About Funraise

Funraise is a fundraising and donor management platform built to empower nonprofit organizations with modern digital tools. Led by founder and CEO Justin Wheeler, the team set out to help nonprofits capture more online revenue in a landscape where more than a million and a half organizations compete for over four hundred and fifty billion dollars in annual giving.\

With only a small fraction of those donations flowing through online channels, Funraise saw a clear opportunity to modernize how donors give and how nonprofits grow.

The Problem

The nonprofit payment environment was deeply fragmented. No single gateway dominated the sector, and donor preferences shifted constantly, especially among younger supporters who moved fluidly across payment methods. Building Funraise on a single gateway would have limited their reach and blocked adoption by the many nonprofits already committed to their own processors. It also threatened Funraise’s long term plan to scale internationally. Every new gateway integration represented time, cost, and risk, and the team needed a way to support whichever processor a nonprofit used without slowing down their roadmap or burdening engineering.

The Solution

Funraise adopted a universal payments approach that allowed them to accept cards, store them securely, and route them to a nonprofit’s preferred gateway. This provided the flexibility the platform needed to serve organizations of all sizes without forcing changes to existing payment relationships. 

The team could adapt to emerging payment methods, connect to new gateways quickly, and grow into international markets within weeks of launch. Features like automatic account updates ensured that recurring donations remained active even as cards expired or changed, protecting essential subscription revenue for customers and reducing the operational strain on support and engineering.

The Results

Funraise rapidly expanded into global markets and delivered a payment experience that matched the pace of donor expectations. Nonprofits gained access to a more resilient and flexible payments engine that supported higher conversion, stronger recurring programs, and faster adoption of new payment methods. 

Funraise unlocked scale without sacrificing product velocity and strengthened its competitive position as a platform that empowers nonprofits rather than constrains them. Their universal payments strategy became a core advantage, enabling the team to focus on building the innovative fundraising tools that drive impact for organizations around the world.