Keeping fundraisers cooking when the world went digital
Creating a digital experience for an in-person process
Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, Little Caesars grew from a single family-owned restaurant founded by Mike and Marian Ilitch in 1959 into the third largest pizza chain in the world, with stores in all 50 states. For more than 25 years, Little Caesars has extended that hometown spirit into communities through its Pizza Kit Fundraising Program, helping schools, youth sports teams, and nonprofits raise money by selling ready-to-bake pizza kits.
When the pandemic made in-person fundraising events impossible, Vervint partnered with Little Caesars to build a comprehensive digital commerce solution, moving the entire Pizza Kit Fundraising Program online so nonprofits could keep raising money without missing a beat.
Keep the kits fresh
Minimize shipping time for perishable pizza kits so quality wasn’t compromised in transit.
Deliver from wherever’s closest
Bring multiple distribution centers online so orders could ship from whichever center was nearest the customer.
Make it all work together
Seamlessly integrate ordering, payment processing, and logistics into one smooth experience.
Taking the long view
For more than 25 years, Little Caesars’ Pizza Kit Fundraising Program had run the same way: schools and nonprofits sold ready-to-bake kits door-to-door, then customers picked them up in person on a single delivery day. When the pandemic made both the selling and the pickup impossible, Little Caesars had a choice to make.
Rather than patch together a short-term workaround, Little Caesars asked a bigger question: what would it look like to bring the entire experience online, with customers ordering directly and their pizza kits shipped straight to their door? That meant rethinking the program from the ground up, moving from a single-day live pickup event to a full direct-to-consumer model.
Building the digital commerce engine
Vervint’s application development team architected and built the new digital commerce solution on Azure, developing a custom web application from the ground up before handing it off to Little Caesars for implementation. The heaviest lift wasn’t the interface customers would see, it was everything underneath: integrating the new system with Little Caesars’ existing fulfillment processes and payment processing so orders, payments, and logistics could all move together seamlessly.
Expanding the reach of giving back
Convenience delivered, right to the door. Fundraisers could ditch the paper order forms and single pickup date, and customers had kits shipped straight to their door instead. Because orders were placed and fulfilled entirely online, the program’s reach also stretched well beyond the local community, letting far-flung aunts, uncles, and grandparents support a fundraiser from wherever they were.
Results that spoke for themselves. In its first three months live, the new digital program generated 20,100 online orders and $775,000 in sales. Beyond the shift to ecommerce itself, Little Caesars saw immediate ROI through more efficient operations and tighter systems integration, the product of Vervint’s cross-functional expertise and a fast, iterative approach to discovery and delivery.
With a scalable digital commerce platform now in place, Little Caesars is positioned to keep its Pizza Kit Fundraising Program thriving for the next 25 years and beyond, giving schools, teams, and nonprofits an easier way to raise money and giving communities everywhere a simple way to pitch in, no matter how far from home they are.
