Kuja
2025
A platform connecting nonprofits with grants, designed from zero.
CONTEXT
Kuja connects nonprofit organizations with funding opportunities, with a specific bias: surfacing organizations with small budgets and high social impact that funders never see. Studio project, from ideation to validated prototype.
SCOPE
Product definition · 12 interviews with NGOs, foundations and grantmakers · Information architecture and key flows · Interactive prototypes · 3 rounds of usability testing with 18 users
THE PROBLEM
Three things came up in every interview: small organizations couldn't access funds, nobody could see the work they were doing, and the actors in the ecosystem barely talked to each other. A grant directory would solve none of that.
DECISIONS
1. A network, not a directory. Both organizations and funders get profiles, post updates, publish or apply for grants, and connect. Visibility is the product; the grant listing is one feature inside it.
2. The application flow built for the applicant's reality. Small teams, little time, no grant writer. Every step asks for what a funder needs to decide and nothing more.
3. Discovery designed for equity. Surfacing isn't driven by size or history, so a two-person organization with real impact is findable next to the established ones.
THREE ROUNDS OF TESTING
Each round changed the application flow and the discovery section. By the final iteration, the clarity of the application and the direct contact between organizations and funders were what users valued most.
WHAT STAYS WITH ME
The decision that defined the product was the model, network versus directory, not any screen. Getting that right early is what a zero-to-one is.