Customer story

Launched a new loyalty program for devoted charitable users by implementing auth

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GreaterGood makes charitable giving fun, easy, and free. Started in 1999 as the HungerSite.com – the world’s first click-to-donate site – they have since grown to include a whole network of charitable causes that users can donate to just by shopping or clicking a button.

With Stytch, GreaterGood launched a new membership and loyalty program that makes it easy for its users to track their clicks and other activities on the site , earn points that can be redeemed for further donations, reward users for their actions, and incentivize greater engagement with their charities.

Partnership highlights

  • Self-service: As an independent and self-starting culture, GreaterGood wanted a vendor that empowered them to customize and problem solve. With Stytch’s docs and API, they were able to get up and running quickly.

  • User-centered auth: GreaterGood’s average customer base is 40 years or older. With Stytch, they can offer more familiar login methods like passwords and Facebook OAuth, while still knowing they’re getting 21st century security and protection.

  • Flexibility: GreaterGood’s sessions must operate across dozens of partner sites – all built on different code stacks. With Stytch, they can rest easy knowing their users’ sessions are valid across all their giving activities.

Stytch products

Challenge

After over two decades at the intersection of ecommerce and charitable giving, GreaterGood had amassed a large network of users and a growing network of partner sites. But as they grew, they started to hear the same thing from their users: we want more ways to give! Users wanted to keep track of their past actions, favorite charities, which petitions they’d already signed, etc. There was also a large desire for rewards for such contributions and engagement. But without a secure session management or authentication system, GreaterGood didn’t have a way to offer that.

“Our users are very proud of their giving, and they have every right to be. Some have been with us since 1999! But without some kind of user/account system, they had no way to measure their contribution, or really see the impact they have had. We knew a loyalty program was both a feature they wanted and something that would boost engagement and keep people coming back.”

Amber Hanke, Quality Assurance, Greater Good

GreaterGood knew they were ready for a customer loyalty program, but had a few key requirements from their auth provider:

  • Customizability: They knew they wouldn’t be able to use an “out-of-the-box” auth solution, because they needed to track user sessions across multiple partner sites, each of which has its own code stack. API-first plus good documentation would be key
  • Passwords: They wanted to offer more streamlined options like OAuth and Email Magic Links, but also knew any solution without passwords would endanger alienating their user base. Passwords had to be part of the package.
  • Pricetag: GreaterGood knew some auth providers would gate keep features behind paywalls, or drastically increase the price tag with scale. Since they were launching a new program, they wanted pricing that was reasonable, affordable, and could grow with their new program.

With Stytch, they found everything they were looking for.

Solution

Stytch’s flexible offerings of multiple authentication factors with session management were exactly what GreaterGood was looking for. But it was the documentation, support, and affordable pricing that fully won them over.

“Documentation is make-or-break for us. There’s nothing worse than signing with a vendor and then finding you’re completely dependent on them to customize, troubleshoot, etc. With Stytch’s documentation, we knew we’d be well-positioned to set up the solution we needed and manage auth for the long haul. Add to that their support and their pricing, and there was just no contest.”

Amber Hanke, Quality Assurance, Greater Good

Though the documentation was a high priority, GreaterGood also felt confident leaning on Stytch’s support team for edge cases and customization. For example, the dev team knew they wanted to require emails with their accounts, but also offer Facebook OAuth as a primary login method– except Facebook doesn’t require users to have an email!

With some fine-tuning from the Stytch support team, they devised a flow in which users had to confirm their account setup with a verification email, regardless of their auth method – thus ensuring GreaterGood had the information they needed to keep their customers up to speed, while their customers got first pick over the auth method that worked best for them.

Results

  • Customer satisfaction: With an affordable, flexible auth provider now on the case, GreaterGood was able to launch their GreaterGood Guardians user account program their donors had been asking for for years.

  • Ready for growth: In just the first month of their loyalty program, GreaterGood attracted thousands of new users. This is the exact traction and engagement they were hoping for.

  • Easy on developers: Stytch’s docs and combination of API with SDKs allowed the GreaterGood developers to get a product up and running swiftly and independently – and also promises for easy troubleshooting and updates in the future.

"We weren’t sure how fast our growth would be when launching this program, but we wanted to be ready for any rapid growth that may come our way. We watched closely for lags or speed issues in our QA process, and the auth performed great. All in all, we felt really comfortable with the decision to move with Stytch early on, and they didn’t disappoint."

Amber Hanke, Quality Assurance, Greater Good

The bottom line

With their loyalty program in place, GreaterGood is now in a position to expand user engagement in new, exciting ways: referral credits, community voting to guide charitable donations, and even potential integrations with their ecommerce stores. We’re gratified to help them pave the way for more people to give, and share that generosity with a broader community.

What can Stytch do for you?

Jump into our Docs to learn more about our auth solutions — or sign up for a free account to try them out for yourself. Have questions? Reach us via Slack, Stytch Forum , or email.