Altru
Empowering nonprofit organizations to make data-driven decisions faster.
Role: Solo Product Designer
Project Scope: Responsive Dashboard
Skills: Product Design, Process Improvement, Data Visualization
Duration: March - April 2025 (80 hours)
Overview
context
Uncovering business needs of nonprofits.
Nonprofit organizations face a unique set of challenges: how to maximize their mission with limited resources, serve their community effectively, and scale their operations. Without effective technology solutions, it is common for nonprofit employees to get bogged down administratively, losing the bandwidth and energy to focus on more impactful work.
problem
100% of nonprofit employees expressed frustration with fragmented systems.
Nonprofit teams need centralized tools to save time and access insights faster. 100% of nonprofit employees I spoke to expressed frustrations with the need to gather data across fragmented systems to track key KPIs and impact data. With so much time spent on data retrieval, teams often struggle to present a unified story of their impact.
solution
Streamlining nonprofit operations and collaboration.
An integrated dashboard solution with enables nonprofits to use data for storytelling and planning, helping to clarify key KPIs, boost efficiency and collaboration, and support real-time decision-making.
Discovery
research goal & methods
Although I’ve volunteered at various nonprofits for years, this project gave me the opportunity to understand the sector from a new perspective. I wanted to explore how a responsive dashboard could help nonprofits address some of their biggest challenges—like managing data, volunteer management, and demonstrating impact.
My hypothesis was that by centralizing everything into one easy-to-use platform, we could help streamline operations, increase volunteer engagement, and improve impact reporting. Through SME interviews and a competitive analysis, I gained a deeper understanding of how nonprofits operate and where technology can make the most difference.
Understanding the domain
user interviews
100% of users struggled with disconnected systems and manual workflows.
Through interviews with five nonprofit professionals across development, communications, and volunteer management roles, several consistent themes emerged. Many teams rely on a patchwork of tools—like CRMs, spreadsheets, and scheduling apps—that don’t integrate well, leading to inefficiencies, duplicate work, and communication breakdowns. Volunteer scheduling surfaced as a challenge, with confusion around shifts and a lack of streamlined communication. Additionally, data collection and reporting are time-intensive, making it difficult to track impact or support timely, informed decision-making. The ability to access key tools and data on mobile and tablet devices was also seen as essential, especially for staff working events.
These findings underscored the opportunity to design a unified, user-friendly platform that promotes collaboration and streamlines the unique operational challenges nonprofits face daily.
“The biggest challenge is consolidating the data into one unified report for board meetings or other stakeholders—it often requires manually pulling information from different places. I can’t believe how much time it eats up!”
"The time I spend putting out fires with coordination or data discrepancies takes away from the time I need to think about improving our programs or fostering new partnerships."
“Our team is small with limited resources. We need an affordable, easy-to-use tool that can centralize our data and automate repetitive tasks.”
competitor analysis
Opportunity for centralized, responsive solutions
Nonprofits often operate with limited budgets, which makes it difficult to invest in robust technology solutions. From my interviews, I found that many rely heavily on spreadsheets to manage internal data, along with a mix of tools like CRM systems, business intelligence dashboards, and volunteer sign-up platforms. To better understand the landscape, I also conducted a competitive analysis of existing solutions to identify gaps and opportunities.
key competitors
Overview
Salesforce is a leader in CRM and analytics, offering robust capabilities.
Strengths:
Strong reporting and analytics capabilities.
Highly customizable with integration options
Weaknesses:
High cost for small organizations with limited resources.
Core focus on CRM activities over fundraising or volunteer management.
Overview
Keela is an all-in-one platform built specifically for nonprofits, including donor management, fundraising, and volunteer tracking.
Strengths:
Clean and accessible dashboard
Automative tasks and communication tools streamline workflows
Weaknesses:
Limited customization compared to larger platforms.
Less robust volunteer management features.
Overview
Bloomerang’s platform caters to small to mid-sized nonprofits, particularly those that focus on donor retention and relationship management.
