Challenges: How to Develop a Platform Connecting Students and Donors Directly?
In 2023, Suitmedia got involved in a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program to develop Asacita, a platform for scholarship funding. In collaboration with the alumni association of ITB, this program aimed to create a helpful and easy-to-use platform for students looking for scholarships and donors willing to support them.
Previously, students could not discover any platform that connected them with donors. Asacita was established to facilitate funding for their education, providing easier access to donors. However, there was a significant barrier related to the cost of higher education, causing students to be unable to cover the fees if they did not grant scholarships or financial support.
The project had a primary objective, focusing on building a state-of-the-art and seamless scholarship platform that would effectively connect donors and students who need scholarships. Also, the website was designed to be a two-sided platform in which students were on the supply side and donors were on the demand side.
Solutions: Creating Informative Scholarship Platform with Compelling Visuals and Helpful Features
In this project, Suitmedia proposed various features and created a seamless design, ensuring students applied for scholarships without any issues. Our strategy focused on designing an informative and attractive website, enabling students to get thorough scholarship information while encouraging prospective donors to become part of this CSR initiative.
We began the development process by determining the appropriate features to implement on the website, then continued to complete the website design process. Not only did we design a user-friendly website, but we also ensured the responsiveness of website accessibility across all devices by using .Net technology.
Two distinctive features of the website were the unique aspects, in which these features allowed donors to choose preferable methods for paying students’ scholarships. The first were all features without online payment/disbursement or features for offline payment, followed by the feature for online payment and disbursement. In other words, we provided two payment options that donors could select according to their needs and preferences.
Results: A Handy Platform for Scholarship Application and Information
We succeeded in developing several features that help donors, students, and academic advisors. As seen from the donors, they could register on a website, choose students they would like to sponsor, make online or offline payments, and get monthly updates about students’ activities. Not only donors, but Asacita also benefited students since they could apply for scholarships, receive scholarships from registered donors, and send monthly updates to donors. Lastly, the academic advisors could verify and promote students for getting scholarships while monitoring scholarship funding and monthly updates.
Through the website development, Suitmedia indeed implemented CSR commitment in helping Asacita connect students and donors as a forward movement to providing access to higher education for all students. We received positive feedback after the project was finished. Asacita's team expressed their gratitude since we also helped Asacita strengthen the QA testing, ensuring donors and students can easily access the website.
