Background
Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission provides 24/7 support and recovery services for men, women, and children experiencing homelessness across King County.
The organization already had a powerful story. The website just was not carrying enough of it.
People came to the site for different reasons. Some needed help. Some wanted to donate. Some wanted to volunteer. Others wanted to understand the full scope of the Mission’s work before getting involved. The old experience did not guide those audiences clearly enough or create the emotional connection needed to turn interest into action.
Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission needed a website that could explain its services, share real stories, and make it easier for people to support the organization. Bonsai Media Group partnered with the Mission to redesign the website using Umbraco.
Solution
Bonsai Media Group rebuilt the Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission website around the people using it.
The team mapped the most common visitor journeys, then redesigned the site so each audience could find the right path more easily. Visitors looking for help, donors, volunteers, and community members were guided through clearer navigation, stronger storytelling, and more intentional calls to action.
The new Umbraco website used real stories, photography, video, and interactive content to show the full impact of the Mission’s work. Instead of only explaining what the organization does, the site helped visitors understand the people behind the services and the life-changing support available across King County.
Bonsai also built custom Umbraco tools to make content management easier. The site included a custom icon picker, a flexible link control for internal content, external URLs and modals, and animated homepage experiences supported by GreenSock’s ScrollTrigger plugin.
With Umbraco, Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission gained a website that could support emotional storytelling, clear donation paths, volunteer engagement, and long-term content needs.
Impact
The redesigned Umbraco website helped Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission turn more visitor attention into real support for its work.
By improving user journeys, adding stronger calls to action, and building the site around real stories from the Mission community, Bonsai Media Group created a digital experience that helped more people understand the organization’s impact and take the next step.
The results after 1 year were significant. Donations increased by 118%, adding more than $1 million quarterly. The average donation amount increased by 45%, and total revenue increased by 215%.
For a nonprofit serving people across King County 24/7, those results matter. More donations and stronger engagement mean more support for people experiencing homelessness, more awareness of the Mission’s services, and a website that better reflects the scale of the work being done.
Results
