Website Design

We seek a web designer to create structure and design options for our nonprofit website. We are currently hosting our site on WordPress. The volunteer should assess and incorporate our goals and needs and consider our key audiences. The designer should also assess our technical capabilities. The project's deliverable is a draft of architecture and design concepts that we can easily share with a web developer volunteer or a member of our team who will use the guide to create our new site.

We are seeking a skilled volunteer to help us audit, clean up, and enhance our WordPress website — ensuring everything is functioning properly and that our site reflects the quality of our work.
This engagement will span six to nine weeks across multiple working sessions and check-ins. Here's what the process will look like:
-Discovery & Assessment: In our first meeting, the volunteer will interview our team to understand our desired features, current web capabilities, and technical expertise. From that conversation, they'll synthesize key takeaways into a clear requirements briefing to guide the work ahead.
-Site Audit & Design Planning: The volunteer will conduct a thorough audit of our current site and use those findings to develop a draft of the site architecture and design options — including wireframes, site structure, and other visual elements.
-Ongoing Collaboration: Throughout the engagement, we'll hold regular check-ins where one or more team members will review progress and provide feedback to keep the work aligned with our vision.

How This Project Supports Our Mission
Every young person deserves access to programs that help them grow, lead, and thrive — and our website is often the first door they walk through to find us.
Y-KNOT Inc. is a nonprofit organization serving 600+ youth annually across Prince George's County, Maryland and Cumberland County, New Jersey. We provide mentoring, social-emotional learning, college preparation, workforce development, and life skills programming that meets young people where they are and walks with them toward where they're going. Our work changes trajectories — and a stronger, more functional website helps us reach more of the young people who need us most.
Here's the impact your skills will unlock:

Families will find us faster. A clean, well-organized site means parents searching for after-school programs, mentoring, or youth development resources can quickly discover what Y-KNOT offers — and connect with us before opportunity passes them by.
Donors and funders will trust us more. A polished, professional website signals organizational credibility. That credibility translates into contributions that fund scholarships, program supplies, and staff who show up for our youth every single day.
Youth will see themselves in our story. Our programs — from our college readiness initiative BRIDGE to our workforce development program Blueprint: Build Your Future — deserve to be showcased in a way that excites and inspires the young people they were built for.
Partners will say yes. Schools, community organizations, and corporate sponsors evaluate us online before they ever pick up the phone. A strong digital presence opens doors to collaborations that expand our reach and deepen our impact.

When you give your time to this project, you're not just fixing a website — you're helping a determined team of youth advocates show up more powerfully for the communities that need them most. Your technical expertise becomes a young person's opportunity. That's the Y-KNOT way.

How We've Set This Project Up for Success
We come to this engagement prepared and ready to be a true partner in this work. Here's what we've done to set this project up for success from day one:
-Internal Alignment & Leadership Buy-In: Our Executive Director is directly involved in and championing this project, which means decisions get made quickly and feedback won't get lost in layers of approval. Our team is aligned on the need for this work and committed to showing up for every scheduled meeting and check-in.
-Materials & Access Ready to Go: We have our current login credentials, hosting information, and administrative access to our WordPress site ready to share with our volunteer in a secure manner. We've also begun identifying the pain points, broken links, and functionality gaps we'd like addressed — so our first conversation can be focused and productive.
-Clear Vision for Implementation: This isn't a project that will sit in a folder. Our team actively manages our website as a tool for community outreach, program promotion, and donor engagement. Any updates and enhancements made during this engagement will be implemented immediately and maintained as part of our regular operations.
-Organizational Capacity to Follow Through: We have staff and volunteers who support our communications and digital presence. The outcomes of this project will be handed off with clear ownership so improvements are sustained long after the engagement ends.
We are committed to being responsive, respectful of your time, and genuinely collaborative. We know that pro bono volunteers give their best when they feel like valued partners — and that's exactly how we'll treat you.