For decades, nonprofit organizations have helped millions of people with their basic needs for food, shelter, housing, medical care and in many other ways. Nonprofits also work in advocacy, consumer protection, environmental welfare and in dozens of other fields.

But when it comes to technology, many nonprofits remain mired in the past. Not so for Watsi, the crowdfunding site that raises money for medical treatments for underserved people in 20 developing countries. According to Entrepreneur, founder Chase Adam wants to bring cutting-edge uses of the internet and other technologies to the nonprofit world, with Watsi leading the way.

To start, Adam says look at the company’s model for raising money. Instead of the year-round fundraising most nonprofits must manage, Watsi operates like a startup, raising funds for a specific goal and then focusing on accomplishing that task.

In announcing its recent $3.5 million cash infusion, Watsi reported the successful fundraising like a tech startup would, noting the expertise of its recent hire by citing their brand-name experience, focusing on the company’s recent growth and successes with hard data, and listing the Silicon Valley backers who are invested in the company’s future.

The influence of tech is also felt within Watsi. The company insists that at least half of its staff are able to code, and three of its eleven staff members are computer engineers, including previous employees of Microsoft and NASA. The company expects to use part of the recently raised funds to hire more engineers, though emphasizes that salaries and expenses are paid only by such fundraising, with 100 percent of online contributions going to medical treatments.

Adam also hopes to use the funding to improve the nonprofit’s website, both for user’s experience and for issues on the back end. Primarily the company is focused on making the site as accessible as possible to doctors and others from developing areas, where there is often less computer literacy and a need for more simple interfaces.

The company’s goal of luring nonprofits into the tech world seems to be taking off. In 2013, Watsi was the first nonprofit invited to the tech accelerator Y Combinator, but today several others have followed suit.