visartvideo.org — Carolinas
VisArt Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit keeping the video arts alive in the community — quite possibly one of the last places left to actually check out a movie and bring it home for movie night. They have a studio with a big screen for in-shop viewings, a library of over 40,000 titles, a cafe, and an event space patrons can enjoy or reserve for their own gatherings.
I’ve built, rebuilt, and continually restructured this site as VisArt’s needs have evolved — this is a long-running, ongoing relationship rather than a single build.
Built for a non-profit’s real needs
Being a non-profit changes what a homepage has to do. VisArt relies on this site partly to help secure grants, so the mission and impact language that grant reviewers look for needs to be visible near the top of the page — not buried where only a casual browser would find it.
Event space inquiries
We built a system for people to submit inquiries to reserve VisArt’s event space for their own gatherings, giving the organization a simple, direct channel for a service that also supports their bottom line.
Event calendar
A working event calendar was the piece that tied everything together for VisArt. Members and guests can view upcoming events and register directly from the calendar — for paid or free events alike — rather than being routed through email or a separate signup process. I also ran a few Google Meet training sessions with the VisArt team to walk them through managing the backend themselves, so they can keep the calendar current without needing to come back to me for every update.
Donations, done right for a non-profit
I connected VisArt with CustomDonations, which gives visitors an on-page way to donate directly. One detail that matters a lot for an organization like this: CustomDonations lets the donor choose to cover the card processing fee themselves, so more of every gift actually reaches VisArt. For a non-profit — especially one in an arts space like this — every dollar retained matters to the mission.
Growing membership through coffee
We also built out VisArt’s Coffee program as a membership tool — a donor can sign up for an ongoing membership and get a free coffee when they visit the shop. It’s a simple, low-friction way to convert someone who likes what VisArt does into an actual recurring member, with an immediate, tangible reason to walk through the door.
Hosting built for speed and isolation
VisArt’s site runs on its own dedicated virtual machine in the cloud, separate from other sites I manage. That isolation means nothing else sharing server space can slow VisArt down, and it lets page speed stay fast and consistent — important for both visitors browsing the library and for search/grant-related traffic.
More than a website
For VisArt, the goal was never just grant money and membership numbers — it’s about bringing people together in person, in real time. The site exists to get people off their screens and into the shop: browsing the collection, watching something on the big screen, meeting other people who care about film. In a space that could easily just be another piece of disconnected tech, the website’s job is to point people back toward the actual community VisArt has built.
Language accessibility
We also added a language translator, giving visitors the option to switch the site to Spanish with a simple dropdown — one more way to make sure the community VisArt is trying to reach can actually access what’s there.
Today
I continue to build, rebuild, and restructure the site as VisArt’s needs change.
If you’re in the Charlotte, NC area, stop by — grab a coffee and browse the collection.
Visit Site: VisArt Video
