Automating Corporate Donor Journeys in Emergencies

Description

This is a seamless online portal allowing the British Red Cross to manage compliance and ethical screening checks for corporate donations during high-demand emergency appeals, reducing waiting times and donor frustration.

Information

Brief

Automate ‘Know your donor’ checks during emergency appeals

Service

UX Design / Problem Definition / Insight Identification

Client

British Red Cross

Field

Regulation, Compliance, Fundraising Operations

Product

Prototype > MVP

Year

2022

Timeline

2 months

Team size

Challenge

The manual process for processing corporate donations during emergency appeals couldn’t keep up with donor demand, causing delays of up to 3 days and donor drop-offs, resulting in an estimated £750k loss.

Opportunity

Create a self-service corporate donation journey allowing donors to provide necessary information upfront and complete ethical screening autonomously.

Solution

A bespoke online journey for corporate donors, deployed during emergency appeals, enabling donors to submit offers, complete ethical screening, provide media or tax details, and make a donation payment pending approval. This removed waiting times and reduced donor drop-offs.

Outcome

Saved £750k in donor drop-offs
Reduced manual call processing by 80%
Eliminated donor waiting times during high-demand periods

My Impact

Identifying the problem & prototyping a solution

Situation:

Seconded to the Corporate Partnerships team during the Ukraine Crisis Appeal, experiencing first-hand the donor frustration and team overwhelm.

Objective:

Redesign the corporate donation process to meet urgent donor needs while ensuring compliance and ethical screening.

Action:

Quantified delays, lost donations, and complaints.
Mapped the donor journey from homepage to self-assessment and donation page using Miro.
Designed logic flows for development team based on donor responses.

Results:

Led cross-team collaboration: corporate partnerships, compliance, operations, ethical fundraising, innovation.
Tested journey with 3 corporate partners, iterated for insight.
Implemented a bespoke donation journey aligned with an “Emergency first” fundraising strategy.