Case Study — St. Matthew Food Pantry (Pro Bono)
About The Client
St. Matthew Food Pantry is an all-volunteer food pantry that has fed families in Dorchester, MA for more than 40 years. Every Friday morning, volunteers hand out groceries to roughly 100 families at an outdoor, walk-up distribution outside Wesley Child Care Center; no appointment, no paperwork, no need to come inside.
The pantry stocks the foods that are hardest for families to find, including fresh dairy, eggs, produce, and frozen proteins. Its longtime supporting partner, St. Eulalia Parish in Winchester, MA, runs "Christmas in July," an annual food and fundraising drive that keeps the shelves stocked through the rest of the year.
After decades of operating on word of mouth, the pantry recently earned its own 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. That milestone opened the door to formal fundraising, but there was no website, no logo, and no way to give online.
Our Role
St. Matthew Food Pantry joined our Pro Bono Program as this year's nonprofit partner. We led the project end to end — strategy, content, brand, design, development, and launch — so a team of volunteers could get a professional web presence without carrying the technical load. Our goal was to give them a site that could:
- Accept donations online, securely, for the first time
- Introduce a 40-year neighborhood institution to donors and volunteers who had never heard of it
- Turn volunteer, food drive, and student community service interest into real conversations
- Promote "Christmas in July" and the specific items the pantry needs most
- Reflect their new 501(c)(3) status with credibility and the right disclosures
- Stay simple enough for volunteers to manage, while leaving room to grow
The Challenge
- Starting from zero — No website, no logo, no brand colors, no domain, and no photography. Every piece of the online presence had to be created, not refreshed.
- No way to give online — Fundraising depended entirely on cash and checks from people who already knew the pantry. Their top request was to receive donations online, done securely and correctly for a newly registered Massachusetts nonprofit.
- Several audiences, one small site — Donors, corporate and parish supporters, volunteers, food drive organizers, and students looking for service hours all needed a clear path, without turning a simple site into a maze.
- Volunteer-run, built to last — There is no staff and no IT team. The site needed to be easy to update and ready to scale over time.
Our Process
We moved in four clear stages, with one approval gate before any development began. That kept a volunteer team's time focused on decisions, not revisions.
1. Kickoff & Discovery
We started with a kickoff meeting to understand how the pantry really works and what the website had to do. We followed up with a detailed website brief covering their mission, audiences, programs, and compliance needs.
2. Logo, Brand & Design System in Claude Design
With no existing brand to work from, we built one. Using Claude Design, we created the pantry's logo, color palette, typography, and a complete design system before a single page was built in Webflow.
- Custom logo
- Warm and grounded palette
- Friendly and readable font
- Reusable components
- Accessibility from the start
3. Webflow Development
We translated the approved design system into Webflow, matching the components one to one so the live site stays consistent and easy to maintain.
- Fully responsive build for desktop, tablet, and mobile.
- An Events page and reusable event template, launched with "Christmas in July" and ready for future fundraisers.
- Content volunteers can manage without touching code.
4. Online Donations: Guiding the Pantry Through Its First Digital Giving
Receiving donations online was the pantry's top request, and it was the part of the project where they needed the most guidance. We walked them through the process step by step:
- Choosing a payment partner: we recommended a PCI-compliant third-party processor, so card data never touches the website.
- Setting it up correctly: we supported the account setup and connected it to the site's Donate page and donation calls to action.
- Keeping longtime donors comfortable: the Donate page also offers a clear option to give by check, with a mailing address and an explanation of how receipts and tax acknowledgments work.
5. Launch
We connected the new .org domain and launched the site at stmatthewfoodpantry.org. For the first time in more than 40 years, anyone in Greater Boston can find the pantry, learn how it works, and support it online in a few clicks.
Results & Impact
- Online giving, for the first time — Donors can now give securely from any device, alongside the traditional check option.
- A brand built from scratch — A logo, palette, and design system that feel as warm and familiar as the pantry itself.
- Clear paths for every kind of helper — Volunteers, food drive organizers, and students each can reach out.
- Built to grow — Reusable components and an events template mean the pantry can add fundraisers, pages, and features without starting over.
Conclusion
As a pro bono partnership, this project reflects what our program is for: helping community organizations do more of the work that matters, with tools that are simple to run and ready to grow. If you know a nonprofit that could use the same kind of support, read the terms of our pro bono program and pass it along.
Great experience for developing new website
Our non-profit was looking to start a website after operating without one for over 40 years. The Rapid Fire team could not have been more helpful. They listened attentively to our needs and delivered way above our expectations. They knew what we needed more than we did. The suggestions that they made were spot on. They responded to questions true to their name, with “rapid fire”. It has been a pleasure working with them. We are just underway with our new website, and we are looking forward to growing with Rapid Fire. They are terrific!
Proven Results
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