Rallying Support for Local Business
Designing a digital donation network to rescue Main Street during a statewide crisis.
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ProudTexans™ was created in response to the financial devastation Texas small businesses faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. We built a platform where local champions—individuals and organizations—could discover, support, and donate directly to businesses in their community. The experience focused on storytelling, transparency, and urgency.
Role:
Lead UX Designer & Co-Founder
Team size:
4
Team & Operations Impact:
Created a scalable donation request pipeline for over 100 small businesses in 30 days
Streamlined onboarding so businesses could create listings in under 5 minutes
Collaborated with local chambers to verify and highlight legitimate businesses
Built admin tools for real-time fund tracking, donor communication, and listing moderation
Product Impact:
Over $250K raised in first 90 days for Texas small businesses
12K+ individual donors participated during the platform’s peak
Bounce rate under 30%—users actively explored and contributed
Featured in 3 regional news outlets for civic tech innovation
In April of 2020, the ProudTexans™ Civic Innovation Lab conducted a series of design sprints to build a platform that connected small businesses in crisis with everyday Texans eager to help. The thesis at the time was that while stimulus funds were slow and uneven, local communities wanted to give—if only they had a trusted, simple way to do so. We developed a web-based donation platform, streamlined business onboarding, and a public-facing donation tracking interface that empowered both givers and recipients to share their stories and stay connected.
FRAMING THE PROBLEM
The Problem:
Many small businesses across Texas were shut out of federal relief or struggled with delayed funding, leading to mass closures. Locals wanted to help, but lacked a unified, transparent platform to direct support where it was needed most.
How Might We
How might we create a trusted, frictionless way for Texans to support small businesses in their local communities during an economic emergency?
Information Architecture:
After determining core functionality we structured how value will be delivered in a sitemap diagram. This provided a solid foundation to begin prototyping the app.
THE SOLUTION
The Donation Hub Texas Didn’t Know It Needed
We created a centralized donation platform that allowed users to browse small business profiles, read impact stories, and donate in just a few clicks. Business owners could easily update their status, needs, and gratitude messages in real time.
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