The Problem
2020 and COVID-19 provided its share of challenges for many businesses and non-profits. As a way to give back to the community, Arise chose to suspend its fees for a limited time and provide free access to its on-line learning resources. The response was much greater than they had anticipated as thousands of students enrolled. Once the limited time offer had expired, many of these students expressed interest in continuing their course work. In response, Arise made the decision to temporarily extend access to these courses by accepting donations in lieu of the standard fee. However, the online payment system was not designed to register and update student records properly using a ‘variable’ payment method.