Nonprofits are often measured by the missions they serve, the money they raise, and the lives they touch. But behind that work is a less visible challenge: how to manage donors, volunteers, events, campaigns, digital engagement, and corporate giving at scale.

That is the space StratusLIVE has been building in for more than a decade.

StratusLIVE creates cloud-based software for nonprofits, helping organizations manage what Jim Funari calls “constituents” instead of customers — donors, volunteers, event attendees, and the people connected to a nonprofit’s mission.

“Our software kind of facilitates all of that,” Funari said on The Fervent Four. “It’s sort of the engine, you know, the business process engine for nonprofits.”

For Funari, the company grew out of years spent seeing the same problems repeat across the nonprofit sector. Before StratusLIVE, he was part of Compass Technology, a Hampton Roads-based consulting and advisory firm that worked with nonprofit management teams around the country. Over time, the pattern became clear: nonprofits needed more than advice. They needed better technology.

“A lot of consulting, kind of saw the same problems, same issues, and said, hey, there’s a product that’s needed in the marketplace,” Funari said.

That product became StratusLIVE.

The company has focused on a sector that is larger than many people realize. Funari noted that nonprofits represent a major part of the U.S. economy, with millions of organizations and millions of people working across the sector. But the company does not serve every nonprofit. Its lane has been helping larger and growing organizations manage more sophisticated fundraising, donor relationships, marketing, and engagement.

That focus has allowed StratusLIVE to build reach well beyond Hampton Roads.

One of the clearest examples came through its work with United Way organizations across the country. Funari said StratusLIVE now works with roughly 30 United Ways, a customer base that helped lead the company into corporate social responsibility and workplace giving.

The opportunity was not part of the original plan.

United Way liked the company’s CRM, marketing, and fundraising tools, Funari said, but they also needed digital systems they could bring into companies so employees could see local charities, understand their work, and direct employee giving.

StratusLIVE responded by building what became its Give at Work product.

“It’s led us into almost 2,000 companies across the country, all the way from Ford Motor Company to ExxonMobil to Procter & Gamble,” Funari said.

That is the larger story: a Hampton Roads company quietly building infrastructure that supports national nonprofit and corporate giving systems.

Funari pointed to Detroit as one example, where StratusLIVE helped support United Way’s work with Ford Motor Company. He said Ford’s employee participation grew from roughly 89,000 or 90,000 employees to around 120,000.

“When you see things like that, you got the NFL, you got the local United Way, you got Ford Motor Company,” Funari said. “It kind of all goes together and you’re able to say, you know, we were part of that.”

The company’s work is not only about fundraising software. It is about helping nonprofit leaders understand that technology is no longer just a back-office expense.

“A lot of our work is helping management teams see that technology is no longer an overhead,” Funari said. “It’s part of the strategic fabric of the company, of the organization, the mission.”

That shift is only becoming more important as nonprofits face more digital demands, more donor expectations, and more pressure to grow without dramatically expanding staff. StratusLIVE is now working on new products for the mid-market and exploring how AI agents can help nonprofit teams gain capacity around data work, analytics, and daily business processes.

But the lesson from StratusLIVE is not only about what is coming next. It is about what has already been built.

From Hampton Roads, the company has created software that supports nonprofits, workplace giving, major corporate campaigns, and mission-driven organizations around the country. It is proof that important technology companies do not have to come from the usual hubs to create national impact.

Sometimes, they are built quietly, consistently, and strategically right here in the 757.

 

 

StratusLIVE’s reach also earned the company a place in the initial tranche of the IHR200, a list of the 200 most promising and important privately owned businesses in Hampton Roads.

Listen to the full episode

YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZTGGbnKA-nI
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