Skip to main content
University Donation Plaza at Dusk
Case Study / Salesforce Implementation

Modernizing University Giving with Salesforce

The Client

A nationally recognized research university sought to modernize its online fundraising platform with a scalable, configurable giving experience that could support hundreds of fundraising campaigns while improving the donor experience and reducing reliance on IT.

Supporting annual giving, athletics, scholarships, endowments, and program-specific fundraising initiatives, the institution manages hundreds of fundraising campaigns each year, each requiring its own branding, messaging, fund configuration, and donor experience.

The Challenge

The university's legacy giving platform had become increasingly difficult to maintain and lacked many of the capabilities modern donors expect.

Campaign pages required developer involvement to launch or update. Mobile payment options such as Apple Pay and Google Pay were unavailable. Recurring donors could not manage their own gifts, and the platform lacked the flexibility needed to support modern fundraising campaigns at scale.

The university needed a platform that could support hundreds of fundraising campaigns through a single configurable architecture while giving advancement teams greater control and providing donors with a modern, frictionless giving experience.

Requirements that defined the architecture:

  • Modernize online giving
  • Support dynamic fundraising campaigns
  • Enable self-service donor management
  • Add modern payment options
  • Integrate with Salesforce CRM
  • Reduce ongoing IT involvement

The Solution

Red Van Workshop implemented a Salesforce-native giving platform powered by Salesforce D2C Commerce and Salesforce CRM. The platform unified campaign management, donor experiences, payment processing, and CRM integration within a single Salesforce ecosystem.

Configurable Giving Platform. Red Van built a dynamic giving architecture driven by the university's custom API. New funds, campaign content, and giving configurations are automatically reflected across giving experiences without requiring code changes or developer involvement.

Campaign Management Without Development. Fundraising teams can launch new giving experiences without developer involvement by using configurable campaign parameters that dynamically populate funds, suggested donation amounts, and messaging. This approach enables annual giving campaigns, athletics initiatives, scholarship drives, and targeted fundraising appeals to be launched quickly through email, digital advertising, and other marketing channels while supporting hundreds of concurrent fundraising campaigns.

Modern Donor Experience.  Stripe payment processing introduced support for Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit cards, ACH, and PayPal, making donations faster across desktop and mobile devices. NetID SSO provides authenticated, personalized giving experiences, while My Account enables donors to view giving history, manage recurring gifts, update saved payment methods, and maintain their accounts without contacting support.

Connected Salesforce Integration.  Bi-directional Salesforce APIs synchronize completed gifts with the university's CRM while continuously updating giving forms with current fund information. This establishes Salesforce as the single source of truth for giving data while eliminating manual synchronization between fundraising systems.

Services Provided

  • Discovery & Architecture
  • Salesforce D2C Commerce Implementation
  • Salesforce CRM Integration
  • Stripe Payment Integration
  • NetID SSO Integration
  • Dynamic Fund Configuration
  • Campaign Routing Architecture
  • Ongoing Managed Services & Platform Enhancements
Results

The university transformed its online giving experience by replacing static donation forms with a configurable Salesforce-native fundraising platform.

Key outcomes include:

  • Campaign launches without developer involvement
  • Modern payment experience across desktop and mobile
  • Self-service recurring gift management
  • Personalized donor experiences through NetID SSO
  • Real-time Salesforce CRM synchronization
  • Centralized management of campaigns and funds
  • Ongoing platform evolution through managed services

Today, the university operates a connected fundraising platform that unifies campaign management, donor experiences, payment processing, and CRM data within a single Salesforce ecosystem. What once required static donation forms, ongoing developer support, and disconnected systems now operates through a configurable platform that enables faster campaign launches, streamlines administration, and delivers a modern donor experience.