“I’m blown away by the organizations and their causes. We work with 40+ organizations and each one is amazing. I am so thankful for the opportunity to help them raise money.”

Barry Kraft and Jeff Tochtrop are the co-founders of an innovative new company that brings consumers, organizations and companies together. Dealraiser, launched in February 2011, is quickly growing as a popular way for organizations to raise funds, businesses to advertise, and consumers to support their favorite charities and save money at the same time. Dealraiser currently has over 375 deals available in St. Louis from locally owned businesses including the St. Louis Cardinals, Johnny Macs, several great restaurants, salons and more. At the same time, they are helping almost 40 local organizations raise much needed funds.

Cofounder Jeff Tochtrop is also the owner of two different companies, IME Web Solution and Stellina Pasta Cafe. Barry Kraft also has a ministry with his wife called Marriage Links, and spends his free time with his boys, hunting, and participating in just about any sport. Barry took the time out of his busy schedule to share some insights into launching and running this innovative new company.

MO:
Dealraiser is such a unique concept. What inspired you to start this company, and how long did it take to bring it to fruition?

Barry:
I come from a background of teaching, youth ministry and coaching. I have done every sort of fundraiser out there and pretty much can’t stand any of them. I wanted to provide an easier way to raise funds. Jeff is a restaurant owner here in St Louis and has struggled with advertising opportunities that never seemed to work. We combined our two backgrounds and developed a great fundraiser and an absolute free way for locally owned businesses to advertise. We started talking about this in July of 2010 and we were selling subscriptions in March of 2011.

MO
Can you tell us how consumers can benefit from Dealraiser? What is the cost to them and what kind of deals can they expect to find on DealRaiser?

Barry:
Consumers pay $30/year to access hundreds of deals from locally owned businesses. Where some deal sites offer one or two deals a day and require you to pay for each deal in advance, Dealraiser currently offers 375 deals in St Louis every day. Everything from the Cardinals, Johnny Macs, Mobil On the Run, salons, restaurants, auto shops, etc. There really are deals on there for everyone. Once a consumer purchases an annual subscription they simply print the coupon out and go in.

MO
It sounds like an amazing deal for consumers. What about Organizations and Business. How do they work together to benefit each other?

Barry:
For organizations, we provide an easy way to raise money. They sell subscriptions for $30 and get $15 for each subscription that they sell. There is no processing orders, no handling payments and no sorting product, delivery, or shipping. We pay organizations once a month. The renewals come in year after year. All this makes for an easy and very profitable fundraiser.

For locally owned businesses it is an absolute free way to advertise your business and help local organizations raise money. Businesses can log in and change their deals at any time. They can limit the number of uses and add as many deals as they would like. The deals are searchable on a map and can be sorted by category.

MO
What has been the most rewarding thing about starting Dealraiser?

Barry:
Meeting the local business owners and learning more about some amazing local organizations. The business owners are great, hard-working people.

I’m blown away by the organizations and their causes. We work with 40+ organizations and each one is amazing. I am so thankful for the opportunity to help them raise money.

MO:
Social media seems to be changing the way we do business every day. How does social media come into play with Dealraiser?

Barry:
We encourage organizations and subscribers to spread the word about what they are doing through email, Twitter and especially Facebook. We have some great integration with Facebook that allows our users to share the deals they are using with their friends on Facebook. It is great for the local businesses because people are sharing where they are shopping and it is great for organizations because people are posting that they are supporting a great cause.

MO.com:
What are your plans for the future? Will there be a Dealraiser in every city?

Barry:
Our number one goal right now is to finish a mobile app for iPhone and Android. That will be huge for our subscribers and we are expecting those to be complete and downloadable in the next 6-8 weeks or less.

Being in multiple cities will be great as we grow and we do have plans to expand but we are St Louisans and we are focusing here for now. After we are solidly established in St. Louis we will begin to expand into new markets.