With deep roots in Flint, Michigan and a nearly 100 year history of philanthropic work, the Mott Foundation is a global force for positive change in the areas of education, civil society, and the environment.
For the team at Mott, the website platform they used to tell that story of impact wasn’t keeping up. Thousands of grantees, a stream of recent wins, and the stories of progress, both in Flint and across the globe, were hidden behind evergreen content and an administrative interface that made updates clunky and hard.
So Teal and Mott got to work on a visual and functional rebuild of mott.org. The result is a thorough reimagining of one of America’s great philanthropic institutions, setting the stage for its next century of impact.
After a deep discovery process with stakeholders from across the Foundation, Teal crafted an inspiring, engaging user experience that:
- Foregrounds the Foundation’s news and updates to keep the site feeling fresh and timely
- Highlights how Mott empowers communities and drives change through their programmatic work
- Shares how Mott’s work and impact are rooted in a rich history of innovative grantmaking
- Transforms how the Mott team manages content, including their extensive grants database
- Pushes the Foundation’s visual brand forward with sophisticated new colors, typography, and iconography
Pushing the Mott Brand Forward
Teal modernized Mott’s overall design with a sophisticated new look and feel that expands their brand while staying connected to the tradition of this institution that was founded in 1926. We wrapped the design together with front-end code that uses animation and custom icons to make the site feel alive with personality and motion.
Strengthening Flint and Communities Around the World
Under the broad vision of “promoting a just, equitable and sustainable society,” Mott actively funds and supports innovative grantees across its civil society, education, environment, and Flint program areas. Teal created a clear new structure for the “What We Do” section that uses color and icons to differentiate among the program areas, while making it clear that they’re all part of a larger whole.
Within each program area, users can dig deep into vision for the work, the grants Mott funds, recent news and wins, and rich stories of impact from decades of investment.
Building a Better Grants System
On the back end, we completely overhauled the way the team creates and manages content with flexible components, featured news and updates, and a new grants database that makes filtering 9,000+ grants a joy. Features include:
- Unconventional data sync: Mott’s grant entries come from a CSV file; the site checks for entires nightly and automatically creates new grant posts to match
- Easy navigation: With new fast filtering and a logical UI/UX, the database feels snappy and fun to browse—so users can quickly find exactly what they want
- Visual and alive: Judicious use of screen animation makes filtering, reading about specific grants, and navigating through the database smooth and enjoyable
Setting the Stage for Mott’s Next Century
Ninety-six years after its founding, the Mott Foundation has built a powerful network of programs and grantees to push forward its vision for a more just and equitable world. In the words of the Mott team, “we stick with the issues we care about — and the grantees that have a record of success.” With a new website and a refreshed visual identity, the Foundation is set for its next century of impact. Teal is honored to be part of that story and to do our part to help our fellow Michiganders and people around the world.
Teal Media is a woman-owned full-service creative agency based in Washington, DC. We offer UX research, web design & development, brand strategy, and creative support to mission-driven and nonprofit partners. We believe purposeful design can transform organizations, inspire action, and enable progress.
