The Bernard Sunley Foundation

The Bernard Sunley Foundation is a UK-based grant-making organisation supporting charitable initiatives of all sizes – from local community projects to national institutions, awarding over 350 grants each year, creating measurable social impact. 

Why the need for a new site?
The Foundation had identified a need to improve its online presence with a digital platform that would better reflect its position and sector standing, make it easier for applicants to engage, and deliver an exceptional user experience for all audiences.

Evolving the brand

The Foundation’s brand has strong equity within the sector and among its audiences. While continuing to lead with its distinct logo and vibrant green and grey pairing, we evolved the brand by bringing in a warm neutral to bridge and soften the palette. In application, this addition has strengthened and elevated the brand, with the new palette better supporting photographic imagery, and providing greater opportunity for typography and colour use in hover states, banners and interactive elements.

Designed for impact and built for the future

The resulting site is modern, polished, and applicant friendly. The new site makes application processe clearer and more accessible and engages audiences with the real-world impact of the Foundation’s giving through surfacing project case studies and beneficiary testimonials.

The modular WordPress build gives the team flexibility to create and manage content and the site has been built to be scalable and easy to maintain. Case studies can easily be surfaced across the site in different formats, helping to tell beneficiary stories and highlight the impact of grants.

By combining user-focused design, accessible development and a future-proof approach to the site’s architecture and navigation, the Foundation now has a digital platform built that can adapt and grow with their needs and future plans.

Designing for accessibility and engagement

Colour and typography use were updated for accessibility and subtle micro-animations add dynamism without being distracting for audiences. Page lengths were deliberately capped to reduce frustration, particularly for less digital confident audience groups. 

The site is designed not only for visual impact and usability but also for performance, with SEO best practices and advanced analytics built in to track engagement and inform future improvements.

Key successes

• Clearer applicant journey with persistent log-in for saved forms
• Engaging case studies highlighting funded projects
• Modular CMS enabling flexible content creation
• Accessible design compliant with standards.