Issue link: http://www.wacmagazine.com/i/1107571
MAY / JUNE 2019 41 A N D R E A P R U D E N T E MAY / JUNE 2019 41 SNAP! RAISE WAC member Cole Morgan has been a youth athlete and coach. So it seemed a natural fit when, a few years out of college, he took a job with a promotional company that sold fundraising products for teams to sell. Cole enjoyed the work and became friends with many coaches and administrators. But he was caught off guard one day when a close friend and high school coach made it clear that Cole's fundraising program was the last thing he was interested in. "I thought I was there to help," Cole recalls. "It became very clear in that moment that I wasn't." Cole took the rebuff as a challenge to create something better. He went home and called his friend Eddie Behringer, also a WAC member, for technical advice. A year-and-a-half later, Snap! Raise was born. A purpose-built fundraising platform for teams and groups of all sizes, Snap! Raise is now an indispensable fundraising tool for clubs, high schools, and universities around the country. It allows teams to activate their network of friends and family to give online and eliminates the burdensome tasks that coaches and kids often assume when raising money. The company has received considerable attention for its success, and Cole was honored as a winner of Ernst & Young's 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Pacific Northwest. Snap! Raise also recently ranked 46th in North America for growth in the Deloitte 2018 Technology Fast 500. Since Cole, Eddie, and a third partner, Stefan Berglund (also a WAC member but no longer involved in day-to-day operations), launched the company in 2014, it has grown by 4,000 percent and is now used in all 50 states. "It gives back a lot of time and saves a lot of headaches," Cole says. Now that's an innovation anyone could love. COLE MORGAN PURPOSE-BUILT PLATFORM