In collaboration with tech and energy NGOs, Haitian community activists, and private donors, The Hwang Family of Silicon Valley spearheads an assistance program for the Haitian village of Canaan. In honor of their Korean roots, the Hwangs named their organization Three Generation Education (3GE), to convey their truth that any generation or nation can contribute to another, regardless of circumstance.

The Goal

3GE relies heavily on private grass-roots donations. As their scope grew, they needed a public platform to drive and receive those donations.

My Role

Workshop Facilitator, UX Designer, Researcher, Web Designer, Front End Developer

Discovery

We explored how we might engage an international audience by interviewing past donors on their interests, causes, lifestyles, and what drew them to 3GE. These interviews were synthesized into needs statements using empathy and as-is scenario mapping.

Findings

We found that supporting and nourishing their community was a priority among the donors, even more so than the secondary desire to help a stranger in need. They had developed that community organically over time, and trust was a crucial value factor.

We then asked ourselves, "Where are the differences between the international community (new partners) and the original grassroots community?" We conducted a competitive analysis, looking into three websites of NGOs we admired. We found the tactics very similar to what inspired our original partners. The focus on community was the same. However, more transparency and storytelling were necessary because less of it was occurring on a natural face-to-face basis.

We used the synthesized information to power the sailboat mental model: What is the wind powering our sails? What anchors may we be unintentionally dragging through the sand?

We determined that the four goals of the website must be to teach, invite participation, inspire donations, and build long-term relationships.

Ideation

From there, we were able to consider possibilities for expanding what is working and flipping what isn’t working into a “how might we” statement, creating possibilities from challenges.

We then dot voted on our favorite ideas, and placed them in an importance difficulty matrix to have a discussion about the feasibility and the impact of these solutions..

Solution

Our solution for 3GE involved;

• A storytelling website

• Fun "journey" page to explain their genesis story

• Methods for continuing the story episodically to generate avid followers

• Well-defined goals for each foreseeable project

• Communication of what the accomplishment of those goals will mean

• Clear goal-tracker that will show users that they are needed

• Method of follow-up communication to create community bonds

Results

We tested the new website by sending out an email to our user base, separated into mailing lists as active and passive supporters. We saw an immediate increase in participation and donations.

Within six months, 3GE had raised $15,000 through the website to achieve its goal of installing solar panels for the village of Canaan. They have continued on with new campaigns to encourage education, and are continuing to have success in their endeavors.

An especially interesting result of this project is that it also involves mentoring. The Hwang family was intrigued by the principles of empathy and bias recognition. I shared more with them on the Design Thinking processes Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. The family asked me to increase my involvement in the project by sitting in on a few of their board meetings. I found that many of the same problems that apply to design also apply to philanthropy. As an undergraduate student of Politics at UC Santa Cruz, I learned of the complex task of aid organizations in finding the right solution for those in need.

Three Generation Education now uses the Design Thinking techniques I shared with them, and applies them to their goals as philanthropists in Haiti.

I am honored to have had a positive impact on this caring organization. To this date, 3GE has made possible the building of a school and solar panel installation in Canaan. The experience has been very positive for the locals, and they've come together to establish a parent-teacher union to support the school.