Let's get into... Software Engineering at CRUK: Part 3 - Our Online Fundraising Web App and why it exists

Hi, I’m Elliot, the Frontend Capability Lead for Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the charity’s Lead Engineer for Online Fundraising.

In this article, as part of our software engineering series, I’ll explain what our Fundraising Web app is, why it exists, and its key benefits.

What is CRUK’s Fundraising Web App?

You’ve probably heard of some other fundraising websites that help you create your own Giving Page. You can share the link to your page with friends and family and start collecting donations for your chosen cause. At CRUK, we enable supporters to do this using our in-house app.

Why does it exist?

It’s quite an undertaking to create and maintain a fundraising app. So, why make one instead of using a pre-existing solution? Well, it’s a worthwhile investment because a few significant benefits come with making our own web app.

The benefits

?1) Gift Aid and information about our supporters are super important

By having our own app, the charity can identify our committed supporters. If someone has gone to the effort of setting up a Giving Page and they’ve indicated they’re happy to be contacted by us in the future, we can reach out to them about similar activities as they’re more likely to continue supporting us in the future.

Another bonus is that the user’s information sits with us, not another third party. We can ensure data quality; the better the data, the easier it is for CRUK to successfully request Gift Aid. This can add 25% to every eligible donation at no additional cost to the supporter.

2) Consistent user experience?

As well as our Fundraising Web App, we have other apps for registering and paying for events and requesting fundraising packs, and t-shirts, for different activities. Those apps can then forward supporters to our Fundraising Web App. When supporters set up new Giving Pages, we can skip form fields or whole form pages as we already have the activity and the supporter's information. This eliminates unnecessary effort for the supporter creating a more seamless, convenient, and consistent user experience.

3) We control costs and what we ask of our supports

With third-party giving page applications, donors are often prompted to pay an additional cost on top of their original donation to pay for the third-party company’s running costs. As we run this app in-house, we don’t currently need to make this ask and after card charges, every single penny goes to the charity.?

4) We control our own destiny

We’re able to make integrations with other apps as and when needed. For example, if there’s a running event and we’re asked to make a Strava integration to show maps of runs and distance totals, we’re able to do this. If there is a step challenge, and we’re asked to do a Fitbit integration, we can do that. It’s great to have this functionality.

Overall, having our own Fundraising Web App allows us to deliver the best value for supporters and CRUK.?It’s worth the time it takes to build and maintain this product and I’m proud to have been a part of it, as ultimately the app helps us to raise more money to beat cancer.

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little more about the inside world of engineering at CRUK! Stay tuned for more...