Cindy Phan
︎

Billboard Fundraising Campaign

A creative twist on fundraising campaigns to save our oceans

(Click for Full Image)

Context

We all get donation asks from all different sources. At some point, we begin to gloss over them. How do we make fundraising engaging again, standing out in all the noise?

As part of their sustainable seafood work, Greenpeace reached out wanting to build a creative fundraising campaign. We build an interactive campaign where individuals could donate $5 to get a square of the billboard up.

The goal was to raise $13,500 in 2 weeks. We had 3 weeks to design and develop the interactive website.

Date2015

ClientGreenpeace

My RoleUX Designer, Interaction Designer, Front-End Developer, Project Lead

Back-End DeveloperJim Pugh

The OutcomeReached initial $13,500 goal in 2 days.

$20,705 was raised in two weeks.

Over 1,771 people shared the campaign, reaching 1,254 donors (with over 40% of them first-time donors).

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Overview of the Project

  1. Campaign Strategy: My colleague and I spoke with the Greenpeace team to discuss the goals for their campaign, what they were hoping to accomplish, and what creative ideas they were interested in. At the end of the conversation, we decided to build an interactive billboard fundraising campaign that would be crowdfunded by supporters.
  2. Wireframing: I thought through the various pieces of information, interactions, and visual assets needed to make the campaign a success. I pulled these into wireframes that focused on making the website as clear and easy-to-navigate as possible. I then shared with the Greenpeace team for feedback.
  3. Visual Design: Once wireframes were approved, I developed the branding and visual design for the website - opting to utilize white space and pleasing colors to draw folks in.
  4. Development: We then began development for the project, with me developing the front-end and basic javascript interactions, while my colleague took on the back-end development and necessary API integrations.

How to make it stand out

The goal was to make fundraising engaging and accessible to everyone. Greenpeace was open to being creative, so we together decided to build an interactive billboard campaign.

We wanted to do something different for this campaign:

  1. Have the billboard itself live on the site and allow a person to donate to get a square of the billboard up - making it clear “my money is helping get this segment of the billboard up”.
  2. We made the donation ask low, just $5 dollars per square, so it is accessible to everyone.
  3. To create a seamless user experience, we integrated Greenpeace’s donation system into the website itself.
  4. We would use email, Facebook and Twitter to reach as many people as possible. So the website needed to pay particular attention to how it would function on mobile, tablet, and desktop.

To be honest, we weren’t sure if this was going to work - we’d never seen something like this done before. We were hoping for success but ready to accept failure.

Making the Website

I developed wireframes and shared with the Greenpeace team for feedback. After looking at them, one key concern was - what if someone wanted to donate $50 but didn’t want to have to click on 10 squares? We decided to add a “Select 5 random squares” button to make it easier.

After the wireframes were finalized, I did the visual design and branding for the website. (The billboard itself was designed by Greenpeace’s graphic designer.) Once approved, my colleague and I moved forward with building out the website - me the front-end and my colleague the back-end.

Homepage Wireframe (Click for Full Image)
Homepage Design (Click for Full Image)

Donation Form Integration

It was important to create a seamless experience and reduce the number of ways someone could leave the website. We decided to integrate Greenpeace's donation management system, Convio, into the website itself.

We also wanted to prevent any confusion about how much folks are donating. So, we made the "Donate" button dynamic, displaying the dollar amount of squares clicked, with options to donate via a credit card or PayPal.

Homepage: Contact Information Form
Homepage: Payment Information Form

Did it work?

With the site done, we were ready to launch - we were a little nervous and not sure if it’d perform well.

Within 2 days, we reached our initial goal of $13,500. We were ecsatic and let out of a sigh of relief that this crazy idea worked. With 12 days left in the fundraising campaign, we decided to add a new stretch goal to get two smaller billboard up nearby. We reached the new stretch goal by day 5.

By the end of the 2 weeks we were able to raise $20,705. The campaign was shared over 1,771 times, helping us reach a total of 1,254 donors (with over 40% of them first-time donors! - that’s an amazing number).

Yay billboards!

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