After nearly a year of collaboration, design and development, the newly redesigned Giving Institute website officially launched at the March 2025 board meetings in Austin, Texas, earning overwhelmingly positive feedback and marking a successful transformation led by MCI USA’s Alex Huffman and Kelsy McCarthy.

The Giving Institute’s marketing committee initially approached MCI USA with a simple request: modernize the look and feel of their website to improve usability and visual impact. But beneath the surface, there was a more complex challenge: ensuring that all backend functionality of the YourMembership (YM) platform, which powers the organization’s membership and financial operations, remained intact.

Alex and Kelsy guided the Giving Institute through this process, from strategy to site launch. While both contributed to establishing the initial look and feel, Alex led the project as the UX designer, building out all page templates, reorganizing content structures, and working closely with developers to bring the vision to life.

“The redesign of the Giving Institute website was a collaborative effort aimed at creating a WordPress site that was easy to maintain while elevating its visual appeal,” Alex said. “We began by restructuring the navigation hierarchy and organizing the page structures to improve the user experience. Once the foundation was set, we moved to wireframes, which provided the roadmap for the developers to build the site, ensuring that the functionality of the YM platform remained intact on the backend.”

The marketing collaborated closely with the Giving Institute’s marketing committee, holding several rounds of meetings, demos and strategic conversations. The result? A modern, intuitive site that reflects Giving Institute’s brand while supporting seamless backend functionality for day-to-day operations.

Check out the website here: https://givinginstitute.org/