Strengths:
Built-in fundraising tools, including donation processing and campaign tracking.
Offers a robust donor insights dashboard with actionable data.
Weaknesses:
Limited volunteer management features.
Lacks some advanced customization and integration options.
Through this competitive analysis, I identified clear opportunities to design a more integrated, user-centered platform. Many nonprofits—especially small to mid-sized ones—struggle with fragmented systems and costly integrations across CRM, fundraising, and volunteer management tools. I saw a strong case for an all-in-one solution that simplifies workflows, enhances collaboration, and reduces operational friction. The research also revealed gaps in volunteer management and mobile and tablet accessibility—areas often treated as secondary but essential for real-world impact.
user persona
From research, I developed a primary user persona named Jack, a development professional at a mid-sized nonprofit, whose role involves managing donor relationships, running engagement reports, and communicating program impact. Jack is organized, mission-driven, and collaborative, but often faces time-consuming workflows, difficulty accessing key insights, and limited visibility into team activities. His needs centered around streamlining daily tasks, simplifying reporting tools, and enabling better collaboration.
Define
trade-offs
At the outset of the project, my initial research spanned several functional areas within nonprofits, from development to program and volunteer management. However, as I delved deeper, it became clear that the scope needed to be more focused to ensure meaningful impact within the project timeline.
After reflecting on the most pressing challenges faced by nonprofit teams, I decided to narrow my focus to one of the key pain points: managing and acting on data. This decision allowed me to zero in on refining the most crucial workflows, particularly around data visualization and interaction within the dashboard.
Honing my focus
Nonprofit teams need centralized tools to save time and access insights faster. 100% of users expressed frustrations with the need to gather data across fragmented systems to track key KPIs and impact data. With so much time spent on data retrieval, teams often struggle to present a unified story of their impact.
How might we create an integrated solution that centralizes data and streamlines operations for nonprofit staff to be able to reach actionable insights quicker?
problem statement
Through my research, I discovered that dashboards are not just a tool, but a powerful way to quickly tell a story with data—helping users see the bigger picture at a glance.
Users I spoke with highlighted that they handle large volumes of data daily, and dashboards allow them to digest and understand key insights faster than traditional spreadsheets. Interestingly, many users shared that they feel more confident making decisions when data is visualized clearly—allowing them to identify trends and issues in real-time.
From a competitive analysis, I found that while many existing solutions offer dashboards, they often fall short in providing the level of interactivity and customization that nonprofit teams need. Nonprofits, in particular, have diverse teams with different expertise levels, so having dashboards that make data accessible to everyone, regardless of their department or technical skills, was a consistent user need. This insight further emphasized the opportunity to create a solution that not only saves time but also enhances collaboration across teams by providing clear, actionable insights.
Telling a story with data
envisioning the product
unique value proposition
Design. Test. Iterate.
user flows
Thinking through edge cases and collaboration
To make sure the dashboard met real user needs, I created two user flows based on my persona, Jack—a nonprofit development director. These flows focused on two common tasks: running a donor report and adding a follow-up note after a meeting.
Mapping out these steps helped me better understand Jack’s experience and spot ways to improve the dashboard. I was able to simplify key flows, like the reporting interface, and make frequently used information easier to access, creating a more streamlined experience.
The process also helped me identify moments where collaboration happens, such as tagging teammates or assigning tasks, and helped me identify edge cases—like missing data in reports or incomplete donor records—that the product needed to handle gracefully.
I began by exploring a variety of layout options for the dashboard, experimenting with different ways to organize key information and actions based on user priorities. My goal was to balance clarity with functionality—ensuring that high-frequency tasks were easy to access without overwhelming the user with too much information at once.
After developing several initial wireframes, I gathered feedback through an initial round of usability testing to understand what was working and where improvements were needed. Their insights helped me identify areas that needed simplification, better hierarchy, or clearer visual cues.
