Brick River Donations
Project: Brick River Donation Product Design & Front-End Development
Description: Brick River Donations is a fundraising product that helps nonprofits create donation pages, collect one-time and recurring gifts, manage campaigns, and track donor activity.
As lead Product Designer and Front-End Developer, I designed the donation experience from the initial user flow through implementation. I focused on making the giving process simple for donors while giving nonprofit staff the flexibility they needed to manage campaigns, payment options, and donor information.
Software: Figma, Visual Studio, Git, Google Analytics, Stripe API, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Tailwind CSS, Razor, C#
Design Question: How might we create a donation experience that makes giving simple for donors while supporting the flexibility nonprofits need behind the scenes?
User Personas
Research considered both sides of the donation experience: nonprofit staff who needed flexible campaign-management tools and donors who needed a simple, trustworthy way to give. The personas below focus on the nonprofit staff side of that experience.
Design Requirements
Research highlighted five priorities for the donation experience:
Tell a Compelling Story
Use strong imagery, success stories, and clear examples of what different donation amounts can support.
Make Giving Easy
Keep the donation form simple and offer familiar payment options to reduce friction.
Show Progress and Impact
Use fundraising goals, progress indicators, and supporting visuals to help donors understand where their contribution goes.
Support Recurring Giving
Make it easy for donors to set up and manage ongoing contributions.
Build Trust
Use clear messaging, recognizable payment experiences, and supporting content to help donors feel confident in the organization and the donation process.
Initial Figma Designs
I designed the full donation experience in Figma, including the fundraising page, form states, validation, confirmation screens, and supporting campaign content.
The page layout gave nonprofits room to tell the story behind a campaign, show fundraising progress, and connect donation amounts to their impact.
Donation Form Prototype
The initial donation flow was designed to be simple and focused, with only the essential fields up front and clear labels placed above each input.
Related information was grouped into steps to make the form easier to scan and complete.
Development
I led the front-end implementation and worked closely with backend developers on payment requirements and form behavior. Because I was involved in both design and development, I could adjust the experience as technical requirements changed.
Adapting to Real Constraints
During development, the donation form became more complex than originally planned. Additional custom fields and required payment information made the original layout too long and difficult to scan.
Rather than forcing the new requirements into the existing design, I revisited the flow.
Layout Redesign
I gave the form its own dedicated column, creating more room for additional fields while keeping campaign content visually separate.
Added an Additional Step
I introduced another step for payment details and fees. This allowed related fields to stay grouped together and kept users from facing one long, overwhelming form.
The Final Product
The final product gave nonprofits a flexible way to create fundraising experiences while keeping the donor journey clear and manageable.
Key Features
Custom donation pages and campaign hubs
One-time and recurring donations
Credit card, ACH, Apple Pay, and Google Pay
Stripe connection and payment management
Donation reporting and donor activity
Shareable campaign and donation links
Personalized confirmation and thank-you emails
Conclusion
Brick River Donations required balancing two different needs: making it easy for donors to give while giving nonprofit staff enough flexibility to manage complex fundraising campaigns. As technical and payment requirements evolved, I adapted the original concept without losing sight of the core user experience.
The final product now processes $100K+ in donations annually and continues to support active fundraising campaigns after launch.