The VCEDC donate page requires careful design consideration to avoid the appearance of favoritism toward any particular financial institution. Because multiple banks in Vilas County are donors to VCEDC, imagery that features a specific bank's branding or check stock is politically untenable and risks alienating institutional donors.
This issue surfaced during the October 2025 website review meeting, when Kathy Schmitz flagged that the existing bank check donation photo needed to be replaced before launch.
VCEDC receives donations from approximately four different banks in Vilas County. Featuring a check or image associated with any one of them on the donate page would signal preference and could jeopardize those donor relationships.
"I can't feature one bank over another, because I've got, like, four different banks in Vilas County that donate to us, and I would just lose all of them if I chose one over the other."
— Kathy Schmitz
This is a meaningful constraint: the donate page image must be visually neutral with respect to financial institutions.
Kathy's preferred alternative is a township photo — imagery representing one of the municipalities in Vilas County. This approach:
Other neutral options considered include generic money imagery or a technical/broadband-style aesthetic, but the township direction was Kathy's stated preference.
The donate page includes the following sections (as of the October 2025 review):
The page layout and copy were noted as needing a full review pass by both Melissa and Kathy before developer handoff.