Project Brief
Non-profit organizations rely on fundraising to mobilize their vision. This religious non-profit employs a varied model of centralized fundraising from a corporate office and individual staff raising their salaries for their roles. However, nearly 10% of the organization's staff were operating on a fundraising deficit, resulting in approximately 1.5 million dollars of budget losses each year.
After the fundraising department performed an assessment, they identified that the issues stemmed from various sources, including a lack of available coaches for staff with deficits.
Approach
To address the lack of available coaching resources, I worked closely with the head of fundraising to create a virtual coach for staff with budget deficits.
The simulated coaching resource was comprised of three primary components:
- A personalized fundraising calculator based on the size of their deficit.
- Key information and schedules for fundraising with a deficit.
- Encouraging pre-recorded video interviews for staff who overcame challenging budget deficits.
I developed a custom interaction in Articulate Storyline 360 using variables and JavaScript to create the fundraising calculator. The tool then calculated an activity plan for average metrics to close their budget deficit in a given timeline. I also created a companion worksheet in Excel that allowed for the staff to continue updating their numbers as their deficit shrunk over time.
I had the opportunity to lead all of the design, development, and UX/UI considerations for the project.
Outcomes
The results of the coaching tool and added support of the fundraising department were phenomenal:
- Over $790,000 dollars in recurring donations was raised in one year from the start of the campaign, more than half of the original total deficit.
- More than half of the staff who could not perform their work were back in their jobs.
- The training and support offered a significant morale boost to the organization for the teams who were missing members due to fundraising problems.