Enhancing Social Participation Through IT Integration

Our client aimed to increase public participation in charitable donations by covering transaction costs and contributing additional funds through its corporate trust.​

Our Customer is an international brand with operations in sectors including airlines, fashion, retail, music, transportation, and financial services. As a leading sponsor of the London Olympics, the organisation wanted to encourage more public donations towards the event. A key objective was to minimise transaction costs, while contributing an additional 5% of donations from their corporate trust funds.

The Customer launched the initiative with a strong focus on compliance and charity participation while the digital platform still needed to be developed. Limited business requirements and an incomplete understanding of the user journey created additional challenges.

Arrk conducted a series of EmbArrk™ workshops with the Customer and participating charities to define the project goals and requirements. Selecting the appropriate technology stack and infrastructure configurations was crucial, particularly given the expected transaction volumes and the requirement for a complete audit trail for every transaction.

Following agreement of the solution roadmap, Arrk delivered the project using its Agile@Arrk™ methodology and its offshore team , working collaboratively with the customer, consultants and external analysts. Key user journeys for charities, fundraisers, and donors were designed, alongside the supporting back-office processes. Key requirements included:

• Implementing a secure online payment system with robust credit card transaction validation.
• Seamless integration with third-party financial and accounting systems.
• A user-friendly system for managing donor and fundraiser information.
• A streamlined registration process for charities.
• Adopting a continuous integration process to support collaboration between distributed teams.
• Using open-source technologies to minimise costs while maintaining security and scalability.

The platform was successfully launched ahead of the London Marathon, increasing awareness and participation. The timely launch enabled charities to raise funds from the public at minimal cost, while also benefiting from additional contributions from the Customer.

By trusting Arrk, the customer delivered a charity-focused fundraising solution that maximised the proportion of funds reaching charities rather than transaction and administration providers. The platform helped support charitable fundraising during the London Marathon while providing a simple and accessible experience for donors and participating organisations.