Childfund, a global nonprofit focused on child sponsorship and community programs, was suffering from an outdated website, a lack of design cohesion, and a lengthy and confusing donor portal and checkout flow. We led a comprehensive redesign that tackled the experience holistically, making everything from donating to sponsorship an easier and more enjoyable experience.
Childfund has been around since 1938. While their website might not be that old, they faced several product challenges as a result. The site lacked a coherent design system, with alarmingly low accessibility throughout. The primary revenue generating flow, Sponsor a Child, was confusing and lengthy. The checkout flow was a mess. And returning donors struggled with the dashboard. The result was friction, lower conversion, poor donor retention, and limited insight into a donor’s long-term impact.
We created a flexible, accessible design system built for scale across marketing pages, donation flows, and donor dashboards. A warm, neutral color palette was used to emphasize trust and hope. Background textures and patterns, drawing on international and cultural inspiration, alongside hand drawn brush strokes brought a fun and personal feel . Accessibility, better use of color, and mobile friendly designs were a prominent goal for the client. All of this combined with a modern component library and brand storytelling modules created a scalable design foundation enabling faster development and consistent UX.
As the main purpose of the site, the donation and sponsorship checkout was rebuilt to reduce friction and increase trust. We created a simple three step guided flow, following best UX practices, that worked for both one-time and recurring donations. By reducing form fields, employing smart address lookup, adding trust indicators, and more we were able to design a smooth and friendly checkout experience across both desktop and mobile.
A modern dashboard keeps donors engaged, informed, and connected with their impact.
With the new updated dashboard donors could view all sponsored children with profiles, letters, photos, milestones, and have a better sense of their impact, along with potential upsells. It also provided clarity around their account management tools, such as updating payment methods, managing recurring gifts, and downloading important tax information. This closed the loop, allowing donors to experience the ongoing value and connection that drives long-term retention.
Though only recently launched, data already shows positive results. Donors reported that the experience felt more personal, more trustworthy, and far easier to navigate, strengthening both initial conversions and long-term donor relationships. Internal teams also gained a reusable design foundation that accelerated page creation and reduced inconsistencies throughout.
