Who is SOS-Kinderdorf?
SOS-Kinderdorf Switzerland, based in Bern, is an independent, non-governmental organization. As a nonprofit international development organization, they provide humanitarian and development assistance in 136 countries and take every precaution to protect families and children from war, suffering, and poverty.
The challenge
SOS-Kinderdorf Switzerland was looking for a new platform to create transparency in the donation universe by putting together aid packages that are tangible and concrete. SOS-Kinderdorf’s vision was that each donor could determine the exact purpose of his or her donation. As a unique feature, users would have the possibility to give away personalized aid kits as gifts. The new donation shop is supposed to play a central role in the future communication mix.

What we did
The shop’s highlight is the gift option, which allows the donor to mark each product in the basket as a gift optionally. The donor then receives a personalized gift certificate as a PDF that they can pass along to the gift recipient.
For the backend, we implemented the shop based on Django framework, which is a powerful web application framework based on Python. Additionally, we integrated the Payment Gateway Provider SIX SaferPay to accept all significant means of payments in Switzerland, including Mastercard, Visa, Postfinance and TWINT.
We used vuejs widgets for the frontend for crucial parts such as the basket and the product listing where the user can interact smoothly with the application without triggering a page reload. This modern approach contributes significantly to a high-quality user experience.
The development was done by what. in close collaboration with digitally, responsible for the user experience and design. They developed the UX and Design in an agile and lean way and continuously tested marketability, and optimized the UX in several iterations.

Results
5 months to get the shop live from kick-off to the end product
Within 3 months from launch, the shop already contributed 15% of donations to the overall SOS-Kinderdorf online donations.
Shop recognition and new implementation requests - our solution was desired from other SOS Children’s Villages and we’re looking forward to a wider adoption