{"id":1268,"date":"2026-09-09T08:13:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T06:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/?post_type=wcb_session&#038;p=1268"},"modified":"2026-09-09T08:13:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T06:13:59","slug":"the-roi-of-play-badges-coins-swag-and-data-what-happened-when-we-gamified-nonprofit-fundraising","status":"publish","type":"wcb_session","link":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/session\/the-roi-of-play-badges-coins-swag-and-data-what-happened-when-we-gamified-nonprofit-fundraising\/","title":{"rendered":"The ROI of Play \u2014\u00a0Badges, coins, swag, and data: what happened when we gamified nonprofit fundraising."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most donation pages still work like a checkout: a form, an amount, a thank-you. It converts once, and then the process restarts.&nbsp;We tried something different. Fundraisers running their own campaign pages earn badges as they raise, collect coins in a virtual wallet, and spend them on real swag. The game never replaces the&nbsp;reason \u2014&nbsp;they&#8217;re still raising for a cause they believe in, and they know they&#8217;re genuinely helping. The mechanics just make the asking feel less lonely and a lot more rewarding.&nbsp;Then we applied the same approach to the admin side. Instead of a spreadsheet nobody opens, the data became an interactive&nbsp;<em>ask me anything<\/em>&nbsp;\u2014 type a question, get an answer.&nbsp;<br>What the audience takes away:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>How to design engagement that doesn&#8217;t manipulate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Patterns you can build on your own stack.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How to make data people actually open.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-wordcamp-session-speakers\"><span class=\"wp-block-wordcamp-session-speakers__byline\">Presented by<\/span><span class=\"wp-block-wordcamp-session-speakers__name\"><a href=\"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/speaker\/hanna-partridge\/\">Hanna Partridge<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most donation pages still work like a checkout: a form, an amount, a thank-you. It converts once, and then the process restarts.&nbsp;We tried something different. Fundraisers running their own campaign pages earn badges as they raise, collect coins in a virtual wallet, and spend them on real swag. The game never replaces the&nbsp;reason \u2014&nbsp;they&#8217;re still [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21205104,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_wcpt_session_time":1793365200,"_wcpt_session_duration":1800,"_wcpt_session_type":"session","_wcpt_session_slides":"","_wcpt_session_video":"","_wcpt_speaker_id":[1200],"footnotes":""},"session_track":[25],"session_category":[32],"class_list":["post-1268","wcb_session","type-wcb_session","status-publish","hentry","wcb_track-wordcamp-johannesburg","wcb_session_category-fundraising"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ph3TdA-ks","session_date_time":{"date":"30 October 2026","time":"3:00 pm"},"session_speakers":[{"id":"1200","slug":"hanna-partridge","name":"Hanna Partridge","link":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/speaker\/hanna-partridge\/"}],"session_cats_rendered":"Fundraising","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/1268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wcb_session"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21205104"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/1268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1312,"href":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/1268\/revisions\/1312"}],"speakers":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/1200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wcb_track","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/session_track?post=1268"},{"taxonomy":"wcb_session_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johannesburg.wordcamp.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/session_category?post=1268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}