Wartburg College

development

Summary

For the past three years, Far Reach has helped Wartburg College with its crowdfunding website for UKnight Day, its annual 24-hour day of giving.

Challenge

Fundraising is hard—really hard. You’re competing for people’s attention and hard-earned dollars. Wartburg’s development staff knew it needed a unique approach that connected friends of Wartburg to the college and each other.

Solution

Far Reach designed and developed a platform for UKnight Day that brought people together to share memories, celebrate being a Knight, and support the college. Each year, we continue to enhance the website with new, engaging functionality. We also provide 24-hour technical support on UKnight Day to ensure things go smoothly.

In 2015, Wartburg set the bar high with a goal of 500 donors for its first UKnight Day. That meant every feature needed to make an emotional connection with potential donors.

The website included:

Real-time chart with donor goal vs. actual donations to keep people coming back to check progress throughout the day
Interactive map showing donations as locations to build a sense of community
Countdown clock to create urgency
Real-time donor message board for people to share why they gave
Moderated social media feed to encourage people to spread the word
Online donation form with as few steps as possible to make giving easy

In 2016, Wartburg set the bar even higher with a goal of 852 donors. (The college was founded in 1852.) We needed to show the site wasn’t just a one-hit wonder.

Additions to the website included:

Digital badge (1 of 852) customized with each donor’s number to share on social media
Social media feed that was more user-friendly and handled infinite scrolling better

In 2017, Wartburg set the biggest goal yet—1,000 donors. We added two new sections to make the site even more personal:

“Buckets” based on the donor’s affiliation (alumni, parent, student, faculty/staff, or friend) to encourage a friendly rivalry
Bar chart showing the number of donations by class, making it a competition to see what year is named best in class

"We were very pleased with Far Reach’s work on our UKnight Day website. They were timely with their responses, listened to our feedback, and provided great support during our 24-hour crowdfunding appeal. Plus, they were fun to work with—always a bonus!"

Laurie Everhardt | Wartburg College

Responsive Design

Website Design