When
Artez Interactive launched its service helping charities with online fundraising 12 years ago, the business was new and the concept untried.
"When we started we never would have imagined how big it would become," says CEO and chairman James Appleyard. "Our first year, a charity we were working with raised $50,000 online and they were delighted. This year we've raised $100 million online for charities around the world."
The Toronto for-profit company has built an empire innovating for nonprofit clients, and now has offices in in the US, the UK, Australia and around the world. Recently it continued its tradition of pioneering when it was the first company to launch a fundraising application on
Facebook's new Open Graph platform. Open Graph allows third-party websites to publish user activity to Facebook, increasing the ways sites connect to Facebook.
Appleyard says that when the company helped define the concept of online fundraising at its launch, back in 2004, it developed a software product that could be customized and used by all charities. It has been refining and building on that same product as the online world has grown and evolved. "We invented the electronic tax receipt," he says, "and now those are used everywhere in the world. We invented the personal fundraising page, the first framework for fundraising on the iPhone and Android phones and now we're first to the table with Facebook Open Graph." Appleyard says the immediate future for the industry involves continuing to make fundraising easy across the "multi-channel online world... so that if you're a supporter, you can fundraise equally well using whatever tool you're using."
He says the constant innovation has led to constant growth for the company—at 50 staff, Appleyard says it's fair to say they've doubled the number of employees in the past three years. Artez has 10 open positions now, and expects to add another 20 new employees over the next 12 months.
Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: James Appleyard, CEO & chairman, Artez Interactive