SETHI FOUNDATION · CASE STUDY 03
A new nonprofit's brand and website, built around trust
Brand strategy, identity, and website for the Sethi Foundation, a US nonprofit working in rural America and northern Pakistan.
- Role
- Sole designer. Brand strategy, identity, site structure, copy, and the build
- Tools
- Lovable · Google Docs
- Client
- The foundation's founder. The board signs off on brand decisions
- Timeline
- June – July 2026
01 · CONTEXT
Who the site is for
The Sethi Foundation is a new US 501(c)(3). It meets 4 needs together: health, nutrition, shelter, and financial aid. It works in the rural United States and in Gilgit-Baltistan, northern Pakistan. Its first field program is a cataract camp in Skardu, planned for fall 2026.
The founder expects most donors to be established, mid-income people, many from the Pakistani diaspora. They would be giving to an organization they have never heard of. And the money has to cross a border.
I asked the founder what would make a donor hesitate. The answer:
“if money can't be traced, and if organization is not audit-proof”
02 · PROBLEM
What the foundation needed
The foundation had a mission, bylaws, and a board. It had no website, no logo, and no visual identity.
It needed a site that did 2 jobs. Explain the mission plainly: 4 needs, 2 countries, one organization. And give a stranger enough reason to trust it with a gift.
The hard part was credibility. Most nonprofits earn it with results: meals served, patients treated, photos from the field. Sethi had none yet. Its first program was months away, so there was nothing to count and nothing to photograph. The founder wanted the site live within the month.
So the real question was how a new nonprofit looks credible before it has results to show.
03 · PROCESS
How I worked
I worked in stages, and each one fed the next.
Founder questionnaire. 27 questions on mission, audience, hesitation, imagery, and how visible faith should be.
Brand guidelines and identity. Positioning, voice, and imagery rules first, then the visual identity.
The mark is a pair of open, cupped hands lifting a seed. The hands stand for care and shelter. The amber seed stands for hope, raised toward self-sufficiency.
Cedar green leads. Bone and sage mist carry the backgrounds. Amber is an accent only, for calls to action and the logo seed. If amber is everywhere, it stops meaning anything.
Cedar green
#1E5B4C
Primary — the brand colour
Pine
#123B31
Depth, footers, hovers
Amber
#E0A24E
Accent only — highlights, CTAs, logo seed
Ink
#1A1D1C
Body text
Bone
#F6F1E8
Primary background
Sage mist
#E3EAE4
Secondary surfaces, dividers
Jobs and personas. 4 audiences, 6 core jobs, 4 donor personas. No donor research existed, so every one is labelled a hypothesis, not a finding.
Site structure, copy, and build. Written against the jobs and the voice, then built in Lovable and published on the foundation's domain.
One line, traced. The founder wanted an organization that is “audit-proof.” The guidelines turned that word into a rule: say “audit-ready,” never “audit-proof,” because no organization is. A promise nobody can keep invites the suspicion it is meant to calm. The live site now says so in plain words.
04 · SOLUTION
What I designed
The mission in one sentence. The home page states the whole model up front: 4 needs, met together, in the rural US and Gilgit-Baltistan. I named the region instead of saying “overseas,” so diaspora donors see a place they know.
A page for the money question. Our Approach answers where a gift goes before it asks for one. It lists 4 commitments: 501(c)(3) status, a bylaw that bars private benefit, a named board, and audit-ready books. Then it shows a gift's path in 3 steps.
Real numbers or none. The founder's brief asked for impact counters (“[X] Meals Delivered”) and tiers like “$50 – Supplies a family of four with staple food rations for a month.” With no program run, those figures would have been invented. I replaced them with a panel that says so: “we won't tell you ‘$50 = X meals’ - those numbers would be invented.” Real figures publish after the Skardu camp. The same rule covers what isn't ready. The cross-border step is labelled “Being confirmed by our board,” and each document shows its real status “rather than a broken link.”
Report, don't plead. The voice is a calm institution reporting results. People appear as capable partners, never as objects of pity. No field photos exist yet, so the site uses none rather than staged stock.
05 · OUTCOME
Where it stands
The site is live on the foundation's own domain, with the brand guidelines and identity behind it.
Much is still ahead. Online donations are not open. The tax documents, board profiles, and first audit publish at launch or after. The board has not confirmed the cross-border channel.
What I learned
This was my first project where I made everything from scratch: the logo, the colors, the brand, and the site. It showed me how each piece depends on the one before it. The brand came from what the founder told me, and the site came from the brand.
06 · EXPLORE THE BUILD
Visit the live site
The foundation's site is live on its own domain.