United Way of Allegheny County, now a part of United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and Summa have launched an award-winning digital pledge platform for the long-established nonprofit organization. The new platform was developed to provide donors with a better user experience so they can help our community’s most vulnerable citizens. The platform goes live on November 19, 2015.
The platform allow
s United Way’s corporate partners to customize their workplace campaigns, incorporating their brand, tailoring their message and offering various donation options. It uses technology to understand what matters most to donors and to strengthen its relationship to them by providing an experience that makes it easy for them to give to causes they are passionate about. The platform also supports individual donors with non-workplace donation campaigns and one-off gifts.
“We are always looking for ways to improve the experience of our supporters. We also want to continue to build relationships with a younger generation of donors. They are changing the philanthropic landscape with new expectations to charitable giving. Our new platform will help us connect donors of all ages to the causes they care about,” said United Way of Allegheny County SVP George Pashel.
United Way of Allegheny County asked Summa for a solution to build and sustain relationships with its constituents, including the younger generation of donors. That meant building a platform as mobile as they are, being able to offer volunteer projects to connect them to United Way’s mission, and staying connected to let them know the impact they have made. The new platform also allows United Way to recognize loyal volunteers, give them choices and keep them engaged. The upcoming releases will provide features to take advantage of younger donors’ social clout to spread United Way’s message.
“When we design and build a technology solution for our clients, the impact it will have on their end customers is at the forefront of our approach as well as our clients’ business needs. The challenge United Way of Allegheny County presented us and the way our team approached the problem weren’t unusual, but the results of our work making our communities a better place in which we live, work and raise a family is exceptionally gratifying”, said Audrey Dunning, CEO of Summa.
For this work, Salesforce.com awarded Summa with the 2015 Partner Innovation Award for Nonprofit Success. Summa was recognized for helping United Way of Allegheny County transform how the nonprofit organization interacts with donors and volunteers. This work provides a model for all United Ways worldwide. The award was presented at Dreamforce 2015, the world’s largest software event.
The first company to roll out the new platform is Summa. Following a company wide meeting to kick off the campaign on Thursday November 19th, employees will compete in a chili cook-off showdown to spice up the fundraiser. Other workplace campaigns will follow in Western Pennsylvania.
