Tulip

28% MORE
REVENUE.

12% MORE CUSTOMER BASE.

In 5 months, using innovative storytelling and pricing models in Tulip, a B2C social crowdfunding platform.

DISCLAIMER: I've kept the organisation name redacted as "Tulip". I genuinely don't want people messing with an ecosystem that's running thousands of active emergency fundraisers.

WHAT IS
TULIP?

Tulip is an online crowdfunding platform where people in crisis can ask for help and donors from across the world show up for them. It runs fundraisers across medical emergencies, education, and 20+ other causes. People donate, campaigns get visibility, beneficiaries receive funds - the engine already works.

1800+

Active campaigns

WHY THIS CASE MATTERS

Donation is such a strange behaviour if you think about it. You give away your money and expect nothing in return. No product. No service. Just faith.

In India, this behaviour is tied deeply to culture - Dana, Zakat, charity, religious duty, morality, empathy, family values. All of it mixes together and forms this unique psychology of giving.

Tulip is one of the only organisations that managed to get this right at scale in urban India. More than 96% of campaigns and donations came from Tier-1 and urban markets.

BIG AUDACIOUS GOALS

01
5% increase in market share
Expand into Tier 2, 3, and rural Karnataka
02
10% increase in revenue
Through new pricing models
03
Timeline: H1
Goal formalised during half year planning

NOW STATE.

When we began

The existing workflow worked beautifully for urban areas

Fundraiser User Flow

Register → setup profile → add beneficiary details → add case information → upload documents → choose promotion options → set withdrawal options

Donor User Flow

Find campaign → donate → get receipt

This engine produced

92%

of Tulip's entire revenue

The remaining 8% came from offline fundraising teams operating in big cities.

The question was simple but bold:

Will all this work as-is in rural markets?
Or will people behave differently?

RESEARCH STUDIES.

SCOPE

Karnataka tier 2, 3, and rural

Study location

13 core team members & off-shore supporters

Team

Mixed (Qualitative & Quantitative)

Data

Statistical & Thematic

Analysis

40 days

Duration

HYPOTHESES

"Donation behaviour in urban areas of Karnataka is more significant than rural areas"

Null hypothesis

Donation behaviour in urban and rural areas of Karnataka is same

Independent Variable

Residential

Dependent Variable

Donation behaviour

SECONDARY DATA REPORT

6.11 Cr

Study location

3.09 & 3.01 Cr

Male & female

75.36%

Literacy rate

Urban specific

With avg. literacy of 85.78%, about 38.67% people live in Bangalore, Mysuru, Mangalore, Hubballi-Dharwad, Belagavi, Gulbarga, Bidar, and Bellary.

Rural specific

With avg. literacy of 68.73%, about 61.33% people live in Hassan, Shivamogga, Davangere, Chitradurga, Tumkuru, Raichur, Bagalkot, Koppal, Gadag, and Kodagu.

SPEAR FRAMEWORK

Set objective, Prepare, Execute, Analyse, and Report

S - Set Objective

Understand why people donate – motivations, frustrations, emotional triggers. Compare differences between urban and rural donors.

Understand how social, cultural, demographic, and economic factors affect donation behaviour. Build hypotheses and segment markets.

Build a geographical + behavioural segmentation strategy, TAM sizing, GTM outline, and service touchpoints adapted for Karnataka's tier 2/3/rural markets.

WHAT THESE INSIGHTS TRIGGERED INTERNALLY...

This is the part I love the most - the empathy shift...

The entire product, design, and CX team started speaking from the user's perspective. We even started referring to personas with names like "Arun," the statistical persona representative.

A new user journey began to emerge.

Fundraising User Journey - Pre, During, and Post Fundraising Phases

Implementation Themes - Convenience, Proof validation, Engagement, Transparency, Cultural correlation

THE MVP THAT CHANGED THE GAME

QAS. Q&A Based Storytelling

Came out of 3 signals:

Audio-to-text converters didn't work well for most people.

Story writing felt emotionally heavy and intimidating.

Rural audiences responded strongly to "guided narration".

Before QAS - Fundraising funnel showing 33% drop-off at cause-detail submission

THIS IS HOW WE BUILT IT...

We built an interface where fundraisers answer a series of questions.

The system ties the answers into a coherent narrative automatically.

QAS Flow - Step-by-step fundraising process from start to finish

Question-Answer breakdown table showing responses, categories, and comments

I'm Arun Kumar (Ask in the story), raising funds for my Father (From step 1) who is a retired Canara bank employee (Ask in the story)

He makes his livelihood with a pension of Rs. 2,900.00 (Ask in the story) & is the primary caretaker (Ask in the story) of the family

The 5 (Ask in the story) of us live as a family in shimogga (From step 1)

My father has been suffering from Lung cancer (From step 2) for more than 2 years (Ask in the story). He is undergoing chemotherapy (Ask in the story) in Apollo hospital Bangalore (From step 2). Up until now, we've spent more than 2 Lakhs (Ask in the story) - assisted from savings & loans from family & friends. (Ask in the story)

To continue his treatment we need 2,00,000.00 (From Step 2) more in the next 15 days (From step 2). Please help us