Kimbia CEO addresses issues with Big Give SA

Technical issues shut down website midway through 24-hour fundraiser

SAN ANTONIO – After Tuesday’s technical glitches during Big Give SA, Kimbia CEO Daniel Gillet came to San Antonio Friday to address the issues before a packed town hall meeting.

The Big Give San Antonio hired an online crowdfunding company, Austin-based Kimbia, to make life easier. The company was supposed to interface between donors and their causes making it easier to get donations from the hands of charitable givers into the hands of nonprofits needing that money.

But on Tuesday the servers became overwhelmed when Big Give donors tried to donate causing its computers to crash. 

"I want to offer our sincere apology. We really regret the events that happened on May 3. There were a number of problems with hardware and software that caused our platform not to perform as we had hoped," said Gillett.

Gillett spoke at a town hall meeting at Alamo Heights United Methodist Church. He addressed a crowd of people representing various nonprofits who gathered hoping to hear what went wrong.

"They need to be a face out there to tell them exactly what went on (and) to tell the donors," said Nora Olyer, a representative from Spina Bifida Texas. ​

Another nonprofit representative, Renee Garvens of Roy Maas Youth Alternatives, said there were some problems with last year's Big Give event and that she expected to see some this year, but not to the extent at which it happened.

"I was really surprised when things shut down so completely in the middle of the day," Garvens said.

Gillett said he plans to fix the technical problems at his company and make restitution to those who may have been harmed by the server failure.

"We're going to rebate approximately $370,000 in fees. We're going to be offering free technology to every nonprofit that participated in the event from now through year's end,” Gillet said. “We're going to be providing fundraising consulting services at monthly meetings. And for the next three months, I'll be taking no salary from the company."