Donors want to see impact
Trust and transparency are critical for donors. Solving this problem would be huge especially for Gen Z donors and the Blackbaud Institute says, "Nearly 70% say that impact reporting is likely to motivate increased giving...".
The Problem
Donors need a way to easily see the impact their donation is making so they can be confident their money is being used responsibly and feel more connected to the mission. Nonprofit admins need an easy way to communicate these impacts to donors which can lead to repeat giving and better outcomes for their mission.
"Off the Grid" - An internal hackathon opportunity
Blackbaud promotes an annual hackathon aimed at generating innovative solutions to real customer problems. I used this chance to work on the problem of sharing donor impacts.
- 48 hours to ideate and pitch a concept to a panel of professional judges
- 7 team members recruited including Product Managers, Designers, and Engineers
- 1 proof of concept and compelling pitch presentation made
Connecting Systems to Tell Better Stories
I pitched a concept for our internal “Off the Grid” hackathon that reframed the reconciliation problem entirely: instead of building a better matching tool, I proposed a donation impact tracker modeled after package delivery applications like FedEx.
A donation’s journey to impact. Generated via Gemini (Nano Banana).
Presenting Connected Systems at BBCON 2023 to a global audience.
Lessons Learned: The event reminded me how important it is to develop our storytelling skills. "Off the Grid" gave me the autonomy to pursue what I was passionate about. I had to clearly communicate the vision to recruit a team, develop a prototype, pitch it to executives, and present the story to a conference full of nonprofit leaders.