Student-run nonprofit · Now accepting applications
We’re a student-run nonprofit designing websites, brands, and digital strategies for underserved businesses and community organizations.
Student-led. Professionally designed. Built for community impact.
Boyle Heights · Desde la 1st Street
Cocina casera, hecha a mano
Huevos rancheros, tacos dorados, and homemade tortillas — served since breakfast, priced for the neighborhood.
Huevos Rancheros
Breakfast favorite
Tacos Dorados
Crispy, home-style
Enchiladas
Family recipe
Est. by the neighborhood
Precision fades. Zero guesswork.
Book a chairSkin Fade
from $35
Beard Sculpt
from $20
Identity system
Marigold Bakery
Type · Color · Voice
Designed by student creators
Built for real local businesses
Mobile-first development
Accessibility-conscious design
Community-centered strategy
01Mission
Many outstanding local businesses are held back — not by the quality of their work, but by the lack of accessible technology, professional design, and digital guidance. We connect student talent with community needs to change that.
Great local business
Excellent work, loyal customers, a real reputation.
Stage 01
Limited online presence
No website, outdated listings, scattered information.
Stage 02
Missed customers
Neighbors search, find nothing, and go elsewhere.
Stage 03
Professional digital transformation
Strategy, design, and tools the owner controls.
Where we come in
Our mission isn’t simply to make websites. It’s to close the digital opportunity gap — giving overlooked businesses the tools, confidence, and online presence they need to compete, grow, and serve their communities.
02Selected work
Every project below is honestly labeled. Concepts are designed to the same standard we bring to real businesses — because they become the standard.
03Services
Strategy first, then design, build, and education — so owners leave with tools they understand, not a mystery they rent.
Before anything gets designed, we learn the business's goals, audience, priorities, and digital challenges — then plan a site around them.
For a restaurant, that might mean putting the menu, hours, and directions one tap from the homepage.
→ A website organized around what customers actually look for.
Details on the services page — Website StrategyWe create custom, mobile-friendly interfaces designed around each business — not a generic template with the logo swapped out.
A family bakery gets warmth and photography; a dental office gets calm, clarity, and easy booking.
→ A site that looks like the business, not like everyone else's.
Details on the services page — Website DesignWe build fast, responsive, accessible websites that work on the phones and browsers customers actually use.
Pages that load quickly on a mid-range phone over cellular data — because that's how most customers will visit.
→ A site that works for every customer, on every device.
Details on the services page — Website DevelopmentWe help businesses present one consistent identity — message, colors, type, and tone — across their website, storefront, and social profiles.
One color palette and logo treatment that matches the menu, the window sign, and the Instagram page.
→ Customers recognize the business everywhere they see it.
Details on the services page — Brand GuidanceWe improve profiles, content direction, and posting systems so social media stops feeling like a chore and starts working.
A realistic two-post-per-week rhythm with photo guidance the owner can follow from their phone.
→ A social presence the owner can actually keep up with.
Details on the services page — Social Media StrategyWe explain everything we build, in plain language, so owners feel confident updating and managing their own online presence.
A one-page guide — in the owner's preferred language — showing exactly how to change hours or add a photo.
→ The owner controls the tools, not the other way around.
Details on the services page — Digital Education04Transformation
Drag the divider. Both sides are coded, not screenshots — a sample shop shown the way the web used to treat it, and the way we do.
We design for outcomes like these — clearer information, stronger presence, more confident owners. We never promise specific revenue results, and we’d be suspicious of anyone who does.
05Process
Business owners always know where their project stands and what happens next. Technology should reduce anxiety, not create it — starting with the process itself.
We meet with the business owner, learn their story, understand their customers, and identify their most important needs.
We organize the website, define priorities, collect content, and create a focused digital plan everyone agrees on.
We develop the visual direction, interface, brand system, and mobile experience — reviewed with the owner, not sprung on them.
We transform the approved design into a fast, functional, accessible website that works on the devices customers actually use.
We test the site, connect the domain, optimize essential metadata, and prepare everything for the public.
We provide guidance, documentation, and support so the owner understands how to use — and change — their new tools.
06Impact
For a small business, an improved digital presence changes daily reality — how it’s discovered, how it communicates, and how confident its owner feels running it.
0+
Businesses supported
0+
Volunteer hours
0
Student creators
0
Communities reached
Sample figures shown for layout — replace with real numbers in data/impact.ts before launch.
Show up when neighbors search for exactly what the business offers.
Hours, menu, prices, and directions — answered before anyone has to call.
A professional presence signals the same care that goes into the work itself.
Fewer repeated questions, smoother ordering, simpler scheduling.
The history behind a family business, told properly and kept online.
The same quality of tools larger competitors already have.
07Community
The people behind these businesses are the story. Our photography direction is documentary and dignified — owners at work, students alongside them, neighborhoods as they are.
The flat-top at 7am — breakfast service begins
Design review — student team, week four
Hands pressing tortillas, as they have for years
Storefront on 1st Street, late afternoon
Walking an owner through their new site
Frames reserve space for real documentary photography — no staged handshakes, no stock smiles. Swap images in components/sections/Community.tsx.
08Words from the community
We publish only real, approved quotes — never invented ones. These cards are honestly waiting for our first client stories.
Client testimonial will appear here after receiving approval.
Reserved · Business owner
Client testimonial will appear here after receiving approval.
Reserved · Community partner
Client testimonial will appear here after receiving approval.
Reserved · Student volunteer
09The team
Volunteers do real client work with real stakes — and graduate with a portfolio, references, and experience most students wait years for.
Co-Founder
Engineering · Technical direction
Jake is the team's builder. Fluent in the tools most people find intimidating, he turns designs into fast, accessible websites and makes the technical calls — from the code under every page to the setup an owner inherits at handoff. If something on a Local Lift site just works, Jake is usually the reason.
Co-Founder
Outreach · Project delivery
Will is the engine. He's the one knocking on the door of a business that deserves better, the one following up when a project could stall, and the one who refuses to call anything finished until the owner is genuinely set up to succeed. His drive sets the team's pace.
Co-Founder
Strategy · Prioritization
Landon is the compass. Before anything gets designed or built, he's weighing what a business actually needs first, which projects fit the team's capacity, and where each hour of effort does the most good. Every build starts from a plan Landon has already thought three steps past.
Designers, developers, writers, photographers, organizers — if you want your work to matter, we have a seat for you.
10Partners
Partnership doesn’t have to mean funding. Time, tools, referrals, and expertise move this work just as far.
You know who needs this. An introduction from you carries trust we can't buy.
Cover a project's hosting and domain so cost never blocks a launch.
Design and development tools that let students work at a professional level.
An hour of professional feedback changes the quality of a whole project.
Cameras and laptops that make documentary photography and fieldwork possible.
Teach a skill — accessibility, SEO, client communication — to the whole team.
Help us reach the businesses least likely to find us on their own.
Professional design and code review keeps our standards honest.
11Questions
Everything here is written to be true, not impressive. If your question isn’t answered, ask us directly — a real student will reply.
We focus on small, local businesses and community organizations that are underserved online — family-owned shops, immigrant-owned businesses, neighborhood organizations, and owners with limited technology experience or budget. If you're unsure whether you qualify, apply anyway; we read every application.
Ready when you are
Tell us about your business, your community, and what you hope to build. Our student team will review your application and determine how we may be able to help.
Applying is free and takes about five minutes. It never guarantees acceptance — but it always gets a real reply.