“Our new digital platform has been a pleasure to work with. It helps us share what we do and shows every donor the impact of their donation. It allows donors to give exactly where they hope to make a difference, from supporting a specific research project to helping breast cancer patients thrive. Thanks to LG2’s help, we now have a robust digital platform that works within the enormous scope of the MUHC Foundation.”
Tarah Schwartz
Vice President, Communications and Marketing, McGill University Health Centre Foundation
The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) is one of the top research and teaching hospitals in Canada. Every year, the MUHC Foundation raises millions of dollars to support excellence in patient care and cutting-edge research at the hospital.
In 2020, the MUHC Foundation launched its Dream Big campaign, raising $200 million for innovative research and patient care at the hospital. This ambitious goal needed an innovative digital platform, one where the large number of projects and programs supported by donors was front and centre, and the impact of those donations was easier to find.
LG2 worked with the MUHC Foundation to come up with an innovative solution to facilitate donations: a Kickstarter-like platform where donors could select which project they wanted to fund versus contributing to one, larger goal. This new platform made the impact of the donations real, improving the entire conversion funnel and generating impressive results.
Transparency is key
Not only does the new platform make giving more tangible to donors, but it’s clearer where their donations are going. Instead of focusing on one big campaign objective, we broke it down into smaller, more attainable goals. Donors can now contribute to individual research projects, encouraged by adapted calls to action like Help Prevent Stroke. They can also follow the team of researchers working on solutions to the chosen cause and see a roadmap containing timelines, objectives and progress. This transparent approach encourages greater commitment and sets the MUHC Foundation apart from its peers.
It’s all connected
Maintaining momentum was key to this project’s success. We needed donors to be able to track the progress of fundraising goals in real time. This was made possible by the use of various external APIs.
The improved back-end architecture also facilitates the MUHC Foundation’s ability to keep donors and future donors informed of their backed projects. It’s complemented by a user interface built for flexibility and efficiency, making sure the site maintains its visual harmony as content changes.
Inspiring and thanking donors
To highlight the incredible work the foundation is doing thanks to its community of donors, it was important to have a dedicated space to share these inspiring stories. The new Stories page allows the MUHC Foundation to bring its communities, health care workers and patients to the forefront, helping to showcase its human approach.
Since the donors are also an integral part of the work, a special page displaying their names was created to thank them, highlighting their generosity.
A solid platform produces concrete results
In order to help the MUHC Foundation reach its ambitious $200 million objective, LG2 had to help improve every step of the donor’s journey. The results are in: The new platform helped donations grow by almost 65%.
Compared to the previous year, the MUHC Foundation saw a remarkable 61% increase in engagement as well as an incredible increase in online donations, including:
25% decrease in bounce rate on the website
22% increase in site traffic
30 seconds more time spent on the website on average
Pageviews per session increased from 1.8 to 3
29% increase in the value of donations
Average number of yearly donations per donor went from 1 to 1.25
With results like these, it’s safe to say that this new fundraising approach has paid off, both for the MUHC Foundation and its donors, marking an evolution in how digital platforms can accelerate philanthropy.
Client
The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Foundation raises millions of dollars for the McGill University Health Centre, one of the top research and teaching hospitals in Canada. Our Dream Big Campaign to change the course of lives and medicine is raising $200 million to bring world-class health care to our community. Quality health care is funded by the government, but the MUHC Foundation makes the difference between quality and excellence. Our investment in health care enables life-changing and lifesaving health programs and purchases state-of-the-art equipment. Our investment in research leads the way for medical innovations that will benefit people worldwide. Together with our community, we are solving the world’s most complex health care challenges.
