Technology transformation and change management help non-profit organization reach donors and improve fundraising

United Way of Greater Toronto (UWGT), which has been mobilizing volunteers and resources to help those in need since 1973. Despite its long-standing success, the organization was losing market share to competitors, making it harder to meet its mission. With an existing relationship with Protiviti, UWGT reached out for help to revamp its legacy donation platform by focusing on technology, functionality, and donor experience.

UWGT’s legacy donation platform, @work, introduced in 2012, was leveraged successfully by the organization’s corporate partners to accomplish their employee fundraising goals. But over the years, as the platform’s technology aged, several new corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environment, social and governance (ESG) platforms were introduced into the workplace. Many of UWGT's corporate partners adopted these new platforms to meet broader needs and provide better user experiences. With this change in how employees were making donations, UWGT began losing direct access to donor data, creating barriers to making the donor experience meaningful. The new CSR and ESG platforms created consolidated "anonymous" data from corporate partners, posing a significant challenge for an organization built on personally connecting with donors to show how their contributions directly impact their local communities.

UWGT leadership initially planned to decommission the @work platform. Instead, the organization embarked on a strategic initiative to transform the platform’s functionality, services and donor experience. In a year-long project, UWGT and Protiviti analyzed the legacy platform’s functionality to identify existing pain points and gain a better understanding of the technology’s limitations. The team also leveraged blue-sky design thinking sessions to assess future technical and functional capabilities. The new platform – renamed @work4u – would put UWGT on the leading edge of charitable giving technology. It also would attract another 20 branches across the United Way movement in Canada to use the system for their own fundraising campaigns, with more expressing interest in adopting the new platform.

The team decided to strategically roll out the implementation of @work4u, adopting key elements of agile project management to approach requirements gathering and determining what features to include in the new platform. Salesforce was integrated into the new system to enhance UWGT’s donor engagement and streamline data analytics and reporting. With Salesforce’s robust donor management capabilities, UWGT could leverage advanced segmentation, tracking, and reporting tools to better understand donor behavior and improve fundraising strategies. Using the Agile methodology, the project moved forward in practical and achievable phases, initially targeting a minimum viable product (MVP) that the organization could continue to build on. (Functionalities outside of the MVP were also scoped but were tabled for deployment at a later date.) Critical functionalities and business requirements for the MVP were prioritized in a strategic roadmap detailing the release of each function. As new design ideas forced the reprioritization of requirements and proposed features, updates were clearly communicated through daily touchpoints between Protiviti, Salesforce teams, and UWGT leadership.

Technology and automation were incorporated into every facet of the design and implementation. Increasing processing capacity and scalability was key, as was ensuring the security of donor information. The Salesforce platform not only enhanced data integrity but also simplified tasks such as pledge rollover and tax receipting, which were manual and error-prone in the previous system. UWGT and Protiviti collaborated to build a solution that would meet privacy requirements throughout the donation process, while ensuring a refreshed user experience. Salesforce’s automated processes ensured that timely notifications were sent to fundraisers and donors, improving both operational efficiency and donor satisfaction.

At the same time, leadership recognized that the project’s success would require critical change management activities and cultural transformation. UWGT leaders addressed this challenge by elevating the core users of the system so they could shift their focus toward boosting digital capacity and transformation. With Salesforce’s streamlined interface and powerful reporting tools, staff members were empowered to make data-driven decisions and optimize fundraising efforts. As employees learned to adopt an innovative agile approach to the design and implementation of the new system, they were better able to leverage Salesforce and the organization’s internal and external data to drive better decision-making in service to UWGT’s mission.

Since its launch, the transformed platform has positively impacted the nonprofit’s ability to reach prospective donors. Corporate partners who previously used other CSR and ESG platforms have successfully migrated onto the new @work4u platform, benefiting from Salesforce’s enhanced capabilities for donor management and reporting. The streamlined user experience and enhanced functionality have substantially improved fundraising campaign management. By integrating Salesforce into @work4u, UWGT became more competitive, reached a new generation of donors, and empowered staff. As a result, they generated over $40 million in donation transactions. Key improvements include saving 160-180 hours annually in donor segmentation, reducing payment processing from six complex steps and 40 minutes per company to two simple steps and five minutes per company, and automating tax receipting. Salesforce also enhanced donor engagement by automating thank-you notifications and pledge rollover, eliminating errors., UWGT and Protiviti are now working on new features for the next campaign, with Salesforce continuing to enhance donor outreach and marketing efforts.

Today, UWGT is leading the way in innovation and digital transformation in the nonprofit charitable sector. The organization’s leadership views digital transformation as a critical enabler for its improved fundraising success and community-impact goals and for helping UWGT leadership better prepare for any disruption or donor demographic change that could affect its mission.