A new startup, Bono is disrupting the world of charitable giving by providing an streamlined and technology driven platform for donors to give and for causes to receive. Bono! is founded by Dan Eblagon and Ron Levy to make the donation process modern and user-friendly.
When Eblagon got a call from a telemarketer to donate he didn’t remember if he had donated to such a charity before, it was during this moment that the inspiration for Bono came. However, this experience calls out the brokenness, so to speak of traditional donation mechanisms and resulted in a platform which seeks to be transparent and user engaginig.
Bono enables people to start a monthly donation plan at $5 that is split across a selection of vetted charities on a cause the user cares about climate change, equal rights for LGBTQI people, animal welfare etc. The platform is designed as a way to keep donor’s updated on the impact of their contributions every week in terms of the amount of meals provided or mental health sessions the contributions will be used to fund.
Bono stresses the importance of enhancing a user experience. An AI-powered chatbot is also being developed by the company which is assumed to be based on an affinity that the donor has towards a certain charity and will help the user to find the charity that suits his/her preferences. This feature is in a pilot phase and is expected to be live out in the public by September.
Bono is also taking the opportunity of partnerships with content creators to promote awareness. It provides three collaboration models including flat fee campaigns, affiliate style paid revenue sharing, and donated commissions where creators can decide to donate their generated earnings to the promoted cause. Eblagon says most creators pick donated commissions model where their promotional efforts align with personal values.
The $1.6 million pre seed funding round attracted huge investor attention due to Bono’s innovative approach. This capital will help in further developing features of the platform, and the capabilities of AI.
Bono represents a new path for charitable giving with its call to focus on transparent, user interested and technologically advanced giving.
