Building a donation platform from scratch — from its name to the trust it runs on
2019–2020
UX, UI, and brand for Znesnáze, a Czech crowdfunding platform for people in difficult life situations — today over 642M CZK raised, 4,877+ successful campaigns, and more than 613,000 donors.
Intro
We joined before there was a name, a brand, or a single screen.
The brief was: build an MVP of a donation platform that lets people in difficult life situations raise money from others. Currently the existing process ran on email and spreadsheets, donors hesitated at exactly the wrong moments, and the people who most needed help were the least comfortable asking for it.
So we didn't start with a website. We started with a question that shaped everything that followed: how do you make asking for help feel normal, and giving feel safe?
Team
Design (pospolu.design)
Matej Hlavacek, Zavis Pexidr, Ales Novotny
Client (Nadacni fond pomoci)
Cestmir Horky (director) and his team
Context
Znesnáze began as an initiative of Nadacni fond pomoci, the foundation established by Karel Janecek. The ambition was direct: make it easier for people in genuinely difficult situations to receive help from others. At the time, the Czech market had no platform that combined transparency, trust and ease of use in a single fundraising experience.
People were willing to help — but the path from "I want to help" to "I helped" was fragmented and unclear.
We were invited to shape the platform from the ground up: product strategy, user experience, naming, brand identity, and the product itself.
Challenge
A donation platform doesn't succeed on technology. It succeeds on trust.
Fundraisers — often at the lowest point of their lives — need support through an emotionally hard process without feeling exposed. And the foundation needed to run all of it transparently and credibly, at a pace that could get the platform live without cutting the corners that build trust.
Some parts of these case studies are intentionally private. If you're a recruiter or potential client, feel free to request access at hi@matejhlavacek.com.
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