Meet Bono, a modern donation platform designed to make giving easier, more consistent, and more impactful. Bono uses technology to streamline the donation process, offering users personalized charity portfolios, one-click donations, and real-time updates on their impact.

The idea for Bono began with a simple phone call—Dan Pesso Eblagon, co-founder and CEO, was contacted by a telemarketer asking for a donation to a charity he couldn’t recall supporting.

This experience revealed how outdated and disconnected the traditional giving process had become. In response, Dan set out to build a platform that brings clarity, ease, and emotional connection to charitable giving.

Backed by a $1.6 million pre-seed funding round led by Progression Fund and supported by senior executives from leading tech companies, Bono has quickly gained traction.

The platform is designed to help donors stay connected to the causes they care about through regular updates and a seamless giving experience.

In this interview, Dan shares the story behind Bono, the mission driving its growth, and how the company is using technology to build long-term habits around giving—helping individuals support high-impact charities more effectively.

Q: What was the lightbulb moment - origin story of Bono?

Dan: My journey began with a phone call from a telemarketer soliciting a donation for a charity they claimed I had previously supported. While I felt good about having donated, I couldn't recall the charity or the impact of my contribution.

This experience highlighted the outdated and impersonal nature of traditional donation processes. It inspired me to create a modern platform that disrupts the old way of giving, leading to the inception of Bono.

Q: What is Bono's mission and vision?

Dan: Our mission is to make giving as seamless, emotional, and habitual as using Spotify or Robinhood. We match donors with personalized portfolios of high-impact charities, give them one-click donations, real-time impact updates, and a single tax receipt.

We’ve built the infrastructure for people to stay emotionally connected to the causes they care about, every week, forever.

Under the hood, Bono is a fintech and AI engine powering discovery, automation, and storytelling. But on the surface, it’s the most human, heartfelt product we’ve ever built.

Q: How Bono impact lives and/or the environment in a positive way?

Dan: Bono helps people turn small, consistent donations into massive, measurable impact, without the overwhelm, confusion, or friction of traditional giving.

Every donor gets matched with a personalized portfolio of vetted, high-impact charities aligned with their values, from ocean conservation to mental health to LGBTQ+ rights.

We make giving a habit: not a one-time gesture, and keep donors emotionally connected to their impact through weekly updates.

These updates show exactly how lives are being changed: meals delivered, therapy sessions funded, coral reefs restored.

By making the donation experience as effortless and rewarding as any modern subscription, we’ve already seen thousands of people give more often, to more effective charities, driving more money and attention to the causes that need it most.

Ultimately, Bono is not just making giving easier. We’re making it stick.

Q: How have you funded the company thus far?

Dan: We officially launched Bono alongside a $1.6 million pre-seed funding round. The round was led by Progression.Fund, with participation from several angel investors who are senior executives at companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Intuit, and X/Twitter.

This early support reflects growing interest in the consumer donation space and belief in Bono’s mission to modernize giving.

The funding has allowed us to build a world-class team, launch our core product, and start scaling impact with thousands of early donors.

Q: What tools do you use to run Bono?

Dan: We use a full stack of tools across product, growth, and operations - from Stripe for payments, to Customer.io for personalized communication, to Notion, Figma, Mixpanel, and beyond.

It’s amazing to see how the biggest players in software are leaning in to support mission-driven startups like ours.

These tools help us move fast, stay lean, and deliver a premium experience to our users - while keeping the focus on what matters: driving more impact to the causes people care about.