By Associated Press - Saturday, February 11, 2017

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A group of engineers from Indianapolis has designed a mobile application to make it easier for church-goers to donate money.

Walle Mafolasire, 37, came up with the idea for the Givelify app after attending a Sunday church service a few years ago, The Indianapolis Star reported. When the offering plates were passed around, he only had $3 in cash to donate, but his cell phone was in his pocket.

Four years later, 8,200 organizations across the country are using the app. About 80 percent of them are churches.

The app has helped raise more than $100 million for those clients.

Employees said the app is much easier than other types of online donations.

“Most of the other ones require you to go to a company’s website and navigate through signups and passwords,” Mafolasire said. “The text-to-give method is like memorizing a license a plate. And what happens when you put in one wrong digit, where does the money go?”

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered the app $90,000 in training grants and $410,000 in conditional tax credits in January to help Givelify expand in Indianapolis.

Givelify announced it would hire 40 new employees in the next several years and triple the size of its downtown headquarters. The company has eight employees and plans to hire four more this summer.

Company officials say revenues have increased an average of 500 percent each year since its founding.

Mayor Joe Hogsett said Givelify is an example of the type of brain power that can make Indiana a tech leader and attract other companies to the state.

“It takes companies like Givelify to examine everyday tasks and think creatively about how technology can improve the user experience,” Hogsett said in statement.

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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, https://www.indystar.com

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