Context: Identifying the Wealth in Non-Cash Assets
The wealth of most modern donors is held not in cash, but in non-cash assets. At Overflow, we recognized a significant opportunity for nonprofits who typically only accept cash donations. We embarked on a mission to create the industry's first platform for stock donations, a venture aimed at transforming the way donors give.
Struggle: Tackling the Challenges of Stock Donations
The task was complex, primarily due to the lack of direct integrations with any brokerage and the varied processes each one employed. Moreover, we had to develop an MVP within two months, to be launched and tested at our nonprofit's fundraising gala. Our target users were attendees aged from their late 20s to late 40s. The main challenge was overcoming the messy, tedious, and daunting nature of current solutions.
The Team: Role and Responsibilities
On a nimble team of two, I served as the lead designer guiding research, validation, and the design and prototype development process. Kevin was our lead developer who helped execute designs into production.
Transformation/Results: The Success Story of Our Stock Donation Platform
We set out to simplify and guide the donation process every step of the way. We leveraged the Material design framework to develop a responsive web app, introducing a guided form to ease the user journey. Our design elements, such as user "qualification" and celebration confetti at the end, resonated well with users.
After a period of intense design and development, we successfully launched at the gala, and our innovative approach was well-received. This breakthrough served as a powerful case study, instrumental in securing our seed funding round. Since then, the core designs have processed over 700 stock transactions amounting to over $6M, with more than $2M in total funds raised, over half of which came from stock donations.
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