Ghaf Trust UAE - nonprofit website design for a Dubai donor-advised fund

Ghaf Trust helps families, advisors and institutions give through donor-advised funds. For the UAE edition we rebuilt the brand and site around a Dubai-registered non-profit (FZ-LLC), with giving accounts in dirhams, grants to UAE-registered charities and vetted organisations worldwide, and a donor team at Gate Avenue in DIFC. The edition is written in British English, as the market uses, and speaks its charitable language: giving accounts, the Federal Tax Authority, tax-efficient portfolios and year-end giving. It follows the UAE PDPL and DIFC law inside the free zone.

Project facts

• Client: Ghaf Trust FZ-LLC (fictional)
• Sector: Philanthropy and donor-advised funds
• Markets: Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, with grants across the UAE and the wider Gulf
• Services: Market localisation · Copywriting · Brand adaptation · Nonprofit website design · Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) · SEO foundations
• Templates: 12 page templates shared with every Ghaf Trust edition
• Stack: Hand-built HTML, CSS and vanilla JavaScript; one strings file and one theme file per market

The brief

Warm, credible and hospitable

UAE donors arrive through wealth managers, family offices and word of mouth, and they want a giving account explained plainly: what it is, what it costs and where the money can go. The edition opens with a family on a Dubai beach and the skyline behind them, then proves scale with counters in dirhams. Giving account pages start at AED 250 per grant and AED 18,000 to open, and the advisor path leads to a DIFC office. Seasonal copy respects Ramadan, Eid and National Day, and the tone stays formal-warm.

Designing for the UAE

What actually changed between the US and this edition

• Story - US edition: Founded in Ohio; grants across all 50 states · UAE: Founded in Dubai by three families; grants across the UAE and the wider Gulf
• Institution - US edition: US public charity; 501(c)(3) · UAE: UAE-registered non-profit (FZ-LLC); UAE non-profit licence
• Regulator - US edition: IRS · UAE: Federal Tax Authority (FTA)
• Money - US edition: $5,450 giving account; grants from $250 · UAE: AED 18,000 to open; advisor accounts from AED 900,000; grants from AED 250
• Scale - US edition: $14.8B charitable assets; $5.6B granted · UAE: AED 14.8 billion in charitable assets; AED 5.6 billion granted
• Guide - US edition: Contact map of the US · UAE: DIFC office and advisors across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Dubai Marina and Downtown Dubai
• Season - US edition: Year-end giving · UAE: Dubai Shopping Festival and year-end giving; Ramadan and National Day noted
• Legal - US edition: US charity rules and donor privacy · UAE: UAE PDPL; DIFC law inside the free zone; FTA-qualified charities
• Look - US edition: Forest green, cream, terracotta; Fraunces + Libre Franklin · UAE: Sand, night teal and champagne gold; Cormorant + Manrope

Brand adaptation

The same Ghaf Trust, with a local accent

Night teal carries the interface and champagne gold lifts italics and numbers, with a lighter gold on dark panels. Cormorant brings grand, hospitable display type; Manrope keeps forms and tables crisp. Corners stay at 6px for a tailored feel, and the seedling mark and Ghaf Trust wordmark are unchanged. Arabic typefaces are not yet chosen, so a future ar-AE edition would add them.

Homepage and key journeys

A family walks a Dubai beach with Atlantis The Palm behind them, and the hero settles into place before a single sentence of purpose. Three counters show grants, contributions and reach in dirhams, then a Grants in Action carousel tells three UAE stories: nursery classrooms in Dubai, in-home clinic visits in Abu Dhabi and a Sharjah conservation fund. Link clusters route donors, advisors and the curious, and the FAQ answers the questions the donor team hears most, from gala tickets to grant timing.

Compliance, accessibility and trust

• Privacy policy under the UAE Personal Data Protection Law, with DIFC law applying inside the free zone.
• Footer: © 2026 Ghaf Trust FZ-LLC, demo trade licence, Dubai; links to Privacy policy and Terms.
• A notice states Ghaf Trust is a fictional UAE-registered non-profit (FZ-LLC) created for a design portfolio.
• Grant eligibility notes FTA-qualified UAE non-profit licences and international organisations after equivalency review.
• Passes automated WCAG 2.2 AA checks on every page at 360, 390, 768 and 1440 px: no contrast failures, no unreachable controls, no horizontal scrolling.
• A language switcher built from hreflang sits in the header on desktop and in the footer on phones.

One system, twelve markets

Every visible string lives in one file per market, and every colour and typeface in one theme file. This edition needed no new templates or components: a strings file, a theme, regional photography and local legal content made it a different brand experience. For a charitable foundation with international plans, a new market becomes a content project rather than a rebuild.

Deliverables

• Market profile: language, formats, legal and seasonality
• Full localised copy across 12 templates, header, footer and forms
• Brand adaptation: palette, type pairing and logo descriptor
• 27 regional photographs (Pexels, credited in credits.json)
• Local legal content
• Accessibility pass (WCAG 2.2 AA, automated) and QA at four screen widths
• Portfolio media: stills, full-page captures, scroll video, OG image, brand board