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Web Application, Automation

Drabina Jakubowa –
Crowdfunding for People with Disabilities

Compliant with WCAG 2.1

We developed the 'Przypnij Skrzydła' application to support fundraising for the rehabilitation of people with disabilities, integrating online payment options. Additionally, we refreshed, secured, and enhanced the 'Drabina Jakubowa' Back Office application by adding new features.

CLIENT

The ministry run by the Religious House of the Orionist Fathers runs crowdfunding under the name „Drabia Jakubowa”, supporting people with various degrees of disabilities. It brings together those in need of help and volunteers. The organization arranges and funds retreat programs for its beneficiaries through crowdfunding.

Logo Drabiny Jakubowej

CHALLENGE

Do you consider yourself someone who helps others?

If so, we’d love to have you as a neighbor! 😉

This story is about how we, as developers, helped those who help people with disabilities 👩🦽. I’m not sure how many times the word “help” will appear in this text, but if you’re not helping yet, maybe this will inspire you to start! 😄 If not, that’s okay too (in my opinion)!

This isn’t just a random story—initially, the Drabina Jakubowa project was meant to be a standard commercial project. However, it took an unexpected turn.

Father Łukasz Mikołajczyk, the founder of Drabina Jakubowa, is a modern thinker who uses widely available IT tools to optimize his work. He quickly recognized the need for automating the information processing that accompanies the support processes for people in need.

The primary way Drabina Jakubowa helps people with disabilities is by organizing rehabilitation retreats and other integrative events. These activities prevent social exclusion and foster positive changes in the lives of participants.

The organization’s operations involve dozens of processes and hundreds of individuals fulfilling various roles, most of whom work on a volunteer basis. This effort spans the entire year.

Uczestnicy obozu

To provide some context, at each rehabilitation retreat, there can be up to 150 volunteers, and every participant (slightly fewer in number) requires at least one supporting person. Volunteers include doctors, nurses, priests, administrative staff, coordinators, and even a photographer who, for instance, needs to know who can and cannot be photographed.

What Do These People Do? What Are the Accompanying Processes?

The answers to these questions shape the scope of the software’s functions. While a detailed description exceeds the scope of this article, here’s a brief overview:

  • There are 5–6 retreats annually.
  • Preparations for each retreat span several months, culminating in the event itself, which lasts over a week.

The most important activities include:

  • Registering all participants (volunteers and beneficiaries): Assigning roles and participation forms.
  • Fundraising: A significant portion of funds comes from donors.
  • Managing financial and accounting processes.
  • Promoting activities: Conducting marketing efforts.
  • During the retreat: Handling accommodations, meals, activity organization, safety, and incident tracking.

These processes are interconnected. Without a dedicated IT solution integrating data processing, could Drabina Jakubowa operate effectively or scale its activities?

Existing Software and Challenges

Before CodiFive joined the project, there was already software primarily handling participant, retreat, and document records. Built using the Django framework as part of a volunteer-led engineering thesis, the application had many prototype-like features, including:

  • Code duplication and inconsistencies: Making further development difficult.
  • Ad-hoc modifications: New features were “tacked on” to avoid altering existing code.
  • No CI/CD pipeline: Preventing rapid development cycles for changes and deployments.
  • No access to code repositories with a history of changes: Limiting transparency and flexibility.

These architectural and organizational limitations hindered the ability to meet Drabina Jakubowa’s growing needs.

Key Needs Identified

  1. An online crowdfunding platform integrated with the management of rehabilitation retreats, funded through online payments.
  2. Automating retreat processes, including:
    • Participant, volunteer, and coordinator registration.
    • Creating targeted fundraising campaigns.
    • Generating documents.
    • Sending notifications to relevant parties.
  3. Marketing support: Sending targeted newsletters to appropriate groups.
  4. Financial tracking: Recording donations and payments, managing accounting, and generating reports.
  5. Acknowledgments and reporting for donors: Automating thank-you notes and reports for contributors.

