Can you remember the last time you were asked by a friend or colleague to sign a pledge sheet for a fundraising walk or run? These days you are more likely to receive that request by email or through Facebook with a link taking you to the person's own personal donation page within the campaign's website.

While everyone knows the non-profits who hold these fundraisers, few have heard of the company that makes it all happen, from secure online donations to the social media-friendly peer-to-peer interactions. And that's the way Artez Interactive, which specializes in web-based software for online donation campaigns, likes it.

"We are not the story," says Claire Kerr, Client Delight and Special Projects Manager. "The good news story is the charity and we're happy with that."

Yet for a company that CEO Philip King likes to think of as "a little bit invisible," its client list is rather impressive including the Canadian Red Cross, The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, SickKids Foundation and now, The Terry Fox Foundation.  It also opened its first US office in Boston last year, in addition to offices in the UK and Australia.

Artez began as an IT solutions firm, pioneering Canada's first electronic charitable tax receipt in 1999. By the time King was recruited away from his job as vice-president of e-business at The United Way of Greater Toronto, the company was starting to move towards a revenue model that would make it more accessible to cash-strapped non-profits. It was part of the move that made the 40-person company less about technology-first and more what King calls a "fundraising company that uses technology." 

"When I got here, I was the only person who couldn't programme code," says King. "And now most people at Artez don't know how to programme code, but they know how to fundraise."

Now Artez is all about fundraising.  In fact, it hosts a regular series of free webinars, newsletters, blog posts and podcasts to keep the conversation going about how the fundraising landscape is changing, especially considering how quickly new technologies from mobile devices and new social media habits keep changing.

For example, while its mission may seem grandiose -- to help organizations that make the world a better place every day -- it is also a key to their success. "This really helps us attract talent," says King. "If we were in the biz of selling soap, we could not attract the kind of people we attract.  We want to run a business but we want a business that helps make the world a better place. And as a result it feeds itself."

If what it does is one part of its success, King also credits Toronto for its access to people who are fundraisers, creative types as well as those with technical know-how. "It's a neat eco-system," says King who could just as well be talking about the Spadina Ave building that is home to the company, just one floor up from the Centre for Social Innovation.

"I think the kind of people who like Toronto are the kind of people who are good for Artez -- they are very civic-minded, they are very community-engaged compared to a lot of big American cities for example," says King. "They really care about social fabric."

Claire Kerr is an example of what makes Artez tick. Yes, her title really is Client Delight and Special Projects Manager.  With a background that includes both interactive multi-media and work in the non-profit sector, she is part of the vanguard promoting not only user-generated content, but, as she describes it, "experience-based challenges". 

A point of pride is an Artez client in Australia, The Royal Children's Hospital Foundation, which has a virtual climb of Mount Everest as its fundraiser where people can use an iphone app or Facebook widget to track how many steps are taken in a day as part of a "climb."

"All these campaigns are really cool because we have all done the walk, we've all done the 10K thing and now people are getting more creative with their peer-to-peer concepts," says Kerr.

Kerr is careful to point out in Artez's own experience, online donations constitute only about 5% of the overall fundraising which traditionally include items such as corporate gifts, bequests and other traditional forms. 

That may seem discouraging, but it is quite an increase from only two years ago when the statistic was a mere 1%. At the same time, the latest figures from the 2010 Non-Profit Technology Conference in Atlanta, Georgia claimed 25% of emails sent by 'event participants' led to an actual donation.

It's for these reasons that King also likes to see Artez in a different light. "What we do is tell charities that it is not as scary as you think, guys. This is stuff you know," he says. "You're just using a different technique now." 

"Our role is to give confidence to people. You could say we're a fundraising company but we're also motivational coaches. We say, 'Hey, don't worry, you're doing well. You're doing better than you think. Keep going.'

We do a lot of that."


Piali Roy is a Toronto-based freelance writer.