Website revamp & donations management system for a mental health-focused community nonprofit.
Coffee, Hip-Hop & Mental Health is a non-profit organization located in Chicago focused on providing mental health services to underserved communities. The organization takes a novel approach through the raising of funds via the operation of a cafe where patrons are asked to choose their own price when paying for coffee.
As a fan of the mission, I offered to volunteer my services after noticing a clear need for technical expertise. The organization was having trouble with services like PayPal when it came to receiving donations. Funds were being held up and reporting was difficult due to donations coming from different sources.
Additionally, the existing website, while functional, did not reflect well on the brand that had been built on social media platforms. Thus, there was a desire to not only revamp the site, but make it easier to navigate and sell merchandise online.
The solution for the donation collection challenge was to implement a donation management system, specifically Givebutter. Having researched such platforms previously, I found that it was far and above the best solution for any charity or non-profit when it came to the collection of funds. I implemented the platform and the impact was immediately felt. Multiple campaigns could be created, QR codes and SMS text-to-donate codes could be created, and we were even able to utilize it for the auction that we later held for the annual fundraising gala.
The new website had to be easy to manage, so the obvious solution was to use Squarespace. The plan was to make use of its online selling capability for the online store, but when we realized that it would not integrate with Square (the existing POS platform used in the cafe), we pivoted to using Square for the online store and simply link to it through the Squarespace site.
