The Hero Website
Modern. Mobile-friendly. Manageable.
website design
The foundation for your donor journey
Your organization has grown, your programs have evolved, and the way people engage with your mission has changed. But your website hasn't necessarily kept up?
The Hero Website gives nonprofits a modern, easy-to-manage digital home built around their mission. With clear messaging, thoughtful design, and intuitive navigation, we'll help your organization build credibility, communicate its impact, and make it easier for visitors to take the next step.
You’re not a developer…and that’s ok.
Does your website working as hard as you do?
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Visitors get lost in navigation
Your site has grown one page at a time. Programs change. Staff change. Campaigns evolve. Before long, your site technically contains everything…but visitors have to work way to hard to navigate it.
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The visuals are lagging behind.
The work you do is thoughtful, capable, and forward-moving. Your website is…dated. Dusty. Downright frustrating. The site should reflect credibility when donors, funders, and community members look you up but it’s just not there yet.
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Visitors still don’t quite understand what you do.
Your mission and programs may make perfect sense once someone talks to your team, but online, the information can feel scattered, overly detailed, or difficult to navigate
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Giving shouldn’t feel like a scavenger hunt.
Someone who is ready to donate shouldn’t have to hunt for the right page, figure out where the money goes, or navigate a disconnected giving experience to support you.
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Simple updates feel oddly complicated
You're not a developer. That's ok. Changing a photo, adding a program, publishing an event, or updating a staff bio shouldn’t require a hiring developer—or half a day of troubleshooting.
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There's not enough time...or money.
Your team knows the website needs a redo. It’s been roughly the same since 2018, for goodness’ sakes. But you don’t have the time and don’t want to spend the entire operations budget.
The hero website
An modern nonprofit website can do a lot more than just “look better.”
We designed the Hero Website to give established nonprofits a cleaner, clearer, easier-to-manage digital home. Instead of simply giving your existing website a fresh coat of paint, we step back and rethink how the whole thing should work.
We look at what information matters most, how visitors move through the site, what your team needs to manage after launch, and what your existing website and donor data can tell us about the people you’re trying to reach.
The result is a modern website that helps people understand your mission faster, trust your organization sooner, and take the next step more easily. And because your team still has to live with the site after we leave, we build it on a platform you can actually manage and grow on.
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If you don’t approve the website strategy, we stop there. You get a full refund, and keep the audience research and planning framework we created together.
Beyond the basics
The Hero Website includes
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A stronger website starts with understanding who’s using it, what they need, and where the current experience is falling short. Before the Roadmap Session, we’ll review your existing website and donor data, conduct independent audience research, and gather internal perspectives so we can plan the new site around real behavior and priorities—not guesses.
Website + analytics review to understand traffic patterns, high-value pages, common entry points, and areas of friction
CRM + donor data review to identify useful audience patterns while protecting individual identities
Independent audience research to better understand your supporters, community, and the broader context around your mission
Three short stakeholder questionnaires sent to a leadership team member, client-facing staff member, and volunteer to capture different perspectives
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Once the research is complete, we bring the insights into a focused strategy session with your leadership team. Together, we’ll clarify what the new website needs to communicate, who it needs to serve, and how visitors should move through it before any design work begins.
Messaging priorities so the most important information is clear and easy to find
Site structure + sitemap planning to organize programs, resources, and calls to action around the visitor journey
Wireframe direction to establish how key pages should flow before visual design begins
Conversion + engagement planning for actions like donating, volunteering, contacting your team, or learning more
Platform + content recommendations based on what your staff needs to manage after launch
And because the Roadmap comes before the build, if you don’t approve the strategy, we stop there. You receive a full refund and keep the research and planning framework we created together.
I’d keep these as two separate accordions rather than merging them. It reinforces that the research is actual pre-work, while the Roadmap is where that information gets turned into decisions.
