Leaders in Nonprofit Ratings Join Forces: ImpactMatters Acquires Agora for Good
[PRESS RELEASE]
SAN FRANCISCO, California: ImpactMatters, a nonprofit rater, acquired Agora for Good, a digital donation platform, currently valued at $14.8M, via a unanimous donation by all Agora shareholders in February. This merger marks the consolidation of two leaders who combine strengths in nonprofit assessment with digital donation tools in order to bring donors a high quality, high impact giving experience.
“Historically, Americans have donated about 2% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually,” explains Agora’s CEO Angela Rastegar (Campbell). “We are seeing a greater interest in philanthropy in response to the new administration, and hope that accelerating our company’s growth now will enable more individuals to increase the impact of their donations in the years to come.”
Adds ImpactMatter’s President Dean Karlan, “Donors can make better decisions when they have information on which organizations do strong evidence-based work combined with easy access to that content. By merging Agora for Good with ImpactMatters, we are joining content on charity effectiveness with accessible donation tools, thus setting us on a path to make more donors effective philanthropists.”
Agora’s shareholders elected unanimously to donate all assets to ImpactMatters at its current valuation, in a deal which allowed ImpactMatters to retain cash resources to further the mission of effective giving. ImpactMatters will be taking on day-to-day operations of the site.
About Agora for Good:
In just under two years, Agora has built a software platform that empowers donors to give more effectively. The organization supported over 600 nonprofits operating in 77 countries in raising funds from new donors. Explains CEO Angela Rastegar, “As our leadership team considered steps to accelerate our growth, in consort with our mission to change the world, we sought out a partner who could continue to grow the platform sustainability and expand our impact. We found this partner in ImpactMatters.” Agora’s leadership saw ImpactMatters’ ability to enhance Agora’s platform by providing better information to help donors understand which nonprofits are the highest impact.
Agora’s mission is to create an information ‘clearinghouse’, making it easier for donors to easily find and fund high impact nonprofits. Prior to this exit, Agora had taken on a seed round supported by impact investors and had generated monthly recurring revenue through its giving software.
About ImpactMatters:
ImpactMatters is a nonprofit which conducts impact audits, a new rating tool that helps nonprofits improve and guides donors toward what matters most: impact. During an impact audit, ImpactMatters analyzes public and private information to rate the nonprofit across four dimensions: Quality of Impact Evidence, Cost of Impact, Quality of Monitoring Systems, and Learning and Iteration.
ImpactMatters is led by a Board of Directors that includes many leading thinkers on impact and evidence: Paul Brest (Former President of the Hewlett Foundation, Former Dean and Professor Emeritus at Stanford Law School), Michael Weinstein (Chief Program Officer at Robin Hood Foundation, Economist, and Author of “The Rules for Smart Giving,”), Dean Karlan (President of Innovations for Poverty Action, Professor of Economics at Yale), Tamara Fox (Principal, Renarde, LLC), and Kevin Starr (Managing Director at Mulago Foundation).
For questions or comments, message info@agoraforgood.com or egoldberg@impactm.org.
