Giving portal for ultra-high-net-worth clients — crypto-enabled
Routing millions to vetted causes in the time it takes to place a trade.
Context
Vanguard's ultra-high-net-worth clients wanted to move meaningful wealth into causes they cared about — hunger relief, education access, climate — but the existing giving flow was built for retail donors. Slow ACH rails, opaque recipient vetting, and no support for the asset types (crypto, appreciated securities) these clients actually held. A seven-figure gift took six weeks to clear.
Problem
How might we let a private client route millions to a vetted trust, foundation, or NGO in the time it takes to place a trade — while keeping compliance, tax reporting, and advisor oversight intact?
Approach
- 01
Cause-first discovery — clients start with the problem they care about ("hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa") and land on a shortlist of Vanguard-vetted recipients instead of a search box.
- 02
Crypto as a first-class asset — Bitcoin transfers alongside cash and securities, with live conversion, network fee transparency, and cost-basis handling for tax reporting.
- 03
Advisor-in-the-loop signatures — a parallel authorization track lets advisor, trustee, and compliance co-sign in-flight instead of blocking the client serially.
- 04
Trust signals surfaced early — regulator status, prior disbursements, and impact reporting cadence shown before commit, so confidence is earned on-screen, not off-platform.
- 05
Auto-generated receipt and tax packet delivered to the client's CPA on settlement.
Leadership & scope
Lead designer on the web app for Vanguard's UHNW giving portal — cause discovery, multi-asset transfer (cash, securities, Bitcoin), parallel signature orchestration, and post-settlement tax delivery.
Pod: Director, Lead PM, and 2 junior designers I mentored day-to-day. Cross-functional: engineering, compliance, tax, and crypto custody partners.
Director of Private Client Experience, Lead PM, Compliance, Tax Reporting, Crypto Custody partner, advisor & trustee network.
Mentored 2 junior designers on the pod through end-to-end ownership of secondary flows; ran a week-long design sprint as scrum master with the full leadership team, facilitating multiple design plays and driving the group to a single committed direction by Friday.
- 01
Killed the retail-style search-first discovery pattern in favor of cause-first entry — matched how UHNW clients actually talk about giving.
- 02
Pushed for Bitcoin as a first-class asset in the primary flow (not a secondary path), including live conversion and network fee transparency at commit time.
- 03
Replaced serial signature routing with a parallel authorization track — the single largest contributor to the 6-week-to-3-day collapse.
- 04
Surfaced regulator status, prior disbursements, and impact cadence pre-commit so the trust decision happened on-screen, not in a follow-up call.
Cause-first, not search-first
UHNW clients don't shop for charities — they name a problem. The portal opens with the cause ("hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa," "climate resilience in coastal India") and returns a shortlist of Vanguard-vetted recipients, with regulator status and disbursement history visible before the client ever clicks into a profile.
Bitcoin as a first-class rail
A seven-figure gift can settle in cash, appreciated securities, or Bitcoin from a single flow. Live conversion, network fee transparency, and cost-basis handling are shown at commit — so the client sees the exact tax and settlement picture before authorizing.
- ~$49M moved via Bitcoin in the first cohort
- Full cost-basis + tax packet auto-delivered to the client's CPA
Advisor-in-the-loop, not advisor-in-the-way
Authorized signatories — advisor, trustee, compliance — co-sign in flight on a parallel track instead of blocking the client serially. The client sees each authorization arrive in real time; the compliance chain stays fully auditable. This one move is what turned six weeks into three days.
Outcomes
What shipped, and what changed.
~$49M moved via Bitcoin across the first cohort.
15 private clients onboarded in the initial rollout.
Transfer time collapsed from 6 weeks to 3 days.
Full signature chain — advisor, trustee, compliance — intact on every transaction.