had just switched to use Kimbia this year.
In addition to Gillett forfeiting his salary, the company said it would waive about $370,000 in fees, about one-third of the fees it would normally receive through Give Local America campaigns, reducing the fee from 3 percent to 2 percent of donations for participating groups. Kimbia will also offer its platform for free to participating nonprofits for the rest of the year.
Kimbia notes that charities were still able to raise more than $50 million through the campaign. The Seattle Foundation reached its $20 million goal when including matching grants.
Here’s the full news release from Kimbia this afternoon.
AUSTIN, TX (May 9, 2016) — Kimbia Chief Executive Officer Daniel A. Gillett today announced the online fundraising technology provider is initiating several actions in response to the issues associated with the Give Local America crowdfunding event on May 3.
“We have been in regular contact with our community partners since this incident occurred, and we are pleased to take these actions to mitigate the impact on participating organizations,” said Gillett. “After a thorough review of events, we will be better able to communicate a specific plan to ensure that an incident of this kind will not occur in the future and our partners, nonprofits and their donors can be confident in our ability to help them achieve their goals.”
Kimbia is the technology platform and solution provider for Give Local America, a one-day, nationwide crowdfunding event that raises money to benefit local communities. At approximately 10:00 a.m. EDT on May 3—ten hours after the start of the third annual event—Kimbia began to recognize significant delays in processing donations. Monitoring this activity as it began, Kimbia dedicated the company’s full resources to resolving the issue as promptly as possible and returned to full donation-processing capabilities later that evening.
Gillett emphasized that the personal information of donors who accessed the site on May 3 was not compromised. All donations were processed securely.
The plan includes a series of actions. First, Kimbia will waive approximately $370,000 in fees—about one-third of the net fees it normally would have received from this year’s Give Local America event. For most communities, this will translate to a reduction in their invoices from 2.99 percent to 1.99 percent of funds raised.
Second, Kimbia will make its online fundraising technology available to each participating nonprofit at no cost for the rest of the year, including a customizable donation page, a donation form that can be embedded on their website, automatic donation receipts and donor reports. Although each nonprofit will still pay related credit card-processing fees, Kimbia will provide the technology at no cost. This program will be made available over the next 30 to 45 days, as Kimbia works with each local community representative to develop the appropriate features.
Third, beginning at the end of June, Kimbia’s fundraising strategy team will develop and provide online fundraising workshops each month at no cost to help nonprofits and community partners become more successful online fundraisers year-round.
Fourth, Gillett will personally forfeit his salary for the next three months. Kimbia will instead pay the amount of his salary to organizations that participated in Give Local America.
Despite the processing delays, community partners raised more than $50 million nationwide for local causes associated with this event.
“Give Local America is an annual event that our 44 employees look forward to throughout the year, sharing in our community partners’ anticipation and excitement,” said Gillett. “We will work diligently to identify the specific causes of the issues we encountered and take every step necessary to ensure robust safeguards are in place to prevent a reoccurrence.”
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About Kimbia, Inc.
Kimbia is an online fundraising, crowdfunding, and event platform provider for nonprofits, higher education, and community foundations. Kimbia is the technology platform and solution provider behind Give Local America®.
About Give Local America
Give Local America is the only single-day crowdfunding event that betters communities through local channels. The organization works with community partners to bring hundreds of thousands of people together to make gifts and support vital causes in their communities.
