85. The People Behind the Products: Dreaming Big and Building Smart Partnerships with James Citron

In this episode of What The Fundraising, James Citron, Founder and CEO of Pledge, shares his top advice for nonprofits wanting to dream big and launch partnerships with companies. Having founded and/or led the growth of three of the largest mobile messaging and engagement companies in the United States and the world, James took a leap of faith eight years ago when he decided to dedicate his life to helping the world on a bigger scale: by creating Pledge, a fundraising platform powered by the generosity of humans. 

In this conversation, he reveals how he strengthened Pledge’s professional partnerships – expanding with Zoom, Cameo, and even celebrity e-commerce brands. Despite the pandemic having threatened 1/3rd of the nonprofits to go out of business, Pledge helped meet donors and nonprofits where they were so fundraising could happen more seamlessly. From James’ vantage point, the key to nonprofit success – among other things like risk-taking, resilience, faith, and grit – is transparency. When your donors know where their money is going, you strengthen your impact, says James. he also shares his perspective on nonprofit failure, his faith in the goodness of humanity, and his thoughts on enabling people to help others. There is a lot of great advice for nonprofits inside this episode, plus we know you’ll love hearing their exciting 3% annoucement too!  

Get all the resources from today’s episode here. 

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