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Digital Contest Platform

Took APA’s vendor-run contests in-house with an e-commerce platform I conceived; it has processed more than $850,000 in entry fees since its 2017 launch.

American Photographic Artists (APA) is a national trade organization for commercial photographers, and its awards contest is its biggest fundraiser of the year. For years, APA ran contest entries through third-party vendors, so the vendors, not APA, owned the entrant experience and the data. APA’s leadership wanted both back. My idea was simple: take ownership by building the contest into APA’s own website as an e-commerce product.

The Role

As APA’s Digital Producer (a part-time contract role I’ve held since 2013), I conceived the platform and led it from proposal to launch. I didn’t write the code. I wrote the plan, managed our third-party development partner, and kept APA’s national staff and committees aligned on scope, schedule, and budget.

  • Primary point of contact for stakeholders and the development vendor
  • Wrote the statement of work and managed scope and change requests
  • Set and communicated milestones, deadlines, and deliverables
  • Flagged risks early and brought options to the team
  • Managed and reported on the project budget
  • Ran post-launch reviews and documented what to improve for the next season

Project Goals

The platform had to solve four problems:

  1. Recognize APA members and give them discounted entry pricing
  2. Give non-members a reason to join APA
  3. Track contest revenue in Stripe using metadata, so every payment can be reported by contest
  4. Make launching a contest as simple as publishing a blog post

Results

  • APA, not a vendor, now owns every entrant’s data and checkout experience
  • More than $850,000 in entry fees processed since the 2017 launch (net of refunds, through October 2026)
  • Runs APA’s national awards and the chapter contests in Los Angeles (Off the Clock), San Francisco (Something Personal), San Diego (Untitled), and Chicago (Artist’s Perspective)
  • Contest revenue reports straight from Stripe metadata, by contest and by chapter, with no vendor exports to reconcile
  • Member pricing gives APA a visible member benefit at every contest, and a reason for non-members to join at checkout