The Client
In 2009, in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, 400 people set off on the inaugural Darkness Into Light 5km walk to raise funds for Pieta. From small beginnings, the movement has continued to grow, and now there are over 150,000 participants in Darkness Into Light each year.
Each year the walk provides an opportunity for people to connect with their local community and to bring hope to people who have been impacted by suicide. Our team of dedicated volunteers in Ireland and overseas, return year on year to make the event a success and to help us all continue to raise awareness and hope in the global fight against suicide and self-harm.
The Challenge
In the past, Pieta House used free text fields in their registration form, including the address part. This led to many addresses being entered incorrectly and subsequently to a considerable volume of returned event t-shirts. This had a significant financial impact, both on the postage/returns fees and the extra administration costs.
Consequently, Pieta House was looking for an error-free address capture and validation tool to include on their website.
The Solution
The Autoaddress address capture and validation tool was implemented in the Pieta House website. Our jQuery Plugin with a simple set of step-by-step instructions allowed the client to have Autoaddress up and running on their website in minutes.
Validating the address in real-time, while maintaining it in the user’s preferred format, ensured accurate deliveries and an improved experience for mobile users, streamlining the checkout process and increasing customer satisfaction. Autoaddress allows users to enter their “preferred address” while ensuring that the correct postal address is stored in the client’s CRM system; this is just one of the many address-intelligent features unique to Autoaddress.
Autoaddress implementation also resulted in an additional benefit: implementation of address validation software eliminates the possibility of personal data (e.g. name) being entered in inappropriate data fields, e.g. address fields, helping with GDPR compliance.
The Results
Darkness into Light has grown into one the world’s largest events of its kind. This brings its challenges to a not for profit organisation. A big part of this event is the Darkness into Light t-shirt. Participants see it as more than something to wear at the event. It holds meaning and a reason why they walk at 4.15am, a memory of someone they hold dear.
One of our challenges this year was to make sure that each participant received their Darkness into Light t-shirt and this is why we chose Auto Address. It allowed us to have the piece of mind that every address we were capturing at the registration point was the correct one and that we could deliver their t-shirt on time.
We were really impressed with how effective the Auto Address was and how easy it was to integrate with our registration platform. I would not hesitate to recommend this system in the future, and I look forward to working with them again for next year’s Darkness into Light event.
Brian McEvoy, Fundraising & Events Coordinator, Pieta House
