How nonprofits explain their work to the world.
For nonprofit leaders, communicators, fundraisers, and curious observers of the social sector.
Hello Impact studies how nonprofit organizations communicate their work in digital spaces. Through an ongoing archive of Field Notes, the project documents the design choices, messages, and participation signals that shape how the public encounters social impact work online.
Follow the Field Notes to see how nonprofits design digital experiences that explain their work, invite participation, and build trust with the public.
What We Study |
The research focuses on three core questions that shape how nonprofit work becomes visible to the public.
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How social problems are introduced, framed, and translated for public understanding through language, narrative, and the balance between stories and metrics.
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How supporters are positioned within the story, including calls to action, donation framing, volunteer invitations, and how the public’s role in solving social problems is defined.
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The visual and narrative signals that communicate legitimacy online, including partnerships, coalitions, impact metrics, endorsements, and institutional relationships. Together these signals influence how the public understands social issues and decides whether to engage.
Recent Field Notes |
Recent observations documenting how nonprofit organizations design digital experiences that explain their work, invite participation, and signal credibility.
Research Framework |
The research currently focuses on several recurring communication environments:
Homepage and first-interaction design
Social media and campaign landing pages
Digital storytelling and narrative framing
Calls to action, donor journeys, and supporter roles
Visual storytelling and imagery
Campaign messaging and urgency framing
Trust and credibility signals
How impact is translated into public language
Field Notes examine specific communication choices across nonprofit websites, campaigns, and digital storytelling environments. Each observation considers how organizations explain their work, invite participation, and signal credibility during a visitor’s interaction with their digital presence.
Over time, these observations build a record of how nonprofit organizations structure digital experiences that introduce their work to the public.
Current Research |
Hello Impact documents how nonprofits communicate their work in digital spaces. Through an ongoing series called Field Notes, the project examines nonprofit websites, campaigns, and digital storytelling to observe patterns in how organizations:
explain the problem
position supporters within the solution
signal credibility and scale
Each Field Note captures one communication choice and considers how it shapes the way the public encounters social impact work online.
Insights from these observations are shared through the Field Notes archive and periodic sector reflections.
Who We Are |