Giving Compass Uses

Auth0 to Make
Philanthropy Easier
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Giving Compass Uses Auth0 to Make

Philanthropy Easier
A non-profit organizing the world’s information making it easier to
give well

ABOUT GIVING COMPASS

Headquartered in Seattle, WA, Giving Compass is a nonprofit portal organizing the

world’s information to make it easier to give well. Giving Compass guides donors who
want to give with intention and impact on a journey to learn, connect with others, and
take action to drive meaningful change in communities and the world.

INDUSTRY REGION

Non-Profit AMER

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Giving Compass is an exciting non-profit dedicated to making philanthropy more

accessible and actionable for the millions of people who want to dedicate their time,
money, and energy towards giving with impact. Americans donate$400 billion every
year, 72% of which is comprised of individuals (not foundations), and Giving Compass
wants to be at the helm to help donors learn, connect and take action. It provides a
platform that enables people to get involved through donations, engaging in volunteer
opportunities, attending events, and connecting with other philanthropists.

Giving Compass was dedicated to putting technology at its forefront, which is counter to
how many nonprofits currently function. With executive leadership coming from a
technology background, the site was built on the foundation of using tech to make it
easier to connect people with information on how to give well.

Starting from the ground up, Giving Compass was seeking a robust authentication
solution for its website that enabled users to use social login to make the user
experience as easy and non-intrusive as possible. It was the goal that this highly secure
and reliable platform would be a catalyst for more people to effect positive and
meaningful change. 

“Peace of mind by having something that is proven and super

easy to implement is the number one reason we chose Auth0. It
just works.”

Luis Salazar
Co-Founder and CEO

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The Challenge

When building its online presence, Giving Compass wanted to create a solid foundation
that would provide its users with secure login, as well as the option to leverage social or
email credentials. From a company standpoint, it needed to integrate easily with their
backend system and keep pace with the company’s rapid timeframe. “We didn’t want to
spend time trying to code something which isn’t our core competence. We’re about
enabling people to give with impact, not about coding and authentication,” added Luis
Salazar, Co-Founder and CEO of Giving Compass.

Another requirement for the authentication system was for Giving Compass to have full
assurance that user data is completely protected. Giving Compass is building a large
community of philanthropists and attracts a wide audience of givers – from those initially
exploring impactful giving, to the world’s most prominent philanthropists. Collaboration
and connection are core to the company’s mission to grow its philanthropic community
and being able to assure visitors and that interaction is 100% secure was fundamental.

“We didn’t want to spend time trying to code something which

isn’t our core competence. We’re about enabling people to give
with impact, not about coding and authentication."

Luis Salazar
Co-Founder and CEO

The Solution

Giving Compass narrowed the final evaluation down to two identity providers, Auth0 and
a competitor. The Senior Architect’s evaluation involved checking out APIs, playing with
demo environments, and speaking with client references. After a thorough review, it was
clear that Auth0 was the right choice.

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Auth0 provided the company with a very simple installation process which took less than
a week, enabling the internal team to focus its efforts on fulfilling its mission. Using
Auth0’s platform, Giving Compass provided users with the ability to login with social
credentials. Giving Compass selected Gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Microsoft
as social providers. In addition, Auth0’s proprietary Passwordless functionality was
enabled, giving users the option to remain completely password-free.

“The reality is that [Auth0's] software is so good that we didn’t

need to have much interaction. [Auth0's] documentation is great.
It’s pretty much self-serve, which was a nice surprise for me and
for the team.”

Luis Salazar
Co-Founder and CEO

Key Benefits

Giving Compass started reaping the benefits of Auth0 almost immediately after signing
the contract. Thanks to the rapid implementation and how easily Auth0 integrated into
the backend system, the company has saved more than 100 hours of identity-related
development and testing (an estimated $25,000 thus far).

On the user side, 97 out of every 100 people who now start the signup process at
GivingCompass.org complete it. This reflects a 25% increase in conversion rates since
implementing social login. One-click login via social media profiles has also resulted in an
extremely non-intrusive experience for users who login from mobile devices, which
comprises 50% of Giving Compass’s user traffic.

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Another huge benefit for Giving Compass is the peace of mind it provides, eliminating the
need to worry about authentication at all. “If we needed to code it ourselves, we’d be at
the mercy of continuous maintenance, because as the social plugins change their APIs,
we need to revise our code,” said Salazar.

“If we needed to code it ourselves, we’d be at the mercy of

continuous maintenance, because as the social plugins change
their APIs, we need to revise our code."

Luis Salazar
Co-Founder and CEO

Conclusion

Within one week, Giving Compass had full authentication and social login capabilities on
its website and could start growing its community. Between the ease of integration, the
benefits realized from outsourcing authentication, and the ROI it has already realized,
Giving Compass is confident that Auth0 was the right fit.

Giving Compass considers itself unique, not only for its mission, but also because it has
always put technology first. Nonprofits typically focus on the program first and the
technology second, but by relying on the strongest foundation possible, Giving Compass
is able to focus all its efforts on helping people give with impact.

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“Regardless of where you are in the philanthropy journey, your

personal data, your account information, your references, are
going to be safe by using a service like Auth0.”

Luis Salazar
Co-Founder and CEO

ABOUT AUTH0

Auth0, a product unit within Okta, takes a modern approach to identity and enables
organizations to provide secure access to any application, for any user. The Auth0
Identity Platform is highly customizable, and is as simple as development teams want,
and as flexible as they need. Safeguarding billions of login transactions each month,
Auth0 delivers convenience, privacy, and security so customers can focus on innovation.
For more information, visit https://auth0.com.

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