Raisedays

SaaS fintech platform for nonprofit fundraising

RaiseDays is a SaaS fintech platform designed to help nonprofits, charities, and community organizations raise funds through digital campaigns.

Role & Context

Role: Lead Frontend Developer · UX/UI Designer · Project Lead
Platform type: SaaS · Fintech · Fundraising
Technologies: Angular 7 · Angular Material · REST APIs
Industry: Nonprofit · Fundraising · Financial technology
Market: North America
Year: 2018–2021

Project Overview

The project involved building the RaiseDays platform from the ground up, including both the public-facing fundraising campaigns and a backend administrative system for organizations to manage campaigns, data, and operations.

The platform was designed to support secure fundraising, clear user journeys, and scalable campaign management, while remaining accessible to non-technical nonprofit teams.

I led a cross-functional team of four developers, covering frontend, backend, and database development.

Her work on the Raise Days platform demonstrated her ability to think outside of the box, introducing new approaches to UI, UX, data management, security implications, and feature sets.

My Role

I led the project from its early stages through multiple iterations, taking responsibility for both technical execution and product direction.

My responsibilities included:

Frontend architecture and development (Angular)
UX/UI design for campaign and admin interfaces
Translating business requirements into usable flows
Coordinating frontend, backend, and database work
Feature planning and milestone delivery
QA, testing, debugging, and responsive behavior

In addition to development, I played a key role in product thinking, contributing ideas around UX, data management, security implications, and feature design.

The Challenge

Building RaiseDays involved more than designing interfaces — it required aligning fundraising goals, technical constraints, security considerations, and multiple user types within a single scalable platform.

Business Challenges

Supporting nonprofits with limited technical knowledge
Creating a platform flexible enough to serve multiple organizations and campaigns
Balancing ease of use with the operational complexity of fundraising
Building trust for both organizations and donors
Delivering features incrementally while the platform was actively evolving

UX Challenges

Designing for multiple user roles with very different needs:
- Donors
- Nonprofit administrators
- Platform administrators
Creating a donation flow that felt:
- Simple
- Transparent
- Secure
Reducing friction in high-stakes moments (donations)
Ensuring the admin interface was usable by non-technical users
Maintaining clarity across data-heavy interfaces

Technical & Product Challenges

Building a scalable frontend architecture using Angular 7
Designing reusable UI components that could evolve with new features
Managing data integrity, permissions, and role-based access
Considering security implications within a fintech context
Maintaining performance and responsiveness across devices

Team & Delivery Challenges

Leading and coordinating a distributed team of four developers
Working across multiple countries and time zones
Managing asynchronous communication and handoffs
Coordinating frontend, backend, and database development
Managing milestones, testing, QA, and debugging
Delivering features under real-world pressure and timelines
Ensuring consistent UX quality across the platform

Key Decisions & Trade-offs

Building RaiseDays required making deliberate decisions and trade-offs across UX, technology, and team coordination.

Balancing simplicity vs. flexibility

Decision: Keep the donation and campaign creation flows simple, even if it meant limiting advanced configuration options in early versions.
Trade-off: Reduced feature complexity in favor of usability for non-technical nonprofit teams.

Progressive feature delivery

Decision: Deliver the platform incrementally while it was actively being used and tested.
Trade-off: Required continuous iteration, QA, and refinement instead of a single “final” release.

Reusable architecture vs. speed

Decision: Invest time upfront in reusable frontend components using Angular and Angular Material.
Trade-off: Slower initial development in exchange for long-term scalability and maintainability.

Security awareness without friction

Decision: Design donation and admin flows that felt transparent and trustworthy without exposing unnecessary complexity.
Trade-off: Some advanced data visibility was intentionally restricted to protect users and maintain platform integrity.

Asynchronous collaboration

Decision: Adopt async-first communication to coordinate a distributed team across multiple countries and time zones.
Trade-off: Required strong documentation, clear handoffs, and disciplined milestone planning to avoid blockers.