Giving Compass is an exciting non-profit dedicated to making philanthropy more accessible and actionable for the millions of people who want to dedicate their time, money, and energy towards giving with impact. Americans donate$400 billion every year, 72% of which is comprised of individuals (not foundations), and Giving Compass wants to be at the helm to help donors learn, connect and take action. It provides a platform that enables people to get involved through donations, engaging in volunteer opportunities, attending events, and connecting with other philanthropists.

Giving Compass was dedicated to putting technology at its forefront, which is counter to how many nonprofits currently function. With executive leadership coming from a technology background, the site was built on the foundation of using tech to make it easier to connect people with information on how to give well.

Starting from the ground up, Giving Compass was seeking a robust authentication solution for its website that enabled users to use social login to make the user experience as easy and non-intrusive as possible. It was the goal that this highly secure and reliable platform would be a catalyst for more people to effect positive and meaningful change. 

The Challenge

When building its online presence, Giving Compass wanted to create a solid foundation that would provide its users with secure login, as well as the option to leverage social or email credentials. From a company standpoint, it needed to integrate easily with their backend system and keep pace with the company’s rapid timeframe. “We didn’t want to spend time trying to code something which isn’t our core competence. We’re about enabling people to give with impact, not about coding and authentication,” added Luis Salazar, Co-Founder and CEO of Giving Compass.

Another requirement for the authentication system was for Giving Compass to have full assurance that user data is completely protected. Giving Compass is building a large community of philanthropists and attracts a wide audience of givers – from those initially exploring impactful giving, to the world’s most prominent philanthropists. Collaboration and connection are core to the company’s mission to grow its philanthropic community and being able to assure visitors and that interaction is 100% secure was fundamental.

The Solution

Giving Compass narrowed the final evaluation down to two identity providers, Auth0 and a competitor. The Senior Architect’s evaluation involved checking out APIs, playing with demo environments, and speaking with client references. After a thorough review, it was clear that Auth0 was the right choice.

Auth0 provided the company with a very simple installation process which took less than a week, enabling the internal team to focus its efforts on fulfilling its mission. Using Auth0’s platform, Giving Compass provided users with the ability to login with social credentials. Giving Compass selected Gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Microsoft as social providers. In addition, Auth0’s proprietary Passwordless functionality was enabled, giving users the option to remain completely password-free.

Key Benefits

Giving Compass started reaping the benefits of Auth0 almost immediately after signing the contract. Thanks to the rapid implementation and how easily Auth0 integrated into the backend system, the company has saved more than 100 hours of identity-related development and testing (an estimated $25,000 thus far).

On the user side, 97 out of every 100 people who now start the signup process at GivingCompass.org complete it. This reflects a 25% increase in conversion rates since implementing social login. One-click login via social media profiles has also resulted in an extremely non-intrusive experience for users who login from mobile devices, which comprises 50% of Giving Compass’s user traffic.

Another huge benefit for Giving Compass is the peace of mind it provides, eliminating the need to worry about authentication at all. “If we needed to code it ourselves, we’d be at the mercy of continuous maintenance, because as the social plugins change their APIs, we need to revise our code,” said Salazar.

Conclusion

Within one week, Giving Compass had full authentication and social login capabilities on its website and could start growing its community. Between the ease of integration, the benefits realized from outsourcing authentication, and the ROI it has already realized, Giving Compass is confident that Auth0 was the right fit.

Giving Compass considers itself unique, not only for its mission, but also because it has always put technology first. Nonprofits typically focus on the program first and the technology second, but by relying on the strongest foundation possible, Giving Compass is able to focus all its efforts on helping people give with impact.