Summary / objectives

The British Heart Foundation’s Gift of Hope and Give in Celebration are two important fundraising destinations where supporters make donations in memory of loved ones or in celebration of a special day – birthday, wedding or anniversary. 

Background

BHF recognised that their existing ‘Lasting Hope’ tribute fund platform wasn’t taking advantage of the rapidly expanding in memoriam market, estimated at around £430m per annum. They wanted to address four key areas:

1.     Create a better user experience for supporters. The existing platform catered for both in memoriam and in celebration, as these are two very distinct audiences it led to supporters not receiving an experience that was tailored to their needs and motivations. Working with digital product studio Addition (part of WPN Chameleon) two products were created: Gift of Hope focussed on in memoriam users and Give in Celebration focused on in celebration users. Both products featured an overhauled and much improved user experience that was prototyped, user tested and iterated to ensure relevant user journeys (for both donors and fund creators) were streamlined and optimised. Both sites were made responsive ensuring supporters received a great experience on desktop, mobile or tablet.

2.     Produce a clear visual identity. The look and feel of the existing website was outdated and out of sync with the BHF brand. Addition created a number of creative routes for both products that were more sensitive to these special supporters needs and existing BHF brand guidelines.

3.     Successfully migrate existing funds to the new platforms. It was also vital that no existing funds from the current platform were lost so a technical solution was needed to cater for bringing this content into the relevant products. BHF also wanted to save admin staff time and effort by automating processes where possible.

4.     Increase income from tribute and celebration funds. Income from these products was fairly stagnant. It was felt that by improving the user experience and simplifying the donation process it would increase both income and the number of funds being created. 

Special characteristics

Although funds exist offline BHF already had an existing online supporter base who were creating and donating to funds online, it was the platform itself that was the issue. By surveying and holding focus groups with supporters it was clear that a new platform was needed rather than amending what was already there. There were technical issues with the site as it was built on a now outdated code base and was not mobile responsive meaning supporters were struggling to use their funds. Supporters were also finding the site hard to use as having the two products on one site made it unclear and the sensitive tone of in-memory jarred with that of celebration funds. By creating two new products focused on in memoriam (Gift of Hope) and in celebration (Give in Celebration) Addition could create products with a vastly improved supporter experience and an updated and modern design that better reflected the sensitive and indeed celebratory nature of the individual products and their users.

As well as user experience and visual design the technical solution was also key, as a significant number of funds needed to be brought over from the existing platform. This was important to the BHF as it contained supporters’ personal messages and memories. 

Influence / impact

• Since launching in September 2016 BHF saw the creation of new funds on Gift of Hope increase 54 per cent on the previous two months.
• Average donations for Gift of Hope increased by 67 per cent and total donations increased 14 per cent.
• There was an increase in the creation of events associated with Gift of Hope funds – up 750 per cent.
• Give in Celebration saw an increase of 361 per cent in donations
• Income increased by 63 per cent in the first five months compared to the same period in the previous year on the old site.

Results

With an improved user experience focused on enabling users to make donations and set up funds with the minimum of fuss, and modern, on-brand visual design, the launch of these two products has seen impressive results, enabling the charity to improve average donations by 67 per cent and increase total donations by 14 per cent.

Other relevant information

Gift of Hope. Give in Celebration. Case Study on Addition website.