Team 4, More 4 Buffalo

Inspiration:

We were inspired by the need for greater transparency and community involvement in United Way’s work. Many residents know of United Way, but don't know exactly where their support goes and how it makes a difference, so we set out to build an engaging, data-driven way to share that impact and invite participation.

What it does:

More 4 Buffalo is an addition to the already made web platform that shows real-time community impact data, highlights success stories, maps areas of need, and allows residents to submit their own stories or feedback. It makes understanding and engaging with United Way’s mission easy and personal.

How we built it:

We designed a responsive React-based website with intuitive navigation, a color-coded interactive map powered by Map Services, AI-assisted content filtering for user-submitted stories, and live dashboards pulling from impact databases. We focused on accessibility, mobile-friendliness, and United Way’s brand standards.

Challenges we ran into:

The biggest challenge was that we had less than 24 hours to create this product, so some of these are mock due to the fact we were not able to create a fully working model of all of it in time.

Accomplishments that we're proud of:

We’re proud of creating a tool that not only visualizes impact clearly but also gives community members a voice. Bringing data and stories together in a cohesive, branded experience felt like a major achievement.

What we learned:

We learned the importance of designing with the community’s needs at the center, the complexities of real-time data integration, and how essential simplicity is in making impact data understandable to everyone.