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We’ll design and build up to 10 core pages around the priorities established in your Roadmap Session. Rather than forcing your content into a generic template, we’ll create a structure that helps visitors understand your organization quickly and move naturally toward the next step.
Custom page layouts built around your programs, audiences, and content needs
Responsive design so the site works smoothly across desktop, tablet, and mobile
Clear calls to action for giving, volunteering, contacting your team, learning more, or taking the next relevant step
Thoughtful navigation designed to make complex organizations easier to explore
Consistent visual system so every page feels connected to the same organization
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Starting from a blank document can be one of the biggest bottlenecks in a website project, so we don’t hand that job back to your team. We’ll develop initial drafts using what we learn from the Roadmap Session, your existing materials, and conversations with leadership.
First-draft page copy for the core pages included in your site
Mission and program messaging shaped around clarity, accessibility, and audience needs
Calls to action written to help visitors understand what to do next
Existing content refinement where strong material already exists and simply needs to be clarified or reorganized
Collaborative review so your team can refine language for accuracy, nuance, and voice
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Photography can make or break the first impression of a website. So let’s make a great first impression. We include a focused photography session to create fresh, authentic images for the new site while also making thoughtful use of the assets you already have.
1-hour on-location photo session focused on staff, programs, spaces, or other priority visuals
Website-ready image selection designed to support the pages and story developed during the project
Integration of existing photography where your current library still serves the site well
Image preparation for web use so visuals are sized and organized appropriately for the build
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We’ll make sure the new site launches with a clean technical foundation so search engines can understand the site and your organization isn’t losing visibility because of avoidable setup issues.
SEO-friendly site structure with clear page hierarchy and organization
Image alt text to improve accessibility and search visibility
Redirect setup for important URLs from the previous site
Google Search Console connection so your team can monitor search performance after launch
Guidance for Google Business Profile setup if your organization does not already have one
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We don’t want you to feel abandoned when we give you the keys. Before launch, we’ll show staff how to handle the everyday updates they’re most likely to make themselves.
Live staff training on the basics of managing the site
Guidance for editing text, updating images, and creating new posts or events
Platform-specific instruction based on whether the site is built in Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress
30-day post-launch check-in to catch issues, answer questions, and revisit anything from training that needs another pass
A website your team can manage with confidence instead of being afraid to touch
The website as a development tool
What your website can help you do:
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Make a stronger first impression
Donors, funders, partners, volunteers, and community members will often visit your website before they ever speak with your team. A modern, intentional site helps your organization feel established, trustworthy, and ready for what’s next.
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Explain your mission more clearly
Complex programs are easier to understand when the information is organized around what visitors actually need to know. A clearer site helps people quickly grasp what you do, who you serve, and why the work matters.
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Make giving easier
Does it take your audience a while to find out how to get involved? Thoughtful calls to action, clearer donation pathways, and better integration with your donor platform can reduce friction between someone feeling inspired and actually making a gift.
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Support fundraising campaigns
Your website becomes a stronger home base for campaigns, events, grants, major-gift conversations, and donor outreach—giving your team somewhere credible to send people when they want to learn more.
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Build community trust
Think about how you feel when you visit an outdated or disjointed website. Does it inspire confidence? Alternatively, a site that feels current, organized, and transparent reinforces the sense that your nonprofit is stable, active, and thoughtfully managed.
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Give your team back some control
With a manageable platform and practical training, your staff can handle routine updates without waiting on a developer every time something changes.
Case Study:
Oregon Cancer Foundation
“It's clean, modern, easy to navigate, and does a much better job of telling our story and connecting people with the resources we offer.”
The Oregon Cancer Foundation website had not been redesigned since 2014. It needed a third-party developer for updates, and no longer reflected their outreach in the community.
Partnering with STORY SQUIRE, their team was able to launch a new, fully mobile-friendly website that gave them the power to make ongoing changes, announcements, and promote their support events for cancer patients.