By addressing these needs, we aimed to streamline Drabina Jakubowa’s operations and support its mission.

SOLUTION

FIRST STEPS: ORGANIZING AND CLEANING UP

We began by focusing on organizing and tidying up the project. In most of our projects, we use GitLab for code repositories, tracking system changes, and communication with clients. GitLab provides a convenient and consistent way to manage information exchange between the client and the development team, while also ensuring process documentation.

This approach improves the experience for everyone involved, making it easier to organize tasks and store documents. For time tracking, we relied on Clockify, while document exchange was tailored to Drabina Jakubowa’s needs using Google tools. Creative tasks were supported by Miro and Figma.

These tools played a critical role in ensuring the quality of the software and achieving the desired results. Often, we not only help clients improve their organizational processes but also learn from them, as we’re always open to suggestions. 😊

PRICING LESSONS: A Fixed Price Misstep

The development work was initially estimated on a “Fixed Price” basis. However, we made a significant and costly mistake: inheriting someone else’s code involves unpredictable efforts to clean up and prepare it for further development.

Today, in similar situations, we work under a Time&Material model, providing clients with flexible financing options and frequent feedback about ongoing work.

Challenges with Legacy Software

The outdated software posed numerous challenges, including: updating libraries, fixing bugs, securing the system against potential breaches. This forced us to make a tough decision: Should we withdraw from the project? Or should we provide this portion of work for free, supporting Drabina Jakubowa’s mission?

Ultimately, we chose the latter. Drabina Jakubowa supports those in need, and as a company, we value empathy and actively seek to help others.

This was the pivot I mentioned earlier. The costs of fixing the old software exceeded the original estimate for implementing all planned features.

But after overcoming these initial hurdles, things became easier…

Ucieka przed bugami

SOLUTION

We developed a crowdfunding module, hosted on przypnijskrzydla.drabinajakubowa.pl. This platform allows for the presentation of fundraising campaigns to cover the costs of volunteers and beneficiaries attending rehabilitation retreats, as well as general fundraising for Drabina Jakubowa.

The website supports online payments via Przelewy24, displays statistics, enables users to sign up for a newsletter, and showcases individual profiles (with descriptions, photos, and goals) of those benefiting from the campaigns, along with the support they’ve received. Donors can choose to leave a visible record of their contribution or donate anonymously.

Accessibility and Compliance

The website adheres to the WCAG 2.1 standard for digital accessibility and is fully optimized for mobile devices. At CodiFive, we specialize in delivering digitally accessible solutions, including those for public entities bound by legal requirements.

To streamline operations, we implemented automation features in the administrative panel. For instance:

  • When a volunteer offers to support a retreat, fundraising for that purpose begins automatically.
  • The system sends thank-you notes, additional information, and documents (e.g., agreements for signing) with minimal operator intervention.
  • The application reuses previously entered data wherever possible
  • Handles edge cases effectively, such as when a participant withdraws after partial funds have been collected.

We integrated the platform with Sender.net, a service dedicated to managing newsletters. This allows different groups (e.g., fans, volunteers, donors, beneficiaries, and collaborators) to receive engaging messages and useful information.

Volunteers receive an automatically generated certificate of attendance along with their agreement.
Internal communication tools facilitate contact between participants (volunteers and coordinators) of each retreat.

We continue to enhance the system as Drabina Jakubowa scales its operations. You can support its growth just as we do—find a campaign to contribute to at przypnijskrzydla.drabinajakubowa.pl

RESULTS

By the end of 2022, Drabina Jakubowa achieved the following benefits:

  • Scalability: A tool enabling the expansion of its charitable activities, including crowdfunding, online payments, and public relations.
  • Security: Enhanced system security for handling sensitive personal data.
  • Future-Proofing: The ability to easily add new features to the platform

150

Fundraising campaigns launched in 2022.

157000 zł

Total amount raised through the platform in 2022.

400

Donations made via the online service

Technologie

  • Python/Django
  • Docker

Duration

From 2022

Team

3 persons

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