Fundraising and Engagement Platform

The vendor required to provide fundraising and engagement platform to cloud-hosted software as a service (SaaS) solution to support agency advancement’s annual giving day initiative, which is a cornerstone of the university’s philanthropic strategy.
- Mandatory technical requirements
•    Provide a cloud-hosted software as a service (SaaS) platform designed for high-volume donor engagement.
•    Ensure compliance with the most current version of payment card industry (PCI) data security standard (DSS) standards for secure payment processing.
•    Integrate seamlessly with agency -approved payment processors, including Braintree; if Braintree is not supported, list compatible alternatives.
•    Enable real-time data exchange with black-baud CRM for donor records, fund mapping, and gift processing.
•    Offer robust application programming interface (API) connectivity for batch uploads, offline gift entry, and real-time reporting with flexible data filtering. for example, the ability to exclude certain data points in reports.
•    Support mobile wallet payments including apple pay, Venmo, PayPal, google pay, and cryptocurrency.
•    Accommodate at least 700 giving funds and support hierarchical mapping (e.g., college > department > program).
•    Include a sandbox environment for testing configurations, integrations, and giving day simulations.
- Security requirements
•    Implement secure user authentication and role-based access controls.
•    Maintain detailed audit logs for administrative actions, donor activity, and ambassador engagement.
•    Allow administrators to manage user access, including deactivation and reactivation of accounts.
•    Provide single sign-on (SSO) integration and adhere to agency data privacy and act compliance standards.
•    Provide offsite backup storage and documented disaster recovery protocols. 
•    Offer options for data purging, archiving, and export upon request.
- Platform administration
•    Allow staff to configure and customize platform features without vendor assistance.
•    Support custom branding elements including CSS, color schemes, and embedded video content.
•    Provide administrative dashboards for monitoring platform performance, donor activity, and ambassador metrics.
•    Deliver automated software updates with release notes and notifications to administrative users.
•    Preserve configuration settings and customizations across platform upgrades.
•    Ability to customize receipt language with variable fields. 
- Donor and ambassador engagement
•    Generate custom tracking links for ambassadors with dashboards displaying donor names, gift amounts, and aggregate totals.
•    Facilitate in-platform email communication and personalized thank-you messaging.
•    Support ambassador team and group structures with shared access and segmentation capabilities and the ability to add custom questions to the ambassador sign up to use to group ambassadors
•    Enable ambassadors to create and manage their own matches, challenges, and outreach efforts.
•    Offer early access giving via unique URLs for VIPs or targeted donor segments.
- Event setup and gamification
•    Support unlimited giving day events with automated start and stop scheduling.
•    Display active and concluded events dynamically, with automated sorting and visibility controls.
•    Customize event displays by college, department, or unit.
•    Enable time-based and donor-based challenges with flexible activation and deactivation options.
•    Provide ranked rewards, beat-your-best metrics, and demographic-based leaderboards.
•    Include visual gamification tools such as thermometers, donor heatmaps, countdown clocks, and progress indicators.
- Administrative functions
•    Allow staff to create, edit, and manage donation forms, landing pages, and event configurations.
•    Support custom thank-you pages, social media aggregators, and share buttons.
•    Enable recurring gift options and donor dedication fields.
•    Monitor abandoned carts and trigger automated donor notifications or follow-ups.
- Crowdfunding
•    Provide tools for managing crowdfunding campaigns, including customizable forms and ambassador integration.
•    Provide at least 5 separate crowdfunding groups. 
•    Ability to receive recurring gifts through crowdfunding. 
•    Provide reporting and appeal tracking for crowdfunding projects. 
•    Support branding and customization with graphics and videos. 
•    Allow communication to donors inside of the platform to provide updates and results.
- Data management and reporting
•    Integrate with google analytics 4 (ga4) and support exportable reports in formats such as csv and xlsx.
•    Provide on-demand reporting for colleges, units, and custom data fields.
•    Include dashboards that incorporate both online and offline donor data, as well as ambassador performance.
•    Support ad hoc reporting and customizable dashboard views.
•    Offer integration with tableau.
•    Allow manual editing of donation records and ambassador data by authorized users.
- Marketing and communication tools
•    Support automated email and SMS campaigns for donor engagement and event promotion.
•    Integrate with thank-view for personalized video outreach and stewardship.
•    Enable customization of social media metadata and tracking of share activity.
•    Incorporate ai-driven tools for donor segmentation, engagement timing, and content optimization.
•    Connect with social media publishing platforms such as tagboard for real-time content aggregation.
- Payment processing
•    Provide a full-page donation form with real-time data validation and user-friendly error messaging.
•    Detect and respond to abandoned carts with pop-up prompts and follow-up notifications.
•    Ensure full compliance with the most current version of PCI DSS standards across all aspects of payment processing, including secure data transmission, processor integrations, donor privacy, and receipt generation. offerors must provide documentation of PCI compliance and describe their approach to maintaining certification.
•    Allow donors to allocate a single transaction across multiple funds or designations.
•    Enable staff to manually enter, edit, and reconcile payment data as needed. 
•    Utilize Braintree payment processing is preferred.
- Vendor capacity and reliability
•    Demonstrate the ability to support high-volume donor activity during peak giving day periods, including concurrent events and real-time data processing.
•    Maintain scalable infrastructure that adjusts dynamically to traffic surges while preserving performance.
•    Provide historical uptime metrics and documented incident response protocols for live event support.
•    Support unlimited giving day scheduling and concurrent campaigns across multiple colleges and units.
•    Process large volumes of transactions per hour and per day; include examples of past giving day performance.
•    Describe whether platform resources are dedicated per client or pooled across users, and explain how this model ensures reliability and responsiveness.
- Optional add-on capabilities
•    Advanced email platform with robust marketing automation and journey mapping capabilities to support personalized donor engagement, segmentation, and lifecycle communication.
•    Sophisticated event registration platform that supports multi-level and à la carte event options, with integrated donation capabilities and prompts for additional giving during registration, designed for seamless user experience and CRM integration.
•    Volunteer management software that monitors engagement, empowers volunteers to initiate outreach, and supports coordinated campaign efforts.
•    Two-way texting platform that enables personalized, segmented outreach with robust analytics, automation, and integration capabilities to support donor engagement and campaign responsiveness. 
•    Gift officer platform that streamlines donor portfolio management, tracks engagement activity, and supports personalized outreach and stewardship strategies.

- Contract Period/Term: 1 year
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: November 18, 2025