Nearly doubling the share of new organizations that succeed

Getting Started path with two routes, new account or joining a team, leading to payments, first campaign, and first donations — New admins and invited teammates start in different places, so the path splits early and rejoins at payments.

My role

I designed and built the scaled onboarding program on the Academy: the learner paths, the video lessons, and the supporting in-app guidance.

The problem

New nonprofits had to set up payments, build a first campaign, and share their page before they could raise anything. One-to-one onboarding didn’t scale, and self-serve help was scattered, so many organizations stalled before their first donations.

What I did

Built a Getting Started path with two routes: setting up a new account, or joining a team’s existing one. Each step maps to an onboarding milestone — payments active, first campaign live, first donations.
Produced the core video lessons: account tour, payment setup, campaign creation, donate button, sharing, and reporting. Each is short and covers one task.
Connected the channels: a live “new user essentials” training, in-app prompts for new admins, and milestone emails at days 7, 14, and 30, all pointing to the same path.
Designed around platform limits. The learning platform had no single sign-on and couldn’t read product data, so I built self-serve checklists rather than automated progress tracking.

GoFundMe Pro home page for a new admin with a Ready to start fundraising? checklist: set up payments, add a billing method, create your first campaign, publish it, and promote it. Below it are cards for Take a tour, Invite your team, and Explore the Academy. — The new-admin home page walks through the same setup milestones, starting with payments.

Onboarding email headed It's time to create your first campaign, with an estimated time of 20 minutes and an Add billing method button, a section offering prebuilt campaign templates, and a seven-step list of setup links. — A milestone email: one task up front, with the full setup sequence below it.

Results

75% of new organizations reached our success milestone, up from about 40% — nearly double.
The core setup videos are among the Academy’s most-watched, with each held on average for about 55–60% of its runtime.

The milestone reflects the whole onboarding experience, not education alone. The program was one driver among several.

Bar chart: about 40% of new orgs reached the success milestone before the program, 75% after — Nearly double the share of new organizations now reach the milestone, with education as one driver among several.

*Success milestone: 50 transactions within an organization’s first 90 days.

Timeline of onboarding touchpoints from day 0 to the day 90 success milestone — Each touchpoint is timed to the next setup task, so help arrives when an admin needs it.

Payment setup video showing what to gather first: organization details, representative information, and bank account details — The video opens with what to gather, so admins don't stall partway through setup.

What I learned

Onboarding content works best when every piece is tied to a milestone the business already tracks. That made it possible to decide what to build first and to see whether it worked.