Mobile Fundraising Platform Expands to Atlanta With New Partnerships

Planet Fundraiser

Birmingham-based Planet Fundraiser is yet another Southeastern startup expanding into new markets. Announced today, the startup has partnered with dining group Southern Proper Hospitality to expand into Atlanta. Planet Fundraiser offers a performance-based platform that makes it easy for merchants to quantify and measure giving to 501(c)3 organizations and their customers’ charities of choice through everyday consumer purchases.

Using Planet Fundraiser’s app, customers can shop at supporting merchants, snap a picture of their receipt, and a percentage of each purchase will be given to the their charity of choice.

“Existing fundraising was clunky and inefficient,” says Planet Fundraiser’s Founder Kasey Birdsong, “We wanted to build a fundraising platform that was a more efficient way for merchants to support the community. Planet Fundraiser’s biggest competitors extend to “traditional product sales (wrapping paper, cookie dough, coupon books) and coordination of spirit nights the old way where someone counts receipts.”

In Birmingham, Planet Fundraiser currently serves over 105 locations and their merchant community including brands like Chick-Fil-A, Piggly Wiggly, Milos, New Balance, and grocery delivery platform Shipt. Shipt is a Birmingham-grown tech startup that rapidly expanded reach throughout the Southeast. TechCrunch’s Jonathan Shieber covered Shipt’s $20M raise by Greycroft Partners, e.ventures, and Birmingham-based Harbert Venture Partners back in July 2016. Shieber noted that while the South seemed an “unlikely base of operations for a rival to San Francisco’s multi-billion dollar food delivery behemoth Instacart,” Shipt was greeting major players like Instacart head-on.

Now, Planet Fundraiser, which is one of the ten companies in Birmingham’s Velocity Accelerator, is showing early signs that they will see similar expansion.

“Shipt is proud to partner with two great Birmingham companies: Pack Health and Planet Fundraiser,” said Shipt Founder and CEO, Bill Smith. “With Pack Health, Shipt can be a resource to patients in order to ensure they have fresh, healthy foods on their path to wellness. Planet Fundraiser helps us give back to local organizations that are making a difference. We are proud to share the Birmingham startup space with these two companies that are doing great things.”

Pack Health is an Innovation Depot graduate company that offers multi-channel engagement programs for patients with chronic ailments. The company now serves clients in all 50 states and recently, Pack Health partnered with Atlanta-based American Family Care.

Birdsong says, “Early on we determined Shipt would be a great partner since they too are using technology to make the everyday lives of individuals in our community easier. Shipt offers an incredible time saving service to their customers and they also are huge supporters of the communities they serve.”

Planet Fundraiser is currently raising funds to meet growing market demands and associated expansion plans.

Life actually does exist outside of The Valley, y’all. Sure, The Valley is cool. But it’s also true that there are now cool things happening outside of it – in places that folks sometimes call the “Rest.” Places like the Midwest and Southeast. Like Birmingham, AL;  Huntsville, AL; Atlanta, GA; Nashville, TN; and Chattanooga, TN. We can’t wait to tell you about it.


Kathleen Hamrick is an Alabama native serving as Innovation Depot’s Director of Marketing & Education, where she has played an integral role in the implementation of for-credit experiential programs for students with interest in entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology. In her spare time, Hamrick is a Books Running sponsored ultramarathoner, occasionally flies single-engine prop planes at the Birmingham Flight Center, and frequently dreams of building a kit plane: Cessna 162.