Challenge

Classlist is a community management platform for schools. Classlist operates in more than 30 countries and supports more than half a million school parents. It offers a safe, GDPR-compliant way for parents at a school to connect to and collaborate with each other, arrange playdates, and exchange school-related items on its marketplace. Classlist also enables parents to purchase tickets to events, donate to the school, and purchase raffle tickets to support the school’s fundraising efforts.

Prior to Classlist, much of the money collected by parent volunteers and teachers for school-based fundraisers and events was in the form of cash and cheques. The process was time-consuming and prone to error. Payments lacked checks and balances.

Classlist wanted to provide its customers with a payment system that was easy to implement and use, with built-in support for multiple payment methods. Initially, Classlist built its payment processing features using a third-party platform that was difficult for Classlist and its customers to manage, produced a large volume of support tickets, and didn’t offer the smooth onboarding process that Classlist sought for its customers.

Classlist also needed a solution that offered an excellent customer experience by making it fast, simple, and reliable for parents to pay while growing revenue for PTAs and schools. But Classlist’s solution didn’t always offer that level of customer experience. For instance, in order to make a payment, users had to go to a separate third-party website.

In addition, Classlist needed a solution that could support its expansion both in the UK and across Europe, Asia, and North America. This meant it needed to be able to offer customers in those countries a wide range of local payment methods.

Solution

Classlist replaced its former payments solution with Stripe. Classlist chose Stripe for its attractive rates for schools and fast implementation, as well as its support for payments and refunds, Dashboards, and other key features, which meant Classlist wouldn’t have to build and manage those features internally.

“We didn’t need to take on more technical personnel or develop additional expertise to adopt Stripe,” said Yalçin Yavaş, chief technology officer of Classlist. “It automates processes we used to have to manage manually. It also makes payments simpler and more successful.”

Classlist used Stripe's UI component, the Payment Element, to accept payment methods, validate input, and handle errors – delivering more benefits for parents and schools without requiring advanced technology expertise. For example, Classlist used the Payment Element to quickly integrate Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit cards, and debit cards into its platform to give parents a variety of payment options. The company also used Stripe Mobile Elements to extend these capabilities to users via Classlist’s mobile app.

Classlist added Stripe Connect, a solution for multiparty payments and payouts, so it can now easily integrate Stripe’s powerful payments technology into its platform and control how these funds flow. In addition to making its platform more valuable for schools and parents, Classlist can generate an additional revenue stream by monetising payments on its platform.

Classlist uses 15 of Stripe’s 135+ supported currencies, so global schools can use Classlist to manage payments and quickly add payment methods with just a few clicks.

Results

Faster, easier payments save schools 70+ hours a year

By using Stripe, Classlist provides a social media platform that enables schools and parents to quickly manage payments without requiring specialised IT knowledge. Connect helps ensure that accounts are properly authorised and connected, which can save 90% of the time that schools would otherwise spend collecting cash manually.

Improved payment experience leads to 197% CAGR in school fundraising

With Stripe, Classlist makes payments faster and more trustworthy for parents by reducing the number of steps they need to take for a purchase, and by enabling paperless raffle tickets, which also delivers environmental benefits. Classlist has simplified payments by using the Payment Element and adding more payment methods. Rather than sending parents to a third-party payer, Stripe's streamlined process enables them to complete their transactions on the Classlist site, ensuring a more engaging and satisfying experience for parents.

“Our parents love Stripe,” said Susan Burton, chief executive officer and co-founder of Classlist. “They can make a payment without having to think about it. Schools say they are able to double the funds they raise with half the effort.”

Classlist has used Stripe to help schools raise more than £5 million, a 197% CAGR in school revenue from events and raffles over three years. The number of events has increased by 55% CAGR, ticket growth has been at a 154% CAGR, and raffle ticket sales have seen a 3X year-over-year growth.

Year-over-year revenue growth of 124%, and broader geographic reach

By speeding up school onboarding with Connect and supporting more payment methods, Classlist has increased efficiency and driven growth. Classlist has also attracted more customers by lowering ticket processing costs with Stripe because schools achieve greater revenue when they hold events.

Classlist has become a proactive evangelist for Stripe. It has introduced Stripe into more than 800 schools across 35 countries, spurring Classlist’s continued growth. Last year the company increased its revenue by 124%.

“Collecting money is one of the hardest things schools have to do,” Burton said. “One reason why we continue to break ground in new countries is that we use Stripe to solve the payments challenge for schools.”