When I first looked at the Wexford Foundation’s website, one thing stood out immediately. Here was an organization that had been doing remarkable work in the South Carolina Lowcountry for over a decade, and their website was not telling that story. The copy was older, the imagery was not as warm as I’d like to see and there was no real way for visitors to feel the weight of what this organization had accomplished.
The Wexford Foundation is an all-volunteer nonprofit based on Hilton Head Island. Since 2012, they have awarded more than 4.4 million dollars in grants to local charities addressing health, housing, hunger, and education. That is a genuinely impressive legacy. This was a full website redesign and copy project to make sure it finally came through. You can learn more about how I approach this kind of work on my website design services page.
What Wasn’t Working
The old site had information but no warmth. There were no real stories. Visitors could not read about the organizations that had been helped or find out what grants were currently available. The three audiences coming to the site, donors, volunteers, and grant applicants, each had different needs and none of them were being clearly served.
This is something I see often with nonprofits. When your whole team is focused on doing the work, the website becomes a place to store information rather than a tool that actively works for you. That is exactly what we set out to change.
What Made This Project Special
Every single person involved with the Wexford Foundation is a volunteer. And yet they showed up to this project with more thoroughness and dedication than I see from many fully staffed organizations. They came prepared, provided detailed information about every aspect of the Foundation, and had a clear vision for what they wanted the site to feel like. That level of commitment made the collaboration genuinely enjoyable and it shows in the final result.
How We Approached It
Before any copy was written, we got clear on the strategy for each audience. Donors needed emotional connection backed by credibility. Volunteers needed a welcoming, clear pathway to get involved. Grant applicants needed straightforward information with no digging around required.
The homepage was built around a three-path model that leads each audience toward the right place from the very first scroll. The hero section opens with “Together, We’re Changing Lives in the Lowcountry,” which sets the emotional tone immediately and signals that this is a community effort, not a faceless institution.
What We Built
This was a full redesign and copy project, which meant we touched every part of the site. The About and Our Story pages were rewritten as a genuine narrative, honoring the founding, the growth over more than a decade, and the all-volunteer commitment that makes the Foundation so distinctive.
The Impact pages were where the missing stories finally got to live. We shaped the partner spotlights into focused, human-centered summaries that visitors could scan quickly or explore in depth. The donation page led with the all-volunteer model so donors could immediately see that every dollar goes directly to the community. The legacy giving section was written to feel aspirational and warm rather than transactional.
Throughout the project we worked closely with the Foundation team, reviewing and refining until every page felt right. That back and forth is where the best copy comes from.
What Changed
When the site launched, the Wexford Foundation had an online home that finally matched the quality of their work. Each audience had a clear path through the site, the stories that had been missing were now front and center, and the warmth of the organization came through from the very first page.
The team also came away with a content structure they can maintain and build on as new grants are awarded and programs grow.
What Nonprofits Can Take From This
The most important shift for any nonprofit website is moving from information storage to guided experience. Every page should have a specific audience in mind, a clear emotional intention, and a natural next step. Your stories are your most valuable asset and they deserve to be front and center, not buried in a report no one will find.
Ready to Start the Conversation?
If your nonprofit’s website is not reflecting the quality of your work, a website audit is a good first step. Or if you are ready to talk through a full redesign, schedule a discovery call and we will figure out together whether it is a good fit.
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