Technology has transformed many aspects of the payments space, and the concept of “crowdfunding” has become a major force in recent years when it comes to fundraising. But the way that universities solicit donations from alumni has remained fairly old fashioned, relying on phone calls and snail mail campaigns.

GiveCampus is a new startup in the summer class of Y Combinator that’s bringing university fundraising into the modern age, with an online crowdfunding platform that lets people donate money easily and quickly to their higher education institution of choice.

GiveCampus’ founders were interviewed by TechCrunch’s Lucas Matney, who wrote in an article today:

“The bottom line is that what colleges and universities do now
doesn’t work. About 90 percent of college graduates give to charity.
Only 8.2 percent made a gift last year to their college,” GiveCampus
co-founder Kestrel Linder said in an interview. “So there’s an enormous
divide between people with the inclination and the capacity to give and
people who give to higher education.”

GiveCampus’s model blends Kickstarter’s crowdfunding platform with a
social network aspect that allows users to directly appeal to fellow
alums for join them in donating to their institutions. Campaigns on the
site range from projects raising funds for class gifts to projects looking to create new scholarships.

Check out the full article about GiveCampus in TechCrunch here.