Emily's List: Custom Donation Engine
EMILY's List, the nation's largest political action committee, is dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic women to federal, state, and local office. EMILY's List is a network of more than 100,000 Americans — from all across the country — committed to recruiting and funding viable women candidates; helping them build and run effective campaign organizations; training the next generation of activists; and mobilizing women voters to help elect progressive candidates across the nation.
The Challenge
EMILY’s List came to Beaconfire in 2004 with the hopes of creating a robust Web application for trackable, reliable, and error-free transactions for donors during the 2006 election cycle and beyond. The organization was interested in a donation tool that could be easily managed by administrators and allow for the growth of new functionality with growth of the organization.
Previous solutions had been force-fit to meet EMILY’s unique requirements for its contributions. As a major fundraiser, it was vital that the experience present a smooth and trouble-free experience for the donor, as well as the administrator. Behind the scenes, the organization required a solid and reliable technology platform.
The Solution
Beaconfire developed a tailor-made donation tool to allow individuals to carry out a number of online contribution activities. The Web-based application sets the stage for increased donations and greater visibility as candidates prepare for the upcoming fall 2006 mid-term elections and 2008 elections. Visitors to www.emilyslist.org can donate to multiple candidates in a single transaction. They can also give a gift or memorial membership in someone else’s name or buy tickets to an event. Key technologies used in designing the custom donation engine include Mach-II, a ColdFusion Web application framework, a secure certificate to ensure security for the donors, and integration with Bank of America’s CyberSource, which verifies and process credit card donations in real time.
The upgrade to a more robust donation tool provides a better user experience, enhanced reliability, and tighter security for contributors. Another benefit is that the donation engine provides EMILY’s List staff with a better understanding of donors and a more comprehensive look at the organization’s marketing efforts. The new application tracks and reports on the return of investment from transactions that are generated by advertising buys including ad banners and keywords.
Beaconfire also worked with the hosting vendor for EMILY’s List to design, price and configure a more redundant and robust hosting environment for the new solution.