With a new focus to its business, Moncton-based startup Ongozah is providing a link between charities and corporations, and producing 25 per cent monthly sales growth.

The company — whose name is the Swahili term for everyone moving in the same direction — recently decided its new business focus would be helping charities work more efficiently with corporations that allow their staff to volunteer.

It has already signed up 25 clients, including the United Way and National Bank of Canada, and the list continues to grow.

"We’re just selling, selling, selling and building, building, building," said CEO Topher Kingsley-Williams after presenting the company at the Propel ICT Demo Day on Tuesday night.

Ongozah is an interesting case of a company that pivoted — or changed its business model to meet market demand — and found fresh momentum with a new product.

Founded by Kingsley-Williams, Denis Daigle and Dan Gillis, the company had begun last year with the goal of allowing community groups to crowdsource the things they need to provide services. The idea was that charities could put the word out to the broader community that they needed some materials or expertise to make sure they could complete their projects.

The Ongozah team was working at the Vennture Garage, the incubator in Moncton, and then entered the Propel ICT accelerator about three months ago.

They decided to pivot to take advantage of a new development in the way companies support charities.

Kingsley-Williams said many companies now like to contribute to charities by letting their paid staff volunteer with the non-profit on company time. It helps worker morale because they’re helping a good cause while they’re being paid.

But the scheme creates challenges. First off, the workers have to know what charities are available to work with. And for the charities, there are often administrative problems in managing this crop of new talent.

Ongozah has developed a platform that helps to alleviate these problems. It helps employees learn about projects, spread the word and get involved. And it allows the non-profits to manage their projects, recording the accomplished work and tracking contributions.

With it, the company has gained a core of early adopters with which it is now working and assessing the product.

The company is now raising capital. As a graduate of the Propel ICT Build program, it is being considered for as much as $250,000 in funding — $150,000 from BDC Capital and $100,000 from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.

Kingsley-Williams said the company expects to continue its rapid growth given the size of its market — charitable giving in the U.S. and Canada amounts to $17 billion per year.

Ongozah will be working with the New Brunswick Community College on its upcoming volunteer day. And later this month, the team will travel to New York for the Social Good Summit, a conference that showcases the intersection of good causes and new technology.