The last of the Indianapolis acquaintances who launched fundraising platform Bloomerang in August 2012 is stepping down. Ross Hendrickson is turning over the chief executive officer’s corner office, with Dennis Fois assuming the role.
Hendrickson had teamed with serial nonprofit entrepreneur Jay Love, Melissa Signorelli and Rob Signorelli to launch the platform, which from spartan beginnings has become a powerhouse in the industry.
Bloomerang has had explosive growth during the past few years. Officials tout more than 15,000 nonprofit users that raised $8 billion on the platform during 2021. Staffing increased 22% during the past few years.
The firm has raised $33.9 million in four rounds of funding. There was the seed round in August 2012, an angel round of $930,000 in October 2012, and a venture round in September 2020. The firm received $33 million in debt financing in February 2021.
Its lone acquisition was fundraising platform Kindful in January 2021.
“There’s tremendous demand from nonprofits for easy-to-use technology that frees up time and increases their impact,” David Greenberg, Bloomerang board member and general partner at JMI Equity, said via a statement. “I’m confident that Dennis’ years of success working in high-growth CRM (constituent relationship management) and customer experience technology companies makes him uniquely suited to strengthen Bloomerang’s leadership in the nonprofit sector. We’re thrilled to welcome Dennis to the team.”
JMI Equity is one of three major investors in Bloomerang along with the founders and CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ), which handled the debt financing.
JMI Equity is a growth equity firm focused on investing in software companies. Founded in 1992, JMI has invested in more than 175 businesses in its target markets. The firm has completed more than 100 exits and raised more than $7.5 billion of committed capital. It has also been involved with tech firms in the nonprofit space Classy and Higher Logic.
Fois was the CEO At NewVoiceMedia, a cloud service company based in Basingstoke, England that was acquired by Vonage in 2018. He most recently was chairman and CEO of Copper, a CRM firm in San Francisco, California. He was also CEO at Rant & Rave, cloud-based customer engagement solutions firm headquartered in Coventry, England.
“I was drawn to Bloomerang because of the opportunity to bring what I’ve learned from the relationship management and customer experience sectors and apply this knowledge to benefit nonprofits,” Fois said via a statement. “This is not just about building software. This is an opportunity to share best practices and apply them to the unique needs of nonprofits and the technology they use.”