Donors of Color Network
Donors of Color Network (DOCN) is the only cross-racial donor network focused on advancing racial equity and justice. By channeling the collective influence of their members into values-aligned organizations, they bridge the gap between mainstream philanthropy and racial justice movements.
DOCN came to us during their strategic planning process. They wanted to evolve their brand and website as they were re-imagining their future.
Project Type
Brand Identity
Website Design
Website Development
Collaborators
- Tory Howell: Creative Direction, Lead Designer, Lead Developer
- Triniti Burton: Brand Strategy, Content Writing
- Gabrielle Guidry: Design Support, Icon Design
- Angel Bih: Website Development Support
Discover
Learning about the network
Discovery Workshop
We facilitated a two hour discussion with DOCN communications staff and leadership. During the session we learned about the organization’s mission, audience, strategic direction, and co-created a scope of work.
Member Listening Sessions
Existing DOCN members are a pivotal stakeholder group because their social networks are the biggest source of prospective members.
The listening sessions helped us hear what members thought about the organization, what it’s personality felt like, and how they would like it to show up in the world so they would feel excited sharing DOCN with their networks.
Key Findings
1
Members told us that it can feel isolating to be a philanthropist of color. The community fostered by DOCN is the quality that attracted them to the organization and the quality they most cherish.
2
The membership team has to do a lot of work to explain the benefits of membership and bring prospective members into the organization.
3
Communications staff experience friction their day-to-day work because they don’t have much of a brand to work with and don’t know how to work with what they do have.
Define
Connecting organization goals to project goals
Organization
Project
Increase membership
Create a brand that reflects the vibrant DOCN membership and is easily used by in-house communications staff
Build an accessible website that shows DOCN in action and makes it easy for potential members to become prospects
Retain existing members
Build a member portal to help existing members connect with each other, learn about events, and get resources
Develop
Create a brand that reflects the vibrant DOCN membership
As a group, we agreed that the current DOCN logo was effective in reflecting this message (with the exception of a typeface update). However the brand needed to be expanded beyond the logo.
Our branding process started with narrative moodboards so we could ground ourself in the story of the brand. Then we created their messaging and built the visual identity into a full brand toolkit.
Headlines - Khand Bold
Body Copy - Supreme
Develop
Build an accessible website that shows DOCN in action
Our primary objective with the website was to show DOCN in action and makes it easy for prospective members to learn about and join the network.
Tory, the lead developer on the project, has a heavy focus on accessibility as a designer and developer certified by the International Association for Accessibility Professionals (IAAP).
Develop
Build a member portal to help existing members connect with each other, learn about events, and get resources
The Member Portal gives DOCN members access to members-only resources, a directory of other members to facilitate member-to-member connection, and allows them to manage their giving plans.
Outcomes
Members unanimously love the brand. They enjoyed seeing themselves throughout the website and report that it’s much easier to connect people in their network with DOCN. Staff are taking more prospective member calls as a result of the clear prospective member journey we created on the website.
Communications staff love the templates and brand guidelines we create for them. They have been able to easily create a larger amount of on-brand material more quickly.