Transforming University Advancement Through Connected Commerce

The Client

A top-ranked Midwest engineering and technology research university needed a scalable, user-friendly giving platform that would simplify the donor experience while giving its advancement teams greater flexibility and control over fundraising, donor engagement, and stewardship initiatives.

The Challenge

The client's existing advancement infrastructure was fragmented, difficult to scale, and reaching its operational limits. Campus programs ran independently with no unified donor experience, recurring gift management was error-prone, and the Foundation had limited ability to tie gifts back to specific campaigns or funds for reporting. Advancement teams lacked the flexibility to quickly launch new campaigns, campuses, or giving experiences without developer involvement.

The university needed a platform capable of supporting multiple campus brands while maintaining a unified advancement ecosystem. Donors should be able to authenticate with their existing alumni credentials, access personalized giving history, and interact with an experience tailored to their campus or program. At the same time, the platform needed to support the full spectrum of modern philanthropy, including one-time gifts, recurring donations, pledge schedules, and in-honor dedications, all integrated with Salesforce's advancement ecosystem.

Requirements that defined the architecture:

Unify giving across campuses
Authenticate donors via SSO
Support multiple giving models
Centralize gift processing and reporting
Automate donor communications
Enable campaign management without development

The Solution

Red Van Workshop built a university giving platform on Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) using our Autobahn framework, backed by Salesforce Order Management and Marketing Cloud.

Donation funds are modeled as configurable SFCC objects, giving advancement teams configuration-level control over hundreds of funds, designations, ask amounts, and campaign pages. This approach allows new fundraising initiatives to be launched through configuration rather than custom development.

Multi-campus giving platform. A single SFCC instance serves four branded experiences across multiple campuses, including a global giving experience and dedicated sites for individual campuses. Each experience maintains its own catalog structure, navigation, and content while being managed through shared back-office configuration rather than separate codebases. Brand context is carried throughout the URL structure so donor sessions remain within the appropriate giving experience.

Alumni SSO with Salesforce Core. When a donor logs in, SFCC authenticates against Salesforce Core via OAuth and creates or syncs the account on the fly, carrying the donor's unique ID, graduation year, school, and giving history. This creates a personalized experience while ensuring donor data remains synchronized across systems.

Comprehensive Giving Support. One-time gifts, monthly recurring subscriptions (CyberSource), multi-payment pledge schedules (split captures), and virtual pledges (pre-authorized at checkout with a future capture date) are all supported within a single platform. Each gift type flows through a unified Salesforce architecture, ensuring accurate processing, reporting, and donor attribution. The platform dynamically presents eligible payment options based on the selected giving model, helping ensure a seamless donor experience while maintaining compatibility with downstream payment processing requirements.

URL-powered campaign deep links. Advancement teams can build zero-code campaign experiences by constructing URLs that direct donors to pre-configured funds, amounts, and gift types. This enables Day of Giving campaigns, capital campaign appeals, and targeted fundraising initiatives without developer involvement.

Bonus product promotions. The platform supports physical gift fulfillment alongside digital donations. Donors who give above the designated contribution thresholds can receive physical recognition gifts. The SOM order flow automatically splits these into a separate Fulfillment Order, and Marketing Cloud sends a shipment confirmation email with tracking once the item ships, creating a complete fulfillment loop rather than simply a checkout experience.

In Honor and In Memory giving. Donors can dedicate gifts at checkout. A Marketing Cloud journey fires automatically for In Memory Of dedications, triggering a personalized notification email to the family of the person being honored.

Marketing Cloud email journeys. Connected directly to SFCC and SOM events, including donation confirmations, recurring gift confirmations, abandoned cart reminders, abandoned browse campaigns, and In Memory Of notifications.

Corporate Matching Gifts integration. Corporate matching prompts on the confirmation page automatically seed the employer field from checkout, simplifying the matching process for donors.

CyberSource Modernization. Following CyberSource's retirement of its legacy recurring billing API, Red Van migrated the platform to the modern REST architecture, protecting recurring giving programs while modernizing payment infrastructure.

Services Provided

Discovery & Architecture
Salesforce Commerce Cloud Implementation
Salesforce Order Management Implementation
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Implementation
Salesforce Core / Advancement Integration
CyberSource Integration & Migration
UX, Design, QA & Launch Support
Ongoing Managed Services & Platform Enhancements

Results

The platform launched on schedule following a nine-month implementation, establishing a scalable foundation for future fundraising growth.

Key outcomes include:

Four branded giving experiences operating from a single Salesforce Commerce Cloud instance
Unified giving experience across multiple campuses
Support for one-time, recurring, pledge, and future-dated giving models
Personalized donor experiences through Salesforce Core integration
Campaign and content management without developer involvement
Automated donor communications and stewardship workflows
Corporate matching gift support
Physical donor incentive fulfillment with automated order processing
Modernized payment infrastructure supporting recurring giving programs

Today, the university operates a scalable, connected advancement platform that unifies multiple campuses, supports every major giving model, and delivers personalized donor experiences across the fundraising lifecycle. Advancement teams now have greater flexibility, visibility, and control over fundraising initiatives without relying on custom development.