Short, sweet, and serving 1,800 families
Weekend Backpacks’ new site matches the clarity of its mission of feeding Baltimore’s kids, with a simplified logo and dedicated pathways for the volunteers and donors who power it.
The story
The Challenge
The organization had outgrown its website years before it could replace it. The old site didn’t reflect the scale of the operation (1,800 families served, thousands of backpacks monthly) or serve its four audiences: volunteers, donors, grantors, and the Baltimore community. The team’s brief was refreshingly direct: make it short and sweet, easy to navigate, not too dense, reflective of where we are right now — and make sure we can edit it ourselves. The detailed logo also broke down at small sizes, muddying the brand everywhere it appeared.
Our Approach
We took “short and sweet” seriously as a design principle. A focused five-template site (home, interior, Donate, Volunteer Interest, and Special Events) gives each audience exactly one clear path, with giving and event registration connected to the Network for Good system the team already runs. Because volunteers are the engine of this mission, they got a dedicated page for the first time rather than a paragraph on Get Involved. And we simplified the logo: a cleaner, more abstract mark in the same palette that finally renders crisply on mobile. Training rounded it out, so the small team makes everyday edits without outside help.
Why It Worked
Small nonprofits are often talked into big websites. Weekend Backpacks needed the opposite — and got it. When the mission is as clear as feeding hungry kids, the website’s job is to stay out of the way, and this one does.
The Results
A site an overwhelmed parent, a curious volunteer, or a grant officer can navigate in seconds
Volunteers elevated to a first-class audience, matching their role in the mission
A simplified logo that works at every size
A team making its own updates, with no outside help required
A site that finally matches the scale.
With more than 4,500 backpacks packed and delivered every month and over 1,800 families served, the operation had outgrown its old website years ago. The new one reflects where Weekend Backpacks is right now, and gives every visitor one clear way to help.
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