From the Nominator

Creating a schoolwide dynamic annual fund dashboard for a high-stakes appeal of the year completely revolutionized the whole experience for the school community. Each year, our goal is to reach the highest participation rate possible among current families, so keeping them updated during critical appeals is essential to our success. Previously, sharing data on participation rates by school, divisions, and grades required a laborious step-by-step process for data analysis in Excel, generating static bar charts. We shared these charts as screenshots on parent WhatsApp group chats through email reminders. Because this process took longer each time additional gifts came in, we could share the results only three to four times throughout the whole two-week appeal. Therefore, our advancement services team set a strategic goal of reimaging this reporting format and built their capacity to process and share this data through a dynamic dashboard. We were intentional in our decision to keep the design and format of the dashboard jargon-free and user-friendly so that parents are encouraged to respond to the call to action and make a gift without spending more time deciphering the dashboard itself. We know the dashboard had an impact, because during the appeal period, the page with the dashboard received the highest traffic among all pages on our website. More importantly, family participation in annual fund giving skyrocketed from 13% to 53% in these two weeks, resulting in raising half of the annual fund goal set for the whole year.

From the Judges

This is a powerful example of how smart, user-focused data visualization can directly drive donor engagement and results. We were impressed by the dramatic increase in participation, made possible through the thoughtful shift from static reporting to a real-time, accessible dashboard. The simplicity and clarity of the tool were key to its success, making it easy for families to engage and take action. This project shows how technological shifts can have transformative fundraising outcomes.