Equitable Events is a nonprofit organization founded by Jeff after a night out at a hockey game in Boston with his kids. Looking around the arena, they noticed something that was hard to unsee: the crowd was not very diverse, and the reason was not complicated. Tickets to live games and concerts cost more than most families can justify, which quietly decides who gets to be in the room. Equitable Events exists to change that. Kids who cannot afford to attend can apply through the platform for a chance to win tickets to games, concerts, and other live events, awarded at random so that every applicant has a fair shot.
Jeff came to us with a concept and a conviction, not a company. There was no brand, no platform, and no blueprint for how any of it would work. The idea was clear in his head: kids apply, winners are drawn at random, families who could never justify the cost of a ticket get to be in the building. Turning that into something real meant building every layer from nothing. It needed an identity that communicated fairness instantly, a working application that could handle applications and random selection with integrity, and a public face where donors and parents could learn about the mission and contribute to it. For a nonprofit, every one of those pieces has to earn trust immediately, because trust is what donations are made of.
We started with the brand, because everything else would be built on top of it. The logo came from the name itself. We took the two E’s, one from Equitable and one from Events, and brought them together until the negative space between them formed an equal sign. Equality, built directly into the mark, out of the company’s own initials. It works as a full logo and reduces cleanly to a standalone icon, which mattered because this brand needed to live inside an app icon as much as on a website.
With the identity settled, we moved into the platform. We began with a business requirements document, mapping out exactly how the application needed to function before a single screen was designed. From there we designed the UI and UX for every screen in the product, working through revisions with Jeff until the flow was approved and finalized. Only then did development begin. Once the build was complete, we ran our own round of testing, then handed it to the Equitable Events team so they could test alongside us and sign off with confidence before release.
Finally, we built a custom WordPress website to serve as the organization’s public home. It gives donors and parents a place to understand the mission, see how the platform works, and make a donation directly, turning interest into support for the kids the organization exists to serve.
We selected Rootless Agency to launch our non-profit organization from scratch, primarily because they took the time to really understand our mission and shared our values. I’ve worked with many outside vendors over the years, but everyone on the Rootless team believed in what we were doing and took a legitimate interest in the project. From the start they always felt like a natural extension of our team, helping us every step of the way think critically and holistically through all issues. Technically on point and highly skilled through all phases – starting with brand and logo and transitioning to a detailed business requirements document for our app, followed by Figma mockups, flawless development, and testing. They were incredibly patient and thoughtful when we had half-baked ideas, leveraging a wealth of best practices to turn those ideas into high-value-add, production-ready features.
We had Rei on Brand Design, Dea on UI/UX, Arlind, Enxhi, and Yllza on App Development, Amarda on WordPress Development, and Xhulio as Project Manager/Administration — all diligent and fully committed pros.
No doubt I’ll use them again, and without hesitation recommend these guys for any project you may be considering!
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