Pachacamak Foundation is a Chicago-area nonprofit whose work has evolved from its roots in Andean cultural arts into a broader mission centered on community, sustainability and environmental stewardship.
The organization now combines cultural outreach with environmental programming through Yaku, its water conservation initiative focused on protecting Lake Michigan, organizing shoreline cleanups, raising awareness about plastic and microplastic pollution, and documenting the condition of local ecosystems.
I have worked with Pachacamak through multiple stages of that evolution, including two iterations of the organization’s website and the development of a separate web app supporting the Yaku program.
The Work
The Pachacamak website originally ran on WordPress and was later rebuilt in Carrd as the organization’s needs and messaging changed.
The current site was structured to present the Foundation’s broader mission, including its cultural programs, environmental work, team, outreach, donation information and the Yaku Water Conservation Program.
Alongside the public website, I developed the Yaku app to support the group’s environmental fieldwork.
The app was created to help organize cleanup events and record what volunteers collect during shoreline activities. Participants can use the system to support event coordination and enter tallies from cleanup work, creating a more organized record of what is being removed from Chicago-area beaches.
That information can then be compiled by the organization for later analysis and research into waste patterns, shoreline conditions and the broader Lake Michigan ecosystem.
Result
The project grew from a straightforward nonprofit website into a broader digital system supporting both public communication and real-world conservation work.
Pachacamak now has a lightweight public-facing site for communicating its mission and programs, along with a separate Yaku platform designed around the practical needs of organizing volunteers, documenting cleanup activity and preserving data for future study.
It is a good example of how a website relationship can evolve as an organization itself changes — from cultural programming, to nonprofit operations, to environmental outreach and custom digital tools.
Current Website
Yaku app
Previous design
