Client engagement · DONOR RESEARCH · DIGITAL FUNDRAISING · EXPERIENCE STRATEGY
SickKids Foundation
Connect the emotion of a powerful campaign with a donation journey people can understand and complete.
AT A GLANCE
I led user experience strategy and research within Cossette’s wider SickKids work, from stakeholder discovery and ethnographic research through prototype usability testing. The digital journey was one part of a broader integrated fundraising campaign, so the page separates experience-specific reporting from campaign-level results.
The challenge
Motivation can fade when the path to giving gets hard.
People can arrive ready to help and still hesitate when the donation experience adds uncertainty, unclear hierarchy or unnecessary effort. The task was to understand the donor journey before redesigning the form and make the digital experience support the story around it.
My role
Research and strategy inside a larger team.
As Customer Experience (CX) and User Experience (UX) strategy and research lead within Cossette, I turned donor behaviour and usability evidence into experience decisions. I worked with fundraising, brand, digital, content, technology and business stakeholders; the wider program included campaign strategy, creative and delivery partners.
How we worked
Start upstream, then validate the path.
Stakeholder interviews and requirements workshops clarified campaign context, operational constraints and success measures. Ethnographic research helped the team understand donor motivation and hesitation. I mapped the current and future donor journeys, used heuristic evaluation to prioritize friction, shaped prototype direction and tested the experience with users before launch.
What changed
A research-to-validation bridge.
The work connected donor context to the digital experience and produced a prioritized 30/60/90-day roadmap. The team could see which changes mattered first and why, instead of treating the journey as a set of unrelated screens.
Reported results
Keep the experience contribution separate from the broader result.
The SickKids case-study video reports 700%+ growth in donation revenue in under six months across the broader integrated transformation. The available project record does not preserve the baseline or calculation, so the figure is not attributable to the donation experience alone. Separately, the 2015 Life Unpaused campaign case reports 20% online donation growth, a 50% increase in average online gift, $12 million more in donations year over year and a 32% increase to $49 million during November and December. Those are integrated campaign results, not outcomes attributable to the donation experience alone.
What this demonstrates
Good conversion work respects both people and attribution.
This case connects donor research, fundraising UX, usability testing and measurable outcomes while being candid about what the record can and cannot attribute to one part of the work.
THE CAMPAIGN FILM
See the story behind the work.
SickKids Foundation · Life Unpaused
CAMPAIGN VISUAL
