The Capacity Lab
The Capacity Lab is a nonprofit, collective-impact initiative that works to strengthen nonprofit leaders and organizations throughout Chautauqua County. Through the combined efforts of six local funders and with support from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, they seek to align resources and develop collaborative strategies that strengthen the county’s nonprofit sector.
The Capacity Lab hired Project Director Noah Goodling as its first full-time employee in December 2021. When Noah reached out to me, it was because the time had come to give The Capacity Lab an online presence.
The pleasure was mine! I’m a Chautauqua County native and still have family there. To be even a small part of helping local nonprofits grow their capacity, serve more people, and do more good is GOLD.
Kind words
Working with Kristen was a great experience! She was very clear and upfront about the process from the get-go, and continued to make herself accessible to answer questions whenever they came up. I always felt like I was informed and in control of what was happening, what my options were, and how my website would turn out. Kristen was also very patient in working with me as my schedule got hectic at a few points, and never made me feel like my website wasn't a priority or didn't fit in to her schedule. Her constant professionalism, positive attitude, and down-to-earth vibe made this potentially stressful process easy, approachable, and painless. Highly recommended!
Noah Goodling, Project Director
What an awesome website! These resources are phenomenal, really! Nice job—the site is intuitive and easy to navigate, and the resources are great!
TCL Website Visitor
The web design process
The Capacity Lab is an organization without equal, which made it both a challenge and a delight to decide what information the website should include and how that information should be presented to visitors. I worked closely with Noah to put together a sitemap and a rough content sketch. With his approval, I created a wording outline that he could fill in with the help of internal stakeholders and board members.
Two of the most important aspects of the site are the events calendar and Resources page. Both are designed to help nonprofits quickly find capacity-building events and information, like social media toolkits and best practices related to Boards of Directors and financial reporting.
Anchored by three neon colors, the Capacity Lab’s brand is bold—to say the least! I kept the site simple and clean, but leaned into those bold colors and used their chat bubble logomark to create splashy sections that would call attention to important information.
I played around with some custom CSS to create subtle drop shadows and hover effects, and had a lot of fun using Squarespace’s new Fluid Engine builder to create layers around the chat bubble logomark. I love how it all came together.
Take a look at their new website home page!
