Rebuilding trust with the community after financial scandal

Designing the Richfield 4th of July website

VOLUNTEER

COMMUNITY

EVENTS

Computer on a desk

Challenge

The Richfield 4th of July volunteer committee needs to raise funds for this year’s celebration. After a hiatus due to a previous leader’s misappropriation of funds and COVID-19, the committee needs to rebuild trust with the community to raise the necessary funds.

Process

  • Interviewed Richfield community members
  • Conducted competitive analysis
  • Identified actionable insights
  • Designed low-fidelity wireframes
  • Built Squarespace site

Outcome

The site went live and empowered the committee to raise funds from local business and community members. The event was attended by an estimated 50,000 people. The community was re-engaged with the Richfield 4th of July event.

Competitive Analysis identifies impactful features

We selected a variety of direct and indirect competitors which included events that were well funded and had paid staff managing their website, multi-day events in large cities, and events that took place in nearby small towns in Minnesota.

Through the analysis, I identified two features the community wanted to see:

  • Adding a Committee page to foster connections and build intimacy and trust
  • Integrating a “Donate” CTA button that was used by community members to raise donations

Knowing our community = Knowing our goals

We utilized the robust Richfield Community Facebook page to ask three survey questions of the community. We asked one question per week in an effort to create meaningful points of engagement with community members throughout the month of November. This engagement effort built momentum towards the launch of the new website!

In addition, my mentor led a brief empathy building exercise with our team and a small group of committee members. We imagined who might attend the event, what information they would need, and what pain points we would need to address as we design the new website.

Handshake icon

Rebuild Trust

The events won’t happen without donations so the website needs to authentically rebuild trust with the community and sponsors.

Dotted grid icon

Build Awareness

After a 3-year hiatus and a rebrand, users might be unaware or reluctant to engage with the event.

People icon

Serve Multiple Audiences

The website will serve as a hub for gathering donations, signing up volunteers, and event details.

Setting the tone for a community-led, engaging event

With the goals in mind, I built the highest priority pages of the website.

  • Included images from previous years to build awareness of the long history of the event.
  • Highlighted a photo & letter from the President to humanize the committee and rebuild trust.
  • Kept “Donate” call to action button visible throughout the website.

Impact

Everything was set for a successful event, but mother nature had another plan. The event was cancelled on the afternoon of July 4th due to thunderstorms. Though the community and committee were sad to miss the fireworks and evening events, it was clear there was a strong foundation of trust and awareness built for future events.

  • The website had 23k unique visitors in the month leading up to event, a 10x increase from the previous 7 months.
  • The event attracted 19 sponsors and collected many private donations.
  • An estimated 50,000 attendees participated in the 1.5 days of planned events before the last minute cancellation of the fireworks.

Key Takeaways

Project planning

I learned the importance (and power) of planning for staged releases of information on an event-based website. We were able to quickly design and build an MVP website without getting bogged down waiting on event details.

Engaging the community

We engaged with the community throughout our process to ensure we were meeting their needs and building awareness.

Key technologies/skills

Curious to learn more?

 

Let's connect!