Give5 Mile High

Connecting Denver residents with volunteer work, for the Denver Mayor's Office.

Role Project Manager

Team Aaron Neyer and Shawn Duncan (with early support from Pavan Dayal and Stephanie Babb)

Partner The Denver Mayor's Office, including First Lady Courtney Johnston and Deputy Outreach Director Tran Willis

Timeline Nov 2024 – Present

See Project The Project in the News

The Give5 Mile High team presenting the volunteer platform on stage in Denver

Shawn Duncan presenting Give5 Mile High on stage at the Give Denver launch

Aaron Neyer presenting the Give5 Mile High ATLAS final design review

Elizabeth Saunders presenting Give5 Mile High's December impact review: 25,860 volunteer hours, 26 events, 9,450 volunteers

The Give5 Mile High team FaceTiming in a remote collaborator during a presentation

Community members listening during a Give5 Mile High presentation

Community members smiling and taking photos during a Give5 Mile High presentation

Elizabeth Saunders with First Lady Courtney Johnston and the Give5 Mile High team

Presenting Give5 Mile High to community members at Sam Sandos Hall

First Lady Courtney Johnston introducing the Give5 Mile High team on stage

Elizabeth Saunders presenting future enhancements for the Give5 Mile High platform

The Give5 Mile High team presenting to a community feedback session

The gap

Denver has plenty of people who want to volunteer and plenty of nonprofits that need them. What was missing was an easy way for each to find the other, log hours, and reward the people who show up.

Mayor Mike Johnston launched Give5 Mile High at his 2024 State of the City address, a citywide initiative led by First Lady Courtney Johnston asking every Denverite to give 5 hours a month. The city needed a platform to connect volunteers, nonprofits, and local businesses. My team first pitched a concept in ATLAS's Design Methods course to the First Lady and Mayor's Office, and that pitch turned into a contract to build it.

My role

The team elected me Project Manager. I ran weekly meetings, set milestones, and kept the Mayor's Office aligned on scope and decisions. I also led user testing, running two group sessions with 22 participants and turning every piece of feedback into a tracked, owned GitHub issue.

As lead designer and developer, I designed the complete UI/UX system in Denver's signature Blue, Bold Red, and Clean White, and built the responsive web architecture behind it.

The key decisions

Pivoting from app to web. Our winning pitch was a mobile app. Midway through the build, I led a pivot to a responsive web platform. The Mayor had praised the concept for making sign-up easy, and an app download works against that. A web platform opens from a newsletter link, a QR code at a service event, or a Google search, and it runs on any phone or library computer. There's no download standing between a resident and their first shift.

Routing feedback to the right owner. Testers wanted to understand the why and who, not just the what: a clearer mission on the homepage, an onboarding guide explaining how the platform works, faces behind the initiative, and complete contact info. Many of these were content and communications calls, not code. I built a pipeline from Google Form to GitHub issue, with each issue holding the feedback, design options, and an implementation plan. Messaging decisions went to the Mayor's Office team, and technical fixes stayed with us, which kept the build moving while the city made the calls that were theirs to make.

What I built

Event discovery with smart filtering

Residents find opportunities by cause, date, and location, including Give5's third-Saturday service events.

Hour tracking dashboard with check-in validation

Volunteers check in at events and track progress toward five hours a month. Validation keeps hours honest, which keeps rewards credible.

Incentive redemption

Completed hours unlock perks from Denver business partners like Topo Designs, Little Man Ice Cream, and Meow Wolf Convergence Station.

Nonprofit admin dashboard

Partners post opportunities, manage sign-ups, and confirm attendance without spreadsheets.

Design system and components

A reusable component library built on the city's brand.

Security audit and WCAG accessibility

I audited authentication and data handling, and built to WCAG standards for contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen readers.

Outcome

Building the Platform

22 users tested to collect feedback

2 group sessions hosted to collect feedback

$80,000 raised to fund the project

The platform supported volunteering that enabled action across Denver in 2025:

59,400+ servings and meals sorted and packed

4,000 children's books sorted for literacy

1,200 kids reached through a holiday experience

36,000 servings of food sorted for families in need

23,400 meals packed for food-insecure Coloradans

250 Thanksgiving meal boxes prepared

125 pounds of trash removed from the South Platte River

60 skateboards built to encourage outdoor recreation

3 raised planter boxes installed for a new community garden