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DownrightAdvisory

Case study

Fundraising technology, connected end to end

Fundraising · Donations · Salesforce

~$18,000/year
saved on prospect research
10% → 2.9%
donation fees
Every gift and pledge synced to Salesforce automatically

Real product, shown with sample data and a placeholder brand.

A gift is made to a fundraiser, and appears in their recent donations.
  • The event landing page: the running total, the goal, and ways to give or join.
  • The goal tracker: each checkpoint on the route is a fundraising milestone.
  • A fundraiser's own page, with their goal, milestones and share tools.
  • A team page, with the team's total, rank and recent donations.
  • The leaderboard, updated as gifts come in.
  • Featured teams and top fundraisers on the landing page.
  • A campaign donation page: amount, the option to cover the processing fee, and the total.
  • The recurring gift option: a monthly gift with the same form.
  • The gala sponsor pledge form, with sponsorship levels to choose from.
  • The pledge summary a sponsor reviews before submitting.
  • The PDF confirmation generated for each pledge.
  • A fundraiser's page on a phone.
  • The prospect research app on a phone: deadlines and best-fit funders.

The challenge

Fundraising ran on disconnected tools. Online donations went through a high-fee platform with rigid forms. Gala sponsor pledges came in through a generic form builder, and staff re-keyed the details into Salesforce. Prospect research meant a $1,500-a-month subscription.

What I built

  • Custom donation system: branded, campaign-specific donation pages with recurring giving, automatic receipts, and every gift synced to Salesforce
  • Gala sponsor pledge forms: pledges flow directly into the right Salesforce fields with a generated PDF confirmation, so nobody re-types anything
  • Prospect research app: pulls from free public records (foundation filings, federal grants, business affiliations) into a mobile app the CEO and development team use before an ask, with results written back to the donor's Salesforce record
  • Peer-to-peer fundraising platform: a custom event fundraising site for a charity ride, with personal and team fundraising pages, a live leaderboard and goal tracker, matching gifts, automatic social share images, and gift alerts to fundraisers. Every gift syncs to Salesforce, with no third-party platform fees.

Results

  • About $18,000 a year saved by replacing a paid prospect research subscription
  • Donation processing fees cut from 10% to 2.9%
  • Recurring donations up after the new donation experience launched
  • Every donation and pledge lands in Salesforce automatically, with richer data on how donors interact with the page

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