Keeping Generosity Flowing — Even When Worldwide Tech Outages Hit

Karen Scheid was sound asleep when her phone chimed, pinged, rang, and vibrated at 2 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. The barrage of sounds — a text message, a pager alert, a phone call, and an app notification — came all at once, loud and urgent. 

As Director of Engineering, DevOps/Reliability at Givelify, Karen is accustomed to the on-call nature of her role and knew immediately that something disruptive was unfolding. Within minutes, she and members from various engineering teams were all wide awake, working to safeguard something incredibly important: Their giving community’s generosity.  

With more than two decades of experience leading customer-focused, mission-critical IT systems and complex infrastructure projects, and a proven track record of building high-performing teams and streamlining operations, Karen knew Givelify’s engineering team was fully prepared.  

At Givelify, the team approaches every challenge collaboratively, leading with heart and starting with the problem. They’d learned that regional tech outages — when entire regions lose access to major online services simultaneously — are an operational and increasingly likely reality due to the growing complexity of digital infrastructure and an increasing reliance on interconnected systems. 

About half of data centers have faced a significant outage in the last three years, and most are caused by power failures or human error. Even though the frequency of severe tech outages is declining, 10 to 20 high-profile disruptions still occur annually. These incidents aren’t global events, but taken together, they paint a clear picture: Tech outages are inevitable, and the team knew these challenges weren’t going away.

Drawing on lessons from past incidents, they’d spent months building and rigorously testing safeguards to preempt issues like this in the future.  

Previous tech outages made one thing clear: Depending solely on third-party processors and their systems wasn’t enough. To protect giving, the team needed to take control of the outcome. 

“We knew this had been a sore point — a single point of failure,” Karen said. “Even when our third-party partners experience hiccups, our giving community shouldn’t notice. We realized we needed to take control and limit our dependencies. That way, if their systems fail, our giving community doesn’t have to feel the impact.” 

The Challenge: Tech Outages 

When a global outage impacted Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the middle of that October night, Givelify’s team was ready.  

AWS is a cloud-computing service that powers many of the world’s online platforms. It’s often considered part of the Internet’s backbone, so when it goes down, many primary services go down with it. The outage disrupted numerous platforms, including Apple Music, Hulu, Venmo, and Zoom.  

And without a forward-thinking and robust plan in place, it would have also prevented donors from giving through the Givelify app. 

The Solution: Heart-Led, Collaborative Innovation 

Fortunately, Givelify had a solution, driven by a culture that strives for excellence and values open, honest feedback at every level. This collaborative approach empowers teams to grow together and effectively tackle challenges. 

“Our engineering teams spent months designing, building, and testing an incredibly complex backup system: One that protects generosity even when major platforms fail,” Hari Krisha, Chief Technology Officer, said. “That level of innovation and preparation doesn’t happen overnight. It’s why organizations and donors can trust Givelify: We don’t just respond to problems; we engineer solutions that keep giving going no matter what.” 

Givelify’s safeguard systems automatically detect when external networks or financial systems go down and activate within minutes to keep giving flowing without interruption. 

Reliable, built-in backup systems that automatically take over when something goes wrong.

• For donors: The experience is seamless. They give as usual, unaware of any interruptions behind the scenes.  

• For the gift: Each donation is captured instantly and processed securely, typically the next day.  

• For faith leaders: They can continue their mission with confidence, knowing the technology is designed to handle unexpected challenges. 

While this latest innovation kicked in automatically to keep generosity flowing, Givelify’s team had also invested years building robust safeguards, creating a comprehensive mitigation system designed to withstand failures across external platforms.  

“It wasn’t luck. It was foresight, care, and preparation,” Karen said. “We believe our giving community shouldn’t have to worry about the technology that powers their ministries and missions. They should have peace of mind and be at ease to focus on inspiring generosity, knowing we’ve already planned for the ‘what ifs.’” 

The Result: Uninterrupted Generosity 

Technology can be unpredictable, but generosity shouldn’t be.  

“Every act of generosity carries a purpose,” Hari said. “And, we’re here to protect our giving community’s missions and the people they serve, no matter what. Even in the face of unexpected interruptions, our giving community can rely on us. Generosity doesn’t pause, and neither does our commitment.”  

Karen and her team stayed awake through the night on October 20, not for recognition, but out of concern for our giving community and the impact they make every day. The latest global outage demonstrated what’s possible when technology and heart work in harmony. 

Through thoughtful planning and heart-led innovation, Givelify delivers fast, secure, and consistent giving — backed by next-day deposits. Organizations can remain focused on inspiring generosity, while donors can continue giving from the heart, with confidence that the technology behind it is secure. 

Pastors and faith leaders can focus on their mission, knowing donations are safe and secure, processed promptly, and tracked transparently. With Givelify powering the technology, they can spend less time managing systems and more time guiding their congregations, supporting their communities, and fulfilling their callings.