Recently the “Schmitt’s Family News” (SFN) caught up with a very busy Mike to find out about an important computer project he has been working on for a number of months.

SFN: Your project involves a special web site, the Giving site, which thousands of donors use to donate to Campus Crusade for Christ’s staff and ministries.

Mike: That’s right! When we began this project, the Giving site (give.ccci.org) allowed our donors to give a one-time or monthly gift using a credit card.

Our project expanded the capabilities of give.ccci.org and was a significant revision. We added the ability for our donors to initiate a direct electronic transfer from their checking or savings account. This will help save our ministry thousands of dollars in credit card fees. We also added the ability for donors to update their address and phone information.

SFN: What other new functions did your team add to the site?

Mike: This new version allows our donors to make changes to recurring gifts already set up. Previously, donors that already had a monthly credit card or bank transfer gift had to notify our Donation Services department of any changes they wanted made to their giving (You can still phone in changes at 1-888-CRUSADE). As automatic transfers are becoming a more popular way of giving, the Giving site will reduce our costs by allowing donors to make these changes themselves.

SFN: What are some of the special features the site provides?

Mike: After a Campus Crusade donor logs into the site, they will see a page, with the name and address information we have for them. They will also see their giving history, their recurring gifts, and the credit card and bank accounts that they have used in giving.

SFN: As a Business Analyst, what did you contribute to this project?

Mike: I worked with the design team to enhance the web site. First, we gathered information about what our typical donor wants to do on the site. We then designed the processes to make the different steps flow as simply and smoothly as possible.

After the design was settled, the software engineers (programmers) worked on building the software. Once it was working correctly, I coordinated a series of quality assurance tests with a group of non-technical “testers” to make sure the web site met all our requirements and would work well for our donors. We are very pleased that we were able to assist our donors and Campus Crusade through this enhanced site.

An Important Ministry Tool:

Since the Giving site went active almost 2 1/2 years ago, over 45,000 different donors have given 113,518 gifts totaling $25.5 million!