Upstream
A Scalable Foundation for Impact
Upstream is a fast-growing nonprofit organization working to make equitable, patient-centered contraceptive care a standard part of healthcare across the United States. As their impact expanded into multiple states, so did the complexity of their work combining education, policy, clinical outcomes, partnerships, and large-scale success metrics.
Client
Upstream USA — Nonprofit Healthcare Organization
Responsibility
Upstream UX strategy and information architecture for a mission-driven organization at national scale.
Project Category
Upstream Strategy · Website Redesign · Information Architecture · UX Strategy
Upstream faced a dual challenge rooted in complexity and scale.
On one side, the organization needed to present dense, data-driven, content, metrics, statistics, state-level outcomes, and impact reporting without overwhelming new users or creating confusion at the first point of contact.
On the other side, the site needed to clearly signal credibility, maturity, and national impact to experienced audiences such as activists, donors, funders, and institutional partners showing the breadth of their work across many states while keeping information accurate, consistent, and controlled.
The core challenge was balance:
Educating without intimidating
Demonstrating scale without feeling inaccessible
Supporting multiple audiences without fragmenting the experience
The goal wasn’t to simplify the organization’s work but to make its complexity feel intentional, navigable, and trustworthy.
Led the definition of a clear, scalable website foundation that transformed a complex, data-heavy organization into an intuitive and credible digital experience.
By structuring information around distinct user needs and guiding narrative flow, the site successfully balanced education, impact, and scale improving engagement, strengthening trust with partners and funders, and enabling Upstream to communicate national impact with confidence. This work reinforced the value of upstream leadership: investing in alignment, structure, and problem framing early created clarity downstream and supported sustainable growth.
