Impact programs
Impact programs can support eligible good causes, through software discount and credit programs that can help them save money on the software they need for their day-to-day operations.
These programs are designed to make it easier and more affordable for causes to access the tools and resources they need to make a positive impact in their communities.
In this use case, we'll explore some of the considerations you may want to look at in running or establishing an impact program, and how Goodstack can help.
Eligibility​
First decide what types of organization should be eligible for your impact program. Many enterprise product offers are targeted to nonprofits (i.e. US 501(c)(3) companies or their equivalent around the world). See Goodstack's definition of nonprofits in different countries around the world.
In addition to a nonprofit program, you may want to consider offers for other types of organization, such as Education institutions, Social Impact Organizations or other categories.
Get in touch to discuss your requirements if you have any questions about how Goodstack can support your program criteria
You may also wish to set criteria around the areas of activity of organizations applying to your program, for example excluding nonprofits with political or religious affiliation, or ensuring that nonprofits working in education apply to your Education program.
Goodstack tags causes with over 100 activity categories so you can have granular control over which causes should be eligible for your program and which should be excluded.
Lastly, you may wish to restrict applications to organizations from certain countries. Goodstack does not permit applications from globally sanctioned countries but other limitations are up to you to define.
Product offers​
There are several options to provide value to good causes through different types of product offer. Here are a few of the most common:
Free tier​
Allow free use of your product for verified nonprofits. This could be up to a maximum number of seats or only with a standard set of features available.
Discount​
Offer a percentage reduction or flat discount to your standard pricing. While this may have a lower signup rate than for a free tier, users may make more active use of the product and linking to revenue can make your impact program more sustainable.
Usage credit​
Add a one-off or recurring credit to an account. This can also incentivise product usage but may be more susceptible to attempted fraud (see below).
Application flow​
Once you have defined the criteria and benefits of your program, it's time to figure out how to manage applications from prospective users.
Program landing page​
The simplest flow is an application form launched from your program's landing page. Goodstack's Hosted Validation Form is a convenient solution for this type of user experience. After completing the form, you may want to redirect the user to a page with onboarding information or an account creation flow.
In-app flow​
If you require causes to have an account before applying for your offer, you may wish to build the application flow inside your app, potentially while users are in trial status. For this approach, you can build a completely embedded experience by using our Validation APIs, or use our Validation Invite API with attached metadata specifying user account details so you can easily automate upgrades after approval.
Emails to applicants​
As verifications are completed asynchronously (typically in under 3 days), email is a useful communications channel to notify applicants about the status of their application. Goodstack can send outcome emails on your behalf or you can trigger emails from your app on receipt of a webhook notification.
See options for configuring outcome emails here. Speak to your account team to set up your branded templates.
Offer redemption​
Once applications have been approved, you will need to redeem your product offer for your users.
At very low volumes, you may be happy to log in to your Partner Dashboard to check for any new approved applications and manually upgrade users.
Integration approaches​
For higher volume programs, we recommend integrating your systems with our Validation Submission webhooks and triggering an automatic upgrade. See our Solution Guide for details of how to build this.
If you can't easily expose an endpoint to handle webhook notifications, you may wish to use common web automation tools, such as Zapier, Workato or Make to route outcomes to other systems of record.
Discount codes​
An alternative option is to send unique codes to approved applicants, which they can redeem in your app to apply a discount or claim credits.
Read more about discount codes here.
Fighting fraud​
One important consideration in managing an impact program is combating fraudulent applications. Fraud can take many forms:
Fraudulent status​
Organisations may falsely claim to have nonprofit status or other attributes in order to try and qualify for your program. Our teams are expertly trained to review registration statuses worldwide and spot forged documents.
Fraudulent association​
An applicant may try to exploit your program by pretending to be associated with an eligible organization. Our Agent Verification check helps you ensure that applicants are genuinely associated with the organization they are applying with.
Squatting or hacking records​
Bad actors may try to take over websites or registry accounts in order to gain access to programs. Our team look out for risk factors to identify and block applications from suspicious accounts.
Get in touch with our team to talk through your requirements around fraud prevention