Northbridge Youth Alliance had a decade of real impact behind it, but the website still ran on a template from its first grant cycle, with a donate button nobody could find and impact stories buried in PDFs. Here’s what changed when we redesigned it around the person deciding whether to give.
The Challenge
Northbridge Youth Alliance had built a decade of real trust in the community, but the website still ran on a template from its first grant cycle, with impact stories buried in PDFs and a donate button nobody could find without hunting for it. Program pages were inconsistent, some missing entirely, and volunteering meant filling out a form and hoping someone followed up. For an organization whose entire case for support depends on people believing their gift matters, every one of those gaps was a reason to close the tab instead of giving. The redesign wasn’t about looking more polished. It was about making the mission impossible to miss.
Generic template that hadn’t changed since the organization’s first grant cycle.
Built a complete visual identity around the organization’s actual story, not a shared nonprofit template.
Site finally looks like an organization worth trusting with a gift.
Donate button buried, and inconsistent from page to page.
One clear, persistent donate path from every page on the site.
Online donations up 64%.
Impact stories buried in PDFs and annual reports nobody opened.
Built a scannable impact section with real stories and numbers right on the homepage.
Time spent on impact pages up significantly.
Program pages outdated, inconsistent, or missing entirely.
Rebuilt every program page on one consistent, easy-to-maintain template.
Program page bounce rate down noticeably.
Volunteering meant filling out a form and hoping for a follow-up.
Built a structured volunteer sign-up flow that routes to the right program automatically.
Volunteer sign-ups up 50%.
Site looked fine on desktop, broke down on mobile.
Rebuilt every page mobile-first, since most donations start from a phone.
Mobile bounce rate down 37%.
No clear answer to “where does my donation actually go?”
Added a transparent breakdown of how funds are used directly to the donate page.
Fewer abandoned donation attempts.
The Approach
Reviewed every existing page and drop-off point, and talked to program staff about the stories the old site wasn’t telling.
Built a distinct visual language (photography, color, and type) instead of the shared nonprofit template look.
Restructured navigation and content around “why should I give” and “how do I help,” not the org’s internal program structure.
Rebuilt every page mobile-first and streamlined the donation and volunteer flows for a phone screen.
Trained staff to update program pages and impact stories themselves: no developer needed for day-to-day updates.
The Work
The Results
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online donationsone-time + recurring giving | baseline | +64% | +64% |
| Volunteer sign-upsnew volunteer applications | baseline | +50% | +50% |
| Homepage bounce ratevisitors leaving without exploring | 59% | 37% | −37% |
| Clicks to donatehomepage to confirmed gift | 4 clicks | 1 click | −75% |
| Average page load timeacross all devices | 4.4s | 1.7s | −61% |
| Mobile session lengthtime spent on site, mobile only | baseline | ~1.9x | +90% |
| Program page viewsvisitors exploring a specific program | baseline | 2x | +100% |
Built to earn the trust a donation actually requires
In Their Words
“Donors used to ask us questions the website should have already answered. Now the site tells our story better than we can in a meeting.”Executive Director, Northbridge Youth Alliance
What's Included
Tell us where donors and volunteers are hesitating before they ever reach out and we'll tell you honestly whether a redesign is what fixes it.
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