Launch
October 2021
A new and fully integrated donation portal
A fresh breath of air is sweeping through Amnesty International Germany’s Online Fundraising.
Success
Within six weeks, more than a quarter of a million euros in donations were raised.
The new donation portal has it all!
Amnesty International Germany (Amnesty) has always had a strong appeal. Name recognition has rarely been a problem. Supporters of human rights are quite loyal to this non-profit organization. Nevertheless, systems and structures eventually get old and cause growing pains, especially for an organization as large and highly branched as Amnesty. We were allowed to take a closer look at these pains. A digital refresh with the utilization and interaction of the latest technologies was unleashed. Step by step, intelligent systems were set up and interconnected to minimize manual effort in the future. With the right partners and tools at your side, it was nearly a piece of cake. But only nearly.
Challenges – Where to start when the pressure is on?
On the bright side, Amnesty had a digital system landscape that got the job done for a long time. However, due to the increasing size of the organization and a complex organizational structure, there were a great number of digital tools in use that did not interact and were only used across departments. Thus, the outdated “silo thinking” was further fueled and cross-organizational thinking was made more difficult. The biggest challenge was the lack of a fully integrated central and cross-organizational database. After all, no data foundation means no measurability. Other challenges included rigid and inflexible systems that led to a high dependency on external service providers, e.g. the configuration of donation forms, but also the flexible design of conversion-optimized landing pages and petition pages. It quickly became clear that a few optimizations were not enough – a structural change in mindset was needed, and from there the introduction of a new digital foundation.
Solution – Solid interfaces and sophisticated tools enable growth.
“Growing with challenges” was our motto. The focus of this major digital refresh was therefore on three important systems at once:
1. a new intelligent database as a foundation (Salesforce CRM)
2. a newly designed donation environment with emotional content (getunik NPO Theme, incl. content audit)
3. refined and intuitive payment options for a wide range of donation products (RaiseNow)
The expectations of all Amnesty departments and stakeholders were high, and the process of orchestrating various systems was not easy. Thanks to our very early considerations for the development of a lifecycle strategy together with Amnesty and the development of a data concept considering all new systems and interfaces, the course was set for a new beginning. During the development of the lifecycle strategy, we first collected the measures and systems that Amnesty already uses to further develop its supporters in the lifecycle. From this, the data concept was developed, which formed the basis for the integration of RaiseNow and Salesforce NPSP (CRM) to the new donation world, and later also for the setup of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
The flexibility and numerous features offered by the gu NPO theme to organizations were crucial for Amnesty’s decision in choosing the new donation platform.
- Easy integration of all donation and petition forms with Salesforce
- Output of personalized donation amounts through Dynamic Donations
- Personalized thank you pages with display of e.g. name and donation amount
- High flexibility in creating donation forms, landing pages and petition pages via the backend
- Personalized gift certificate
Also worth mentioning is the idea of being able to gift support for human rights via the new donation page. This way, you can make a gift donation as an alternative to a normal donation. The donor then receives a personalized gift certificate tailored to the occasion.
So much for the theory. After programming the new donation system and extensive testing of the interfaces to RaiseNow and Salesforce, Amnesty was well prepared for the existing and upcoming donors. So far so good!
«It has been proven once again that for such a complex project as the relaunch of the donation portal, it is very worthwhile to have an experienced partner like getunik at your side. Thus, we can look forward to the upcoming projects, such as the setup of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, with anticipation and a positive feeling.»
Oliver Reff, Director Fundraising & Growth at Amnesty International Germany
Implementation – a new world of donations, fresh content, and a small sticking point
Now it was down to the nitty gritty. The implementation of the donation page was a classic web project and a home game for us with our 20 years of experience in web design. Iteratively, we went from rough to fine concept. Everything we do, we always do data and science driven. So even Amnesty’s previous content got a fresh coat of paint based on our years of insight and collaboration with our partner at NextAfter. All content was combed through page by page and reformulated. Attention was paid to ensuring that the Value Proposition was clearly articulated on every page: Why should I donate to Amnesty and not to another organization? Donations of 250,000 euros within six weeks speak for themselves. This work has more than paid off.
After programming the new donation world, the integration to RaiseNow and Salesforce followed and finally the most extensive part: the extensive testing! Especially in such a complex project with several integration partners. This is not to be underestimated. So an advice from our side: Plan enough energy and resources for this phase! After that, Amnesty was well prepared for existing and upcoming donors.
Effect – Over EUR 250,000 raised for human rights
Amnesty is committed to human rights at all times. Every screw that can be turned to trigger an improvement in digital performance increases efficiency. This leaves more time and money for Amnesty’s charitable work advocating for more dignity, freedom, and justice. The introduction of Salesforce laid a foundation for the overall modernization of Amnesty’s systems landscape. With the new donation site, Amnesty now has the ability to manage its own online fundraising and independently create conversion-optimized donation landing pages or petition pages. The digital ground at Amnesty is prepared, but most importantly, with this digital evolution, a rethinking has taken place throughout the organization, which is important for further digital steps. The next projects are already in the pipeline – the setup of the Marketing Cloud, the setup and integration of the new RaiseNow P2P platform and with the lifecycle strategy a general “Fundraising & Campaigning” roadmap for the next two years as well as the design and setup of the first automated donor journeys. Amnesty – to be continued.
«Even after more than two years of cooperation with Amnesty, this project has definitely challenged the participants due to its complexity. But each individual has grown in his or her responsibilities and everyone has moved closer together. The upcoming implementation of the Marketing Cloud will open up a whole new set of opportunities for Amnesty. I look forward to accompanying them on this journey.»
Marius Waldeck, Customer Success Manager, getunik GmbH
getunik-Services
getunik took these steps to support Amnesty International Germany:
Lifecycle Strategy – Where are your donors?
Not all donors are the same. With a lifecycle strategy, every organization can gain clarity. It is not only important in which target group a donor is located, but also in which of the six lifecycle phases. Generally speaking, there are several target groups per lifecycle phase, which can be different for each organization. We had the privilege to carry out the donor analysis together with Amnesty. This is the best basis for developing exciting donor journeys right next.
getunik NPO Theme – customized donation pages à la carte.
When it comes to donation requests, non-profit organizations need to react quickly and agilely. With getunik NPO Theme, the focus is on ease of use and easy extensibility. It is a proprietary development based on WordPress, which we have designed specifically for the needs of NPOs based on our more than 20 years of experience in web development. As a result, they benefit from low implementation costs as well as high flexibility in configuring their donation forms, petition pages and other features. For Amnesty’s new Donation World, we naturally pulled out all the stops for the NPO theme. This is the result – Donation landscape Amnesty International Germany!
Content Refresh – personal fundraising efforts that get under your skin
A website must be informative. But not just that. In the best case, all content should move the website reader, make them think and, of course, make them want to donate. The key question for the content is therefore always: Why should I, as a donor, donate to your organization and not to another one? The focus is on the organization’s value proposition to the potential donors. Always be authentic, unique, clear and credible. For Amnesty, we were able to use this as a basis for reworking all the texts in the world of donations. Higher click rates were the consequence. This pleased not only Amnesty, but above all the people who can be helped through the fight for human rights.
Amnesty International Germany – For more human rights.
Amnesty International is the world’s largest human rights movement. Amnesty is independent of governments, political parties, ideologies, economic interests and religions.
