save the light
The web home of the campaign to save the 1876 Morris Island Lighthouse — every donor honored by name, three centuries of history made browsable, every path to giving built in.
THE BRIEF
building the web home of a lighthouse rescue.
The Morris Island Lighthouse has stood off Charleston's coast since 1876 — and stood alone since 1965, when it was auctioned into private hands and left to the sea. Save the Light, Inc. is the grassroots nonprofit that bought it back for South Carolina and has carried its restoration ever since. A campaign like that runs on generosity, and generosity runs on being seen. The brief was the campaign's website: make the case for the rescue, honor every donor by name — from the giving circles to the lighthouse's own 203 steps — open three centuries of history to anyone who wanders in, and give supporters every possible way to give.
WHAT WE DID
01
the campaign's web home
- Designed and built the Save the Light WordPress site — the lighthouse at full bleed, the case for the rescue up front, and the campaign's impact counted in volunteers and dollars raised right on the homepage.
- Structured the site the way the organization actually works: the mission, the boards, the monthly meeting, the events that fund the work — from the annual Oyster Roast to the 5K and Half Marathon on Folly Beach.
02
a donor-recognition architecture
- Built the giving-circle system that honors every capital-campaign donor in their circle — Principal to Anchor, five hundred thousand dollars to a single dollar, every name in its place.
- Gave the Step Program its digital home — 203 lighthouse steps, each one namable in honor or in memory, each recorded on its own roll.
- Designed the donations-in-honor and donations-in-memory walls, the member rolls, and the phase-by-phase donor pages — a site where no gift goes unthanked.
03
three centuries, made browsable
- Composed the Brief History timeline — from the fire-basket beacon of 1673 to the campaign's own preservation phases — as a single scrolling story.
- Built the Lighthouse Keepers registry — the roll of keepers reconstructed from payroll records and family histories — and the Family Life archive, where the last lightkeepers' children share their photographs of life on the island.
- Housed the video library that lets the lighthouse speak for itself — drone flybys, documentaries, and the campaign's own films.
04
membership, store & every way to give
- Built the membership program pages — six tiers from Student to Sentinel of the Light, plus the Morris Island license-plate membership — each with its gifts and its path to join.
- Set up the campaign store and donation flows — by mail, by phone, or online through PayPal — so giving fits the giver, not the other way around.
THE OUTCOME
a campaign website where no gift — and no chapter of history — goes unseen.
203
LIGHTHOUSE STEPS, EACH NAMABLE IN HONOR OR MEMORY
350+
YEARS OF LIGHTHOUSE HISTORY, MADE BROWSABLE
6
MEMBERSHIP TIERS, PLUS STORE & DONATION FLOWS
NEXT CHAPTER
carrying a cause that deserves to be seen?
Let's build the home that moves people to give.