Last updated: February 25, 2025
Preface
This is an ongoing side project with no clear deadline.
Ark Missions is a non-profit Canadian charity that sends and supports international missionaries. This side project started with myself and my co-founder, now working alongside a team of 5. We recognized that Christian missions work needed a platform, so we created Ark Missions.
The charity's purpose is to call Christian's into action by either supporting missions work financially or to become involved in missions themselves. This looks different for every missional opportunity; sometimes it's feeding the poor, caring for the broken-hearted, and the like.
The project began February 2024 as we incorporated, then applied for charitable status (~10 months wait), and now growing our small team of part-timers helping with software development and content creation. Below I will share about the work involved in this project and the direction it is taking.
My Approach
Ark Missions is meticulously designed to fill the gap between donors and missionaries. We focused our user experience based on our three target audiences: donors, missionaries, and those interested in getting involved in missions work. Every aspect—from color styles and text styles—is crafted to enhance storytelling and user engagement. By employing a clean yet youthful layout, Ark Missions ensures a platform that calls our audience to action.
Vision and Innovation
The vision began to create a website and mobile app, offering core functionalities of receiving and sending payments with the lowest possible fees, sharing missional opportunities and applying as a recognized missionary. Operating in a blue ocean, no alternatives offered a similar service within the Canadian market. This benefits the charity greatly as it's able to offer tax-deductible receipts to its donors. A recent law change by the Canadian Revenue Agency now allows charities to issue donations to non-qualified donees, meaning, donations can now be given to individuals (not only organizations) who fulfill the purposes of the charity. Ark Missions capitalizes on this timely change to offer simpler receiving of donations issued by the charity through its platform.
While the website continues to be updated and the mobile app launch date is on the horizon, there is a growing following from our socials pages, word-of-mouth, and personal connections. The long-term vision for this project is to be the go-to platform for all global missions activity.
Tech Stack and the Team
Our stack for designing and developing Ark Missions is Figma, Jira, React, Rails, Tailwind CSS, PostgreSQL, and a unique API to process Canadian payments. Our team began with myself and our co-founder, but has now expanded to six, with two senior software devs and one junior software dev. Currently, we all operate remotely and meet weekly for product updates.
Every two weeks, we conduct a sprint with various tasks within each. Sprints that aren't finished within the two week time frame are discussed amongst the team and most often moved forward to the next sprint.
Identifying Unique Challenges
Charities often face the issue of building trust, especially start-ups. Ark Missions tackles this head-on by providing a layout that strikes the perfect balance between urgency and trustworthiness. The charity does this through expressive story-telling, sharing testimonies of missions work and it's importance. The website design is made for transparency and simplicity with its easy-to-navigate pages and clear communication of values.
Resolving Complex Problems
The most complex problem Ark Missions faces is receiving online payments. While it's possible to use a simple API to receive payments, such as Stripe, we want to provide an option that would eliminate transaction fees altogether. As a Canadian charity, we chose to use a Canadian bank API that allows for Interac E-transfer. This is a no transaction option for donating towards the charity, and a way for the charity to issue donations to non-qualified donees. To do this, we opened up a bank account and began working within their development portal. This method also allowed us to store information in our database for tax-deducible receipt generation at the end of the fiscal year.
Another major hurdle for many charities is identifying a style that evokes interest for its target audience. Many charities face outdated designs and information overload on their web pages. Ark Missions resolves this through a youthful design while sharing simplified information in a professional manner.
User-Centric Design
Ark Missions website is built around the principles of user-centricity, making sure every visitor clearly knows the charity's offering. We conduct user stories to better understand what our target audience might be searching for and how they find the information. We then create a service blueprint to understand how a user might navigate the website and reach its intended goal.
The layout is designed with a clear call to action: donate or get involved. The intention is to have the least amount of steps necessary for a user to get to it's end goal. As well. the simple navigation bar has direct links to the website's core five functions: current missionaries, stories of missions work, missions work opportunities, donating, and creating an account. Following this approach, users aren't flooded with over information or too many pathways.
Detailed Pages and Features
Home: The landing page. Combined with engaging visuals and concise messaging, this page serves as the information portal.
Who We Are: A transparent and intuitive breakdown of the charity. This page describes our mission, purpose, core tenets, and FAQ.
Missionaries: A user-friendly page to showcase accounts of missionaries, for those interested in financially supporting, contacting, or simply hearing their involvement in missions work.
Stories: Visually captivating testimonies of missions work experiences intended to compel the viewer into action.
Opportunities: A breakdown of how the viewer can get involved in missions work. This page displays opportunities posted by missional associations and approved by the charity.
Donate: A simple pop-up with as few steps as possible for a viewer to donate to the charity.
Conclusion
This project is more than just a website. Ark Missions Foundation operates as a central marketplace for opportunities, funding, inspiration, and resources for the advancement of missions activity. As this is a new project, it is currently ongoing and subject to changes.
