An update

Two and a half years ago we set out to do something bold. We believed many of the assumptions people had about charity were wrong, and there must be a better way of giving.

People assume giving effectively has to require hours of research. Younger generations see billionaires give and assume that’s what philanthropy is. Society and the media often tell us charities waste money, don’t innovate and grow inefficiently.

We believe differently. We believe effective philanthropy is for everyone. It’s not about spreading personal wealth, going to galas and setting up family foundations. It's about everyday people who want to make a difference.

ALMA was created on a simple idea. We're more powerful when we're connected — to each other, to our values, and to the causes we care about. So we built a platform for modern philanthropy and created ways to make it easy to give.

It turns out many, many donors and nonprofits think the same. Hundreds of thousands of people have used ALMA to research and support thousands of charities. The community has supported a wide range of critical causes from climate change, to homelessness, to gender inequality, to abortion rights and many more.

But like so many of our partner charities, we’re also faced with the realities of building a business in 2020. COVID has taken a hit on the charity sector - while donations from large corporations and the wealthy are up, the average American is tightening their belt. Over the last few months, charitable giving has declined - both across the industry and on ALMA. We’ve had to make difficult decisions, laying off incredible team members and cutting costs.

While we had hoped to weather the storm and continue growing ALMA, we’ve had to make the decision to end the platform.

We want to do everything we can to support the amazing work being done by the charities who’ve been a part of ALMA. Donors, please continue to give if you can - the work being done has never been more important. Nonprofits, we’re here to support you in the coming months and will provide resources on finding new growth opportunities. For the wider community, we hope to be open-sourcing a lot of the research and tools we developed. Hopefully by sharing our work, others will innovate from where we left off.

Finally, a sincere and heartfelt thanks to the charities who partnered with us, the donors who gave us feedback and ideas, and our friends and investors who believed in us.

For nonprofits

• Your final payout will be processed on October 7th, 2020. ALMA will distribute any outstanding balance to your nonprofit via your usual method.
• For information about your donors, or for other questions, email us at hello@alma.app.

For donors

• ALMA will no longer accept any new donations after September 30, 2020.
• Any donations on monthly subscriptions will be automatically cancelled on September 15, 2020.
• If you need a copy of tax receipts, to redeem an unused gift card, or for other questions, email us at hello@alma.app.

For fundraisers

• ALMA will no longer accept any donations after September 30, 2020 and your campaign will be removed from the ALMA platform.
• For a list of donors to your campaign or other questions, email us at hello@alma.app.

For community

Thank you for your support over the past couple years. Please stay in touch by emailing us at hello@alma.app. If you’re a founder thinking of starting something in the charity space we’d be more than happy to share what we’ve learned so far.