Why Ritmo exists
Between us, we've spent over a decade building platforms that help companies and their employees give to causes they care about. We founded and scaled Alaya from a startup to a platform used by 86,000+ employees across 50 countries, before it was acquired by Benevity - the world's largest corporate giving infrastructure.
We've seen how this works from the inside: the companies that do it well, the ones that don't, and the mechanics that either make giving stick or disappear by Q2.
The pattern we kept running into wasn't apathy. It was architecture. People who genuinely cared about climate, education, and hunger relief and wanted to give would hit the same wall every time: too many choices, too much research, too much emotional overhead - and friction that, even when you were ready to act, made it harder than just doing nothing. You'd see something terrible in the news, Google it, find too many options, and tell yourself you'd come back to it. You never did. Or you'd round up at a checkout prompt, not know where it went, and feel nothing. Or you'd sign up for a monthly donation two years ago, never check what it funded, and forget about it until you saw the tax receipt at year-end.
There are over two million nonprofits in the US alone - the infrastructure around giving was never designed to help a normal person navigate that. Most people didn't. And the ones who did gave once, felt good about it, and never came back.
Overall donor retention sits at 42.9%. For monthly donors, it's over 80%. That gap isn't about who cares more. It's about who has to think less.
Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review
A recent user said it better than we have:
"I absolutely love the idea of the app. It is a very low-cost way of donating, and easy to get into for those of us who aren't well versed in the different charities. I'm relating it to investing - I would love to get into it, but it is a lot to figure out. Having a stepping stone app to help figure things out while also being able to start donating is quite invaluable."
That's the gap, and it's not a niche problem.
Ritmo is built on that insight. Not only a better giving platform - a different model. Each day, we send you one personalised choice from trusted and verified nonprofit partners that match your values. You tap. Every dollar you donate goes directly to nonprofits - 100%, every time.
The real reason we care about consistency isn't the retention numbers, though. It's what repetition actually does to a person. Over time, giving stops being a decision and becomes part of how you move through the world. That identity shift - from "someone who donated once" to "someone who shows up" - is what the architecture of many giving platforms accidentally prevents, and what Ritmo is specifically designed to build.
