9 tech essentials for your online giving day platform

Giving Days & university Giving Days are growing dramatically. A large part of this is down to better technology, which has helped mobile donations increase significantly in recent years.

So what tech essentials are important to the success of your Giving Day?

#1 Mobile responsive

Donation conversions are substantially higher on responsive platforms. Mobile devices are expected to account for approximately 17% of donations on your giving day. Failing to optimize for mobile responsiveness will result in meaningfully fewer donations.

#2 Fast payments

Many universities still use a single lengthy giving page through which all donations are made. This approach kills mobile conversion rates. While offering this as an option is fine, to capture mobile gifts from younger donors, it’s important to provide alternatives such as one-touch social authenticated payments like Stripe.

#3 Social sharing

A significant proportion of traffic to Giving Day pages comes from Facebook referrals, so you can expect substantial traffic from all social media channels. Platform success depends greatly on the social sharing tools integrated: Facebook and Twitter are essential, but consider LinkedIn or WhatsApp. Hashtags should be auto-added to posts, and your hashtag should be memorable.

#4 Social tracking

Enhance social sharing by tracking shares and resulting donations. You can then offer rewards to active sharers and feature them on a leaderboard. This is an excellent way to begin gamifying your day.

#5 Gamification

A strong example is Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where different colleges compete against each other during the event. This approach makes participation fun and gives donors motivation to share. The goal is creating content that encourages enthusiastic engagement and sharing.

#6 Video

Video content is essential, as crowdfunding projects with video are significantly more likely to reach their targets because it creates personal connection. Make sure your platform can host and share video content, and consider making it entertaining.

#7 Ambassadors

Simple viral spread is largely a myth. What actually happens is that major influencers occasionally pick up content and spark pockets of activity. Organizations can plan this type of spread by identifying and preparing ambassadors. Washington State University identified 70 students and alumni with high affinity and strong social presence to serve as ambassadors, ultimately raising significantly more than their initial target.

#8 Matchfunding

Matchfunding motivates larger gifts. Santa Clara University set a target of 1,001 donors to meet a $100,000 matchfunding grant from alumni. They achieved this goal in just 3 hours, then secured additional matches, eventually receiving 2,973 donations. Ensure your platform fully integrates matchfunding features.

#9 Hosting

A conservative estimate suggests you’ll receive approximately 10 page views per donation, with all traffic arriving in a single day. Your platform’s servers must handle this load without interruption. Use a reputable server provider like Amazon AWS, and ideally employ multiple servers so the system can switch automatically if one experiences issues. A successful, uninterrupted Giving Day is critical.

Good luck with your Giving Day!