“We've been working with Cat and Simon for the past couple of years, and they've truly become an extension of our team at Oregon Cancer Foundation.
This past year, they completely redesigned our website, and we couldn't be happier with the results. It's clean, modern, easy to navigate, and does a much better job of telling our story and connecting people with the resources we offer. They also helped us transition to a new platform, making it much easier for our team to manage content and make updates ourselves.
And perhaps most importantly, the improvements to our search engine visibility have been significant. We're seeing patients and families find us organically, because they're searching for help and actually finding us. For an organization like OCF, that's huge.”
So what’s the process?
Strategy, approval, THEN development
If the website direction isn’t right, get a full refund.
Before we build a single page, we work with your team to clarify the audience, messaging, site structure, and priorities.
That means you’ll have a clear sitemap, homepage mockup, and design direction before the project moves into full design—so we’re not spending weeks polishing the wrong solution.
If the direction isn’t approved, we’ll refund the full deposit.
We’d rather solve the hard thinking up front than surprise you with a flashy website that doesn’t actually work for your organization.
Frequently Asked Questions
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To keep things moving, we typically ask for a 1-hour meeting every other week. These meetings give us time to share insights, align on copy and messaging, review progress, and work through revisions together.
We’ll handle the heavy lifting between meetings, but timely feedback from your team helps us keep the project on schedule.
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We typically work within Squarespace and Wix as they are great options for nonprofits who just need an informative website for their clients and supporters. We also build on WordPress—usually utilizing user-friendly builders like Elementor and Divi.
If all of this sounds unfamiliar or you’re not sure what the best option for your team is, we’ll walk you through the pros and cons of each platform and help you make an informed decision that will support the organization as it grows.
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Absolutely not. We know there are few things more daunting than staring at a blank document titled “Website Copy.”
We’ll create the initial drafts based on your current materials, our research, the Roadmap Strategy Session, and the site wireframe. From there, your team has a strong starting point to refine the language so it accurately reflects your organization’s voice, culture, and expertise.
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That’s where we come in. For Oregon-based website clients, the Hero Website includes a 1-hour photography session to create fresh visuals for the new site.
Depending on your organization, we might photograph your staff at work, programs in action, facilities, environmental portraits, or—with the appropriate permission—the people you serve. We’ll also incorporate strong images from your existing library wherever they make sense.
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SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization—essentially, making it easier for search engines like Google to understand your website and show it to the right people.
We’re not promising to magically put you at the top of Google, but we will make sure the site launches with a solid foundation. That includes an SEO-friendly site structure, meta tags, image alt text, important redirects from your old site, and connecting the new site to Google Search Console.
If your organization doesn’t already have a Google Business Profile, we’ll also show you how to get one set up.
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Usually, yes. The Hero Website includes one primary integration, which is often a donor platform such as Bloomerang, Givebutter, Donorbox, DonorView, or Little Green Light.
We can also connect tools like newsletter sign-ups, Calendly, Google Calendar, forms, and other common plugins as needed. We’ll talk through your existing systems during the Roadmap Session so we can plan around the tools your team already relies on.
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That’s the goal. We build on Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress with Elementor specifically because they give nonprofit teams practical ways to manage everyday updates without calling a developer every time something changes.
Before launch, we’ll train your staff on the basics—editing text, changing images, adding events or posts, and other common updates. Then we’ll reconnect 30 days after launch to address any issues and revisit training if something still feels unclear.
The Hero Website
an asset for your communications nonprofit.
The Hero Website is a focused 2–3 month engagement for nonprofits that have outgrown their current site and are ready for something clearer, more modern, and easier to manage.
We handle the strategy, structure, copywriting, design, build, photography, integration, SEO setup, launch, and training. That way, your team doesn’t have to coordinate five different vendors or spend countless hours troubleshooting just to get a better website up and running.
Starting at $8,500
Built on Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress • Completed in about 120 days • Website strategy approved before development—or your money back.