Berry Street Gifts

To tackle the limitations that held Berry Street back from achieving its goals, Yump knew it would need to invest in research before drafting a solution.

Yump ran an extensive discovery phase of many parts, outlined below:

• A best practice review alongside competitor sites and comparable organisations in the charity gifting sector.
• A Google Analytics audit to understand user behaviour on-site, including traffic sources and exit points.
• A functionality audit to understand how features worked (and therefore how Yump could assess the impact of change).
• Stakeholder workshops with Berry Street staff to validate user needs, business requirements, and technical requirements.
• 6 x interviews with fundraisers, a marketing agency and one staff member to define user needs.

The outcomes of this phase led to significant key findings that both pinpointed critical weaknesses of the existing site as well as great opportunities – and this informed what changes Yump would make.

Yump proceeded to develop user personas, journey maps, and an intuitive information architecture that established:

• Main sections of the new website
• How content would be structured (e.g. menus, body, footer)
• Hidden pages, and
• Gift filters and sorting.

Together, these activities shaped a comprehensive roadmap that Yump could action. It also considered that the website refresh also needed to complement the organisation’s overall digital transformation strategy – meaning its look, feel, and function had to match (and connect with) the overarching Berry Street brand and main website.

Work that followed on after the discovery phase included wireframing, design, development, testing, and deployment. The site was optimised for AA-compliant web accessibility and conversion, and the result was an engaging, seamless gift-purchasing experience.

More than just an opportunity to improve what was there, this project was about creating a giving experience that was memorable and unique.

Berry Street’s goal was to maximise the dollar value of donations, as well as increase the number of purchases made (i.e. multiple gifts, rather than a single gift). As such, Yump looked to capitalise on the ‘campaign’ aspect of giving (as opposed to one-off donations) by tapping into how supporters could set up a fundraiser.

While donating to charities might be common, buying virtual gifts and setting up online fundraisers are less prevalent. The challenge is to bring more individuals on board.

Through the research phase, Yump discovered that supporters needed guidance and empowerment (i.e. the ability to manage and control how they wanted to give) for the fundraising experience to become a raging success.

For the Berry Street Gifts website, Yump set out to achieve this by:

• Prioritising quality content that explained how a fundraiser worked (like a wedding registry!)
• Adding useful tips on how to set a realistic fundraising goal, how to invite people, and how to choose gifts
• Incorporating prompts with clever UX-driven microcopy every step of the way
• Providing customisable templates to communicate what their fundraiser is all about (and why Berry Street desperately needs their help)
• Adding personalised cards and the ability to round up a donation at the checkout, and
• Notifying the individual via email whenever someone buys a gift and leaves a comment on their page to draw them back into the joy involved with giving.

By engaging users who might prefer a fundraiser over a one-off donation, Yump has amplified the potential revenue and impact that Berry Street can have on Victorian families affected by poverty, violence and abuse.

The approach to refreshing the Berry Street Gifts website is innovative because it gives both one-off gifting and individual fundraising campaigns equal prominence and investment in the user experience.

Prior to Yump working on this project, the website didn’t clearly articulate that there were two distinct ways to give. By showing users upfront that there are two options allows them to choose their own path (aligned with the theme of empowering individuals to give in a way that best suits them).

Furthermore, engaging users every step of the way ensures they become advocates of the Berry Street brand. Tactics like highlighting most-needed gifts, applying emotive language, illustrating how fundraising works throughout the journey, and providing examples of successful campaigns have all contributed to making the gifting experience the best it could possibly be.

What makes Yump’s work unique is the crossover between gift-giving and fundraising. Yes, there are two distinct ways that individuals can give, but both comprise the option to offer a financial donation (dollar value) or a gift (a baby blanket) – users are not limited to one of the other.

In line with digital best practice and in-depth research, the new Berry Street Gifts website:

• is responsive across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices
• meets Level AA of the WCAG 2.1 Accessibility Guidelines
• tracked via Google Analytics, and
• backed up daily so that the site can be recovered quickly in the event of a major issue.

The depth of insight involved with this project has blessed Berry Street with a platform that will continue to serve its community for many years to come. The way in which the website has been built is robust yet flexible enough to grow and adapt with Berry Street as the organisation and its people evolve.

Featuring a myriad of meaningful UX design strategies, the new and improved website now enables Berry Street to help those in need more than ever before.

Since its launch in January 2023, the new website has led to a 45% increase in funds raised, as well as a doubling of the number of gifts purchased per user. (These results are benchmarked against the same 12-month period prior to going live.)

Traffic has also experienced an uptick with 400K unique visitors, and the site has attracted a total of 28 individuals to set up fundraising pages (that’s approximately 1.5 campaigns established per month).

As an exclusively Victorian organisation, 100% of Berry Street’s impact goes towards Victorian children, young people, and their families.

Funds collected support a range of programs that touch the lives of 35,000 Victorians each year. These include:

• family violence support services
• trauma services, including its Victoria-wide therapeutic service Take Two
• education services, including the Berry Street Education Model and Berry Street School
• out-of-home care including foster care, residential care and kinship care, and
• parenting and family services.

Yump’s goal with this project was to apply its skills, knowledge, and expertise to help Berry Street better support Victorians experiencing (or recovering from) violence and trauma. After all, children, young people, and their families deserve to stay safe from harm.

Berry Street has been reimagining futures for more than 140 years – and is passionate about continuing its great work.

The new Berry Street Gifts website was a winner in the not-for-profit category at the 2023 Australian Web Awards.

One notable aspect of this project that goes beyond the digital experience is its indirect positive impact on the environment. By encouraging virtual gift-giving instead of traditional items typically bought in a store, Berry Street is drastically reducing unnecessary waste associated with packaging that is often discarded in landfill after being unwrapped.

For example, if it’s someone’s birthday, that individual can set up a fundraiser, share the page with their family and friends, and request that gifts are given to Victorian families instead of directly to them.

If we assume that the waste from someone’s birthday party could fill a typical Victorian council rubbish bin (think of wrapping paper, ribbon, sticky tape, boxes with plastic windows, plastic-lined cartons, Styrofoam and other fillers) the Berry Street Gifts website has, to date, saved 2,240 litres of trash going to landfill.

Giving a gift for oneself, another person, or the setting up of a fundraiser are all altruistic gestures that celebrate meaning and purpose – and are easy to do, thanks to Yump.