Using that feedback, I refined the wireframes into higher-fidelity flows, focusing on improving the overall user experience. This included fine-tuning layout structure, interaction patterns, and visual design to ensure the dashboard not only looked polished but also supported a more intuitive and efficient workflow.
Bringing the product to life
wireframes
During the high-fidelity phase, I optimized data visualizations for greater clarity and actionable insights, while streamlining dashboard controls to boost user efficiency.
KPI Dashboard
In the high-fidelity phase, I refined the report list to clearly display different report states and enable quick actions.
Report Generation
During the high-fidelity phase, I revamped the donor page by grouping actions to reduce UI clutter and confusion, and enabled quick actions like tagging directly from the list to enhance efficiency.
Donor Records
usability testing
To evaluate the usability of the dashboard, I conducted moderated testing with five nonprofit professionals, focusing on key workflows like managing donor records, generating reports, and viewing KPIs. The results were promising—participants completed 100% of tasks for KPI viewing and donor record updates, and 80% successfully ran a donor report. On average, tasks were completed in under 45 seconds with a strong usability rating of 4.6 out of 5, highlighting the interface’s clarity and ease of use. Notably, users appreciated the clean design, pre-filled templates, and straightforward navigation.
What I Heard from Users:
Some users found the KPI graphs a bit tricky to scan quickly—they wanted clearer labels and more context to make sense of the data at a glance.
When running reports, there was confusion around choosing between “Template” and “Custom” options—users weren’t always sure which one was right for their needs.
In the donor records, collaboration came up a lot. People wanted to assign notes, set reminders, and remove clutter like Donor ID fields that weren’t helpful day-to-day. They also asked for sorting and filtering to make the data more manageable.
Conducting moderated usability tests
key iterations
Improve clarity and accessibility
Streamlining report workflows
Enhancing collaboration and accountability
responsiveness
To meet the needs identified through user research, I designed responsive dashboard screens that adapt seamlessly across mobile and tablet devices. This enhancement provides professionals with greater flexibility, allowing them to access key features whether they’re in the office, in the field, or attending events—ensuring productivity on the go.
Optimizing the dashboard across devices
Outcome
The final prototype was tested by staff from small to mid-sized nonprofits, simulating real-world tasks like viewing KPIs, compiling reports, and updating donor records. All participants (100%) completed their workflows without assistance, highlighting the interface’s intuitiveness.
Compared to existing tools, users reported an estimated 40–60% improvement in workflow efficiency, with fewer steps and less time required for key tasks like donor follow-ups and insights. This confirms the prototypes potential to empower smaller nonprofits with streamlined, user-friendly tools.
“This combines three different systems we’re currently using and is so much easier.”
Reflection
Making data actionable
One of the biggest challenges in this project was designing data visualizations that were both meaningful and digestible. Early user testing revealed that many nonprofit professionals struggled to interpret the data—highlighting that they didn’t just need charts; they needed insights. This required me to rethink the dashboard’s role from simply presenting information to actively supporting decision-making.
Another challenge was navigating complex user flows tied to nonprofit operations, such as managing duplicate records and enabling cross-team collaboration.
Finally, scope management posed its own difficulty. My initial research uncovered several functional pain points across fundraising, volunteer coordination, and data tracking. To ensure a focused and effective outcome, I had to prioritize, narrowing in on the area where I could deliver the most impact: data-driven decision support.
Designing for complex workflows
This project significantly expanded my ability to design for complex, business-facing tools. I learned how to distill technical, often overwhelming information into clear, actionable interfaces—particularly important when working with users who may not have a technical background.
I also deepened my understanding of the importance of strategic design trade-offs. By narrowing the scope, I was able to go deeper into solving a core problem rather than spreading the solution too thin.
Most importantly, this experience reinforced the value of collaboration with subject matter experts and iterative usability testing. Their insights helped ensure that the final solution was not only functional, but genuinely aligned with the way nonprofits operate day-to-day.