Surf Life Saving Foundation’s Digital Transformation: A 200% Improvement in Online Fundraising

Transforming Digital Fundraising: A boost in website performance for SLSF

Executive summary

The Surf Life Saving Foundation (SLSF) faced significant challenges in revamping their outdated, underperforming ecommerce and fundraising websites. Partnering with April9, SLSF developed two robust, user-friendly websites: slsfoundation.com.au and surflottery.com.au, utilising our Stack9 platform for enhanced stability, compliance, and performance.

Key outcomes of the redevelopment include:

• 200% improvement in website loading speeds
• Substantial increase in monthly subscribers and single donation amounts
• Expedited lottery game setups for marketing purposes

These improvements have elevated SLSF’s digital presence and fortified their capacity to support Australia’s volunteer surf lifesavers through effective fundraising and community engagement.

Supporting Australia’s Lifesavers: The Mission of SLSF

Client Background

The Surf Life Saving Foundation (SLSF) is the national fundraising arm for Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA), dedicated to generating essential funds to support the Surf Life Saving movement. SLSF oversees both philanthropic initiatives and commercial activities, including prize home lotteries, to raise the necessary capital. These funds are distributed across states and territories, aiding Surf Life Saving branches and clubs nationwide.

Australia's extensive coastline, stretching over 50,000km with more than 11,500 beaches, attracts around 300 million visitors annually. The country's volunteer surf lifesavers, numbering over 50,000 from 314 different surf clubs, are essential in maintaining beach safety. Thanks to generous donations and fundraising efforts, these volunteers ensure that Australia's beaches remain among the safest in the world.

The funds raised by SLSF are critical for various purposes: maintaining and upgrading lifesaving rescue gear and equipment, enhancing training and development programs for volunteers, expanding community surf safety campaigns, and supporting aquatic safety research and development.

Digital channels are vital for SLSF's fundraising efforts, with donations and lottery activities contributing nearly 50% of the annual revenue for Surf Life Saving Australia. These channels play a crucial role in enabling the organisation to continue its life-saving work.

Overcoming Digital Hurdles: From Outdated Tech to Compliance Issues

Challenges

The Surf Life Saving Foundation (SLSF) faced a series of substantial challenges in their effort to revamp their ecommerce lottery and fundraising websites. The existing website, constructed some time ago with minimal maintenance, was supported using outdated technologies. This outdated setup struggled to cope with increasing website usage, overwhelming incumbent marketing agencies that could not keep up with SLSF's compliance and scalability requirements.

The WordPress platform in use was riddled with several conflicting plugins, resulting in instability, poor performance, and a high risk of crashes during peak traffic periods. Additionally, the website required constant updates to comply with ever-increasing legislative requirements. However, this setup made implementing these updates slow and cumbersome, putting the organisation at risk of non-compliance.

User experience was another critical issue, with the existing website offering a poor user experience and low conversion rates for donations and lottery ticket sales. The payment gateway, nearing its end of life, also required an upgrade to ensure secure and efficient transactions. Moreover, the rapid pace of technological advancement presented an opportunity to expand the consumer base by leveraging digital properties to target new consumers.

Charity supporters increasingly want to understand how their contributions make a difference, and older demographics are improving their digital literacy. This shift highlights the importance of digital properties in enhancing consumer convenience and involvement. Implementing customer journey mapping and considering a cloud-based CRM system would provide better insights into customer behaviour and preferences.

Additionally, it was recommended that SLSF reach a larger audience by educating consumers about the critical role SLS plays, funded through community donations, fundraising, corporate sponsorship, and government grants. These combined challenges and opportunities underscored the urgent need for a comprehensive website redevelopment to enhance stability, compliance, user experience, and overall functionality, while also expanding the foundation's reach and engagement.

The implementation of the Surf Life Saving Foundation's (SLSF) website revamp was a meticulously planned and executed project that spanned six months, completed on time and within budget. The process began with thorough planning sessions involving SLSF stakeholders to gather requirements and align on the project vision. Given the distinct personas of donators and lottery gamers, it was decided that two separate websites would be developed to cater to these different audiences effectively.

In the second month, April9 worked collaboratively with SLSF to brainstorm and design engaging and persuasive websites. This phase focused on understanding the audience, presenting a clear value proposition, and crafting a user-friendly, responsive design. SLSF was engaged throughout this process, ensuring transparency and collaboration. We produced wireframes, design mockups, and user experience (UX) designs to create a blueprint for the development phase.

Development commenced in the third month and continued through the fourth month. This phase involved creating high-quality, regularly updated content and strategically placed calls to action (CTAs). A custom ecommerce solution was developed to manage gaming legislation requirements, such as start and closing game dates, maximum ticket numbers, and self-gambling bans. Both websites were powered by a single back-office solution using our Stack9 platform, ensuring high levels of security and compliance.

The fifth month was dedicated to testing and optimization. Several rounds of stress and performance testing were conducted to ensure the solution could handle peak traffic during new lottery game releases and subscription runs. Any initial hurdles related to performance and stability were identified and addressed during this phase, ensuring the websites could cope with high traffic volumes without compromising user experience. Additionally, advanced analytics were implemented to monitor all user touch points, providing insights for continuous improvement. This enabled SLSF to better understand user behaviour and preferences, allowing for ongoing optimization of the websites.

In the final month, the new websites, https://slsfoundation.com.au/  and https://surflottery.com.au/, were successfully launched. Comprehensive training was provided to SLSF staff on using the back-office solution, managing customer records, subscriptions, and sales transactions. Post-launch monitoring ensured any issues were promptly addressed, ensuring a smooth transition.

Impressive Outcomes: Enhanced Performance, Engagement, and Compliance

Results

The comprehensive revamp of the Surf Life Saving Foundation's (SLSF) websites yielded remarkable results, significantly enhancing their digital presence and operational efficiency. Throughout the project, SLSF was kept constantly engaged with regular updates and transparent communication, fostering a collaborative environment that ensured all requirements were met and expectations exceeded. The result was a robust, scalable, and user-friendly digital solution that effectively addressed the initial challenges and positioned SLSF for future growth and success.

One of the most notable outcomes was a substantial increase in monthly subscribers, reflecting the improved user experience and engagement on the new websites. Additionally, the redesigned websites now load 200% faster, which not only enhances user experience but also boosts SEO rankings, making it easier for potential supporters to find and engage with SLSF online.

Single donation amounts saw a significant rise, indicating the effectiveness of the new, strategically placed calls to action and the clear value proposition presented throughout the websites. Furthermore, the time required to set up a lottery game on the website was drastically reduced, allowing for quicker and more efficient sales processes.

Compliance requirements, previously a major challenge, can now be swiftly applied, ensuring that the websites are always up to date with the latest legislative demands. This newfound agility mitigates the risk of non-compliance and enhances the overall reliability of SLSF's digital platforms.

In summary, the project not only met but exceeded its objectives, resulting in a vastly improved digital presence for SLSF that supports their fundraising efforts, enhances user engagement, and ensures ongoing compliance and operational efficiency.

Continued Collaboration: Advancing Digital Excellence Together

Future Outlook