Nonprofit
Rochester BCFF
How We Built the Site Behind Rochester's First Guaranteed Basic Income Program
- Guaranteed basic income program in Rochester, NY
- 1st
- Members the Match My Five campaign is built to reach
- 1,000
- Monthly pledge the recurring giving campaign asks for
- $5
About the project
At Rochester Black Community Focus Fund, we collaborated with the Executive Director and Owner to redevelop a high-performing website to promote the first guaranteed basic income program in Rochester, NY.
The Black Community Focus Fund is a 501(c)(3) public charitable organisation created to provide direct support in housing, education, and economic opportunity to Black families in the Rochester community impacted by racism's history and current manifestations. The site leads on the fund's own framing of that work: getting to zero on racial disparity.
One Site, Four Ways to Take Part
The site opens on the fund's own statement of purpose rather than on a mission paragraph: getting to zero on racial disparity, set against photographs of the community it serves. The guaranteed basic income programme runs through the site as the lead initiative rather than sitting in a sub-page, which is what the Executive Director wanted it to do.
From there the site splits by what a visitor can actually offer. Match My Five asks community members for a recurring five dollars a month, with a stated goal of a thousand members. Volunteers are asked for specific work: knocking on doors, organising community meetings, spreading the word. Partners are addressed separately again, aimed at faith communities, nonprofits, businesses, and government organisations.
The Work With Us section pulls those threads back together into one place to join the coalition, request support in implementing a similar programme, or apply for guaranteed basic income, alongside routes to donate and to subscribe for updates. Events, initiatives, and the blog are all maintained by the team rather than requiring a developer.
The challenge
A guaranteed basic income programme was new to Rochester, so the site could not simply describe an organisation. It had to introduce an unfamiliar idea to residents who might qualify and carry the route into the programme itself, while in the same handful of pages convincing donors, volunteers, and partner organisations that the fund was worth backing. Those are four audiences who want very different things, and a single generic front door serves none of them well.
What we did
- Rebuilt the site with the fund's Executive Director, structured so the guaranteed basic income programme leads rather than sitting beneath an About page.
- Gave each audience its own path: apply for the programme, join the coalition, volunteer, become a partner, or donate.
- Built in the Match My Five recurring giving campaign, the fund's five-dollar-a-month ask aimed at a thousand community members.
- Set up events, initiatives, and the blog so the team can keep them current without a developer.
The outcome
The fund has a site that leads with the programme it exists to deliver. Residents can find their way into guaranteed basic income, and the same pages route supporters toward Match My Five, volunteering, partnership, or a donation, rather than leaving every visitor at the same generic front door.
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