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Generous Circle · KYC and KYB onboarding

Five Generous Circle mobile screens side by side: welcome, create an account, fundraiser type, organisation status and verified

Verifying fundraisers from day one

Generous Circle was built from scratch, and as the founding designer I took its verification from concept to launch: a sign-up that collects what the Central Bank of Kenya requires, keeps fraud and gambling off the platform, and still gets individuals and organisations raising money quickly.

  • Design lead
  • Concept to launch
  • User research
  • User testing
  • User onboarding
Product
Generous Circle, a crowdfunding platform
My role
Founding designer
Timeframe
2024–2025
Platforms
Mobile first, and web
Market
Kenya

01

Introduction

Generous Circle is an Antler-backed crowdfunding platform for charitable giving in Africa. I joined at the very start as product lead, so there was no old product to redesign. Every screen here started from a blank page.

Because Generous Circle moves money, it is a fintech product, and in Kenya that comes with rules. Before anyone can raise funds, we need to know who they are. People prove who they are (KYC, Know Your Customer), and organisations prove they are real organisations (KYB, Know Your Business).

Most of the people we were building for would sign up on a phone, not a laptop. So I designed the flow mobile first, with a web version alongside it.

02

Objectives

  • Meet the Central Bank of Kenya's requirements for customer and business information.
  • Keep fraud and gambling off the platform, so money raised goes to real causes.
  • Welcome every kind of fundraiser: individuals, registered organisations, and groups without a registration number.
  • Work on the phone first, because that is where most people in Kenya would sign up.

03

Mapping who signs up

Everyone starts the same way: an account, a verified email and a password. Then the flow splits by who is raising the money, and each path only asks for what applies to it.

Everyone

  1. Create an account
  2. Verify email
  3. Set a password
  4. Choose fundraiser type

Individual · KYC

  1. National ID number
  2. Verified

Registered organisation · KYB

  1. Registration status
  2. Details and registration number
  3. In review

Group without registration · KYB

  1. Registration status
  2. Details, email and role
  3. In review

04

Design decisions

Structure

One shared start, then branch

Asking about the fundraiser type only after the account exists means nobody fills in fields that don't apply to them, and everyone gets through the first steps the same way.

KYB

Room for groups without paperwork

Plenty of community groups raise money together without a registration number. Rather than turn them away, they get their own path, giving an email and their role in the group in place of a registration number.

Mobile

Built for the phone in someone's hand

One task per screen, a progress bar with the step count, +254 already set on the phone number, the number keypad for the email code, and a way to save and continue later.

Endings

Always say what happens next

Individuals see that they're verified and can start a campaign straight away. Organisations see their registration is in review, and can still start drafting while the check runs.

05

The flow

Walkthrough 1 · Getting started

Create an account on the phone

The shared start, from the welcome screen to choosing how you want to raise money.

  1. 1. WelcomeOne clear action: get started, or log in.

  2. 2. Your detailsName, email and phone, with Kenya's +254 already set.

  3. 3. Verify emailA 4-digit code, typed on the number keypad.

  4. 4. PasswordThe rules are shown before the error, not after.

  5. 5. Fundraiser typeThe fork: raising as an organisation or as yourself.

Walkthrough 2 · KYC

Individuals: verified with an ID number

People raising money for themselves confirm who they are with their national ID number.

  1. 6. ID numberOne field, and one line on why we ask.

  2. 7. VerifiedVerified, with the next step right there.

Walkthrough 3 · KYB

Organisations: registered or not

Organisations say whether they are registered, and the details we ask for follow from that answer.

  1. 6. Registration statusRegistered or not decides what we ask next.

  2. 7. Registered detailsRegistered organisations add their registration number.

  3. 8. Non-registered detailsGroups without one give an email and their role instead.

  4. 9. In reviewThey can start a campaign while the check runs.

Walkthrough 4 · On the web

The same flow on a laptop

On a bigger screen the progress bar becomes a stepper down the side, so people can see every step at once.

  1. 1Your details

  2. 2Fundraiser type

  3. 3Organisation details

  4. 4In review

Recreated for this case study. The original Figma file was lost when its owner's account was closed.

06

How I led it

As the founding designer, I owned verification from the first concept to launch. I ran the research, shaped the flow, and worked with engineering to build it.

Handoff and adoption

Handoff, then onboarding real users

Once the screens were ready I handed them to engineering and stayed close through the build. After it shipped, I onboarded a handful of users and watched how they moved through verification. Some I walked through myself, especially organisations, pointing out which documents they needed. Most of it was user testing: less about helping, more about learning how people actually get verified so we could keep making it easier.