The Challenge
TIDE Foundation does critical ocean conservation work across four continents — but their digital presence made them look like a local bake-sale fundraiser. Major donors were skeptical. Grant committees couldn't verify impact. And newly engaged supporters had no way to see where the work was happening or how their donation would matter.
The brief was ambitious: build a platform that communicates enterprise-level credibility, drives recurring donations, and gives the grant team a real productivity tool — all without a tech team to maintain it.
The Globe
The hero of the platform is a custom Three.js globe rendered directly in the browser. 34 active project sites glow as interactive markers across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Hovering any marker surfaces a brief description of that site's mission, current status, and impact metrics.
The globe isn't decorative — it's a trust engine. In the first thirty seconds on the site, a visitor understands TIDE operates globally, not locally. That perception shift changes the size of the donation.
Real-Time Impact Counter
Below the hero, a live ticker counts upward: tons of plastic removed, square miles of reef protected, research papers published. The numbers update from a live data feed — not static copy.
Donors who return to the site see the counter has moved. That single detail communicates something no testimonial can: this organization is working right now.
Platform outcomes
- Major donors respond to global credibility — the live globe communicates scale in the first scroll
- Grant committees can verify impact at any time — data is always current and auditable
- Live impact counter drives recurring donation intent — donors see their contribution working in real time
- AI grant assistant reduces first-draft writing time from days to under two hours
AI Grant Writing Assistant
Grant writing is one of the most time-consuming parts of running a nonprofit. TIDE's development team was spending weeks crafting applications that followed the same structure every time.
The platform includes an AI assistant trained on TIDE's mission, impact data, and past successful applications. The team inputs the grant name and key requirements; the assistant drafts a complete first response with streaming output — the text appears word by word, ready for human review and refinement. Not a replacement for their voice, but a 10x productivity tool.
Donation Automation & Donor Wall
The donation flow is fully automated with Stripe — one-time and recurring options, custom amount fields, and a post-donation confirmation sequence that delivers an impact summary specific to the amount given. A $50 gift gets told exactly how many square meters of reef it protects.
Every verified donation automatically adds the donor's name (with consent) to a live wall on the site. The wall refreshes without a page reload. New names appear in real time during campaigns, turning a fundraising drive into a visible community event.
Built with
The Result
A platform like this gives a conservation nonprofit the digital credibility to compete with organizations far larger. The combination of the live globe, real-time impact counter, and AI tooling equips a small team with capabilities that much larger organizations pay agencies six figures to build. It runs without a developer on staff — project locations and impact numbers update through a simple CMS layer.
"We showed the site at a board meeting and the room went quiet. One board member said it looked like something from National Geographic. We've had three major donors reach out directly after seeing the globe.