ASP targeting charities anticipates shutdown

Charitableway, a company that builds systems to help charitable groups collect donations over the Web, has begun liquidating assets in preparation to shutter the business within the next 30 days, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Backed by high-profile venture capital firms such as Benchmark Capital and Softbank, Charitableway, which describes itself as an application service provider, notified most of its 100-person work force last week that their last day would be March 26. A small group of employees will be retained to help with the liquidation, Charitableway spokeswoman Laura Segal said.

San Carlos, Calif.-based Charitableway had hoped to capitalize on the wave of charities and nonprofit organizations that rode the boom in e-commerce early last year to help raise money. Privately held Charitableway provided automated, Web-based donations systems for United Way organizations, nonprofit federations, corporations and financial institutions.

The company attracted $35 million in its second round of funding last February, two months before the April downturn in technology stocks. From that point on, fewer charities were willing to front money for new technology, Segal said.

"We weren't hitting the metrics we needed to sustain our business," she said.