TowerCare

TowerCare Technologies started in 2003 by developing patient management software for the hospice care industry. Before the team wrote a single line of code, they put together a focus group to understand what the industry really needed. During the focus group they discovered that over 60 percent of the hospice industry is non-profit and what they really needed was help managing the non-profit and donor aspects of their organizations.

From these insights, TowerCare developed DonorPro, their flagship product. DonorPro helps all types of non-profits raise more money, operate more efficiently and communicate more effectively with the donating public. The program includes constituent and contact management, prospect cultivation, solicitations, donation management, grant tracking, volunteer management, event planning and more. On average, DonorPro clients see a 40 percent increase in staff productivity and a 35 percent increase in annual donations.

Because TowerCare was focusing on small- to mid-size organizations, the company needed to find a way to keep the product affordable, electing to use a lower-cost, phone-based sales force. Their initial relationship with Innovation Works was in the form of a $100,000 investment to fund a pilot study that allowed TowerCare to validate its sales methodology.

With the methodology validated, TowerCare has experienced continuous growth. The company has more than 500 non-profit clients with over 5,000 users worldwide. Clients range from small startup non-profits with a handful of donors, to large national organizations with chapters in most states, to international non-profits managing millions of constituents.

But TowerCare’s relationship with Innovation Works didn’t end there. Over the years, IW has continued to invest funds in the company as needed, culminating in TowerCare’s 2009 Series A round, in which IW wasn’t just an investor, but also helped put together investor pitches and business plans and introduced TowerCare to a number of angel investors.

Today, TowerCare remains in close contact with Innovation Works, using its Executives-in-Residence as sounding boards for many major decisions. Innovation Works helped the company develop through the first seven years of its existence, and will continue to provide advice and expertise to the company as long as necessary.