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Designing for Hope: How a data-driven redesign fueled a 220% growth in giving

I turned a fragmented digital presence into a centralized, compassionate "home" that connects families with palliative care and makes it easier for donors to give.

Key Outcomes

+220%

+220%

Year-over-year donation growth

0 PDFs

0 PDFs

Manual forms totally eliminated

1-click giving

1-click giving

Pre-packaged giving options

Client Context

About Caleb’s Trio of Hope

Caleb’s Trio of Hope is a dedicated non-profit organization that provides a vital lifeline for children with pediatric cancer and their families. They focus on three core pillars of support: funding life-saving research for rare brain tumors, raising public awareness about early symptoms, and offering direct financial and emotional care for families navigating the difficult journey of palliative care.

Project goals

My primary goal was to take the organization’s three-part mission and translate it into a single, high-performing digital hub. I set out to:

Foster joy and support

Foster joy and support

Provide a warm, accessible space where families facing a pediatric cancer diagnosis could find immediate financial and emotional resources.

Fuel medical progress

Fuel medical progress

Create a professional platform to drive funding for the research and treatment of rare pediatric brain tumors.

Educate the community

Educate the community

Serve as an authoritative guide on the early signs and symptoms of childhood cancer to help with early detection.

Establish digital credibility

Establish digital credibility

Replace manual, fragmented processes with a modern experience that makes it easy for grant organizations and donors to trust and verify the mission.`

Solution

A Digital Home For Every User

I built a custom, CMS-powered platform that serves as a centralized hub for families, donors, and the organization itself.

Paired with a playful yet professional visual identity, it gave the organization the credibility it needed to secure larger support both by its community as well as donors.

The support portal

An easy-to-navigate section where families can find care resources and apply for financial aid in minutes, not hours.

Impact-based giving

An e-commerce-style donation flow that lets donors see exactly how their contribution helps, whether it’s funding research or providing palliative care.

The content engine

A custom-built CMS (Content Management System) that allows the Caleb’s Trio team to share new stories and update educational content without needing a developer.

Accessible playfulness

A warm UI featuring a "wave" treatment and subtle animations that feel kid-friendly while maintaining a professional look for grant organizations.

Process

Lean approach to insight

With a lean research budget and a tight timeline, I didn't want to "reinvent the wheel." Instead, I took a smart approach by analyzing the highest-performing nonprofit sites to understand what already worked for donors and families.

By combining these competitive insights with AI-assisted branding and deep stakeholder feedback, I was able to skip the guesswork and build a high-trust platform that felt both professional and deeply personal.

Deep competitive audit

Deep competitive audit

I audited 12 relevant sites to identify the "Gold Standard" for navigation and hero interactions.

Collaborative content strategy

Collaborative content strategy

I shaped the overarching narrative with a cross-disciplinary content and design team, working closely with stakeholders and iterating until the flow captured a balance between emotional resonance and practicality.

AI-assisted design & branding

AI-assisted design & branding

I used AI as my creative partner to explore color meanings and accent palettes that complemented the logo. This led to a "playful yet professional" UI that featured warm animations while ensuring all colors remained accessible (WCAG AA compliant).

Architecture & hand-off

Architecture & hand-off

To support the project long term, I created a library of short, practical video guides so the nonprofit team can confidently manage the site on their own, without relying on technical support.

Key discoveries

My “aha” moments

When I audited the leading non-profit sites, I discovered specific patterns that drive donor trust and family engagement.

The "7 +/- 2 principle"  for easy navigation

Limiting the menu to 6–7 visible item, rather than using a hidden hamburger menu, reduced cognitive load and made the path to resources clearer for families in crisis.

Trust checklist

My audit revealed that grant organizations rely on dedicated "About" and "Get Involved" pages to verify credibility, making these sections essential for securing funding.

Dynamic storytelling

I identified that high-converting hero sections use carousel treatments with concise mission statements and emotional visuals to create an immediate connection.

Accessible playfulness

I wanted to maintain a "light" and hopeful feel using the brand’s yellow, but discovered it failed WCAG AA accessibility standards. To solve this, I paired it with a deep brown for the navigation and text.

Reflection

Design as life-line

The most rewarding part of this project was seeing how a small, resourceful team could use data and AI to solve very human problems.

This experience proved that when you prioritize accessibility and clear navigation, you create more than a digital presence; you create a space where hope is easy to find and even easier to share.

Let’s build something people love to use

Hiring for a UX role or planning a product? Send me a note and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

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