In 2009, a Detroit tech company set out to change the way people think about charity, the way they give money, and the way they receive charity itself.
And so CrowdRise was born. The for-profit online company allows people to raise and give money to their favorite charities online and says it's trying to reduce the cost of raising money and make money while doing it, too.
It’s been quite successful: four years later, the group has raised $135 million for charity and is on track to add another $100 million before the end of the year, CrowdRise told Morning Joe.
But it's not done trying to rework the charity landscape.
Beginning this week, CrowdRise will also allow people to fundraise for their friends—as long as it’s got a charitable spin. That means you can now useCrowdRise to help a family raise the adoption fees for the biological brother of their other adopted child or start a college fund for the daughters of a beloved history teacher with cancer, to cite one successfully funded project.