Fresh and Edgy Website Design Needed for a New Online Charity

I have tons of big ideas, but my design skills are severely sub-par. I am looking for help designing a website mockup for a new online charity. The demographic of the website will be people between 18 and 30, so I need a high-energy, grab-you by the seat of your pants design.

http://www.helpfulsteps.com (has not launched yet)

Some more info about the company:

Helpful Steps makes it easy for users to donate to charity. Each time a user completes a free offer on our site, Helpful Steps donates $1 to their favorite charity. Basic steps: they register, they pick a charity, and then they complete one free offer that interests them from our long list of available offers. For each offer that is completed through this website, Helpful Steps will donate $1 to the charity of the users choice.

The finished website will be 12-15 pages.  I have listed what the main sites of the website would be below. I do not need a designer to create all of them, but keep these in mind when designing your mockup  (I am really trying to get an idea of how you see the layout of the site working) 

1. Home Page/Index (maybe have a quick description of the company, how it works, and boxes for register now, search charities, and view offers).

2. My Account (form page with name, address, email and bday, and what charity they pick from a drop down menu, maybe some other optional stuff) 

3. Charities (main page) should list a few featured charities (with photo, maybe a awareness ribbon for each?) and a 3-4 sentence description, and then have a link to show a list of all charities. (there will be about 20-25)

4. Charity page that lists 20-25 charities. (with one sentence each, if room?)

5. Individual Charity page. This page should have a spot for an image, and 2 paragraphs on the charity/topic. Maybe include room for some type of a testimonial?

6. Offers (main page)  Should have approx 6 featured offers, with room for an image and 2-3 sentences for each. Then a link at the bottom where a user can see the full list of offers.

7. Offers (full list) One page that lists out 10-15 offers with 1 sentence of a few words for each. Images for each would be cool if room available.

8.  About us page design

Somewhere (or multiple places) on the website we also need to show a counter of how many offers that user has clicked on, what charity they are signed up for currently, and how much money has been donated to charity so far on their behalf). maybe somewhere on the offers and charity page?

Since the name of the website is helpful steps, I was hoping that footprints (or a path of footprints) could be used somewhere in the design. I also like the idea of using awareness ribbons on the charity pages.

My initial layout idea for the website is:

top navigation: 

1. My account (where they register)

2. Charities

3. Offers

4. FAQs

bottom navigation:

1. About us 

2. Privacy Policy

3. Copyright

4. Help

I realize that most of the text at this point will be placeholder, so don't worry about content, just design.

Here is some info on the different colors of awareness ribbons, and the charity I will be promoting in that category.

Red- Heart Disease
American Heart Association
Dark Red- AIDS awareness
AIDS Research Alliance
Blue- Child Abuse
Children Defense Fund
Red/Yellow/Blue Puzzle- Autism
Cure Autism Now Foundation
Orange- Hunger Awareness
Global Hunger Project
Light Orange- Animal Protection
American Humane Association
Black and Blue- National Disaster Response/Katrina
Salvation Army
Yellow- Support our Troops
Homes for our Troops
Pink- Breast Cancer
American Cancer Society
Purple- Domestic Violence
United Way
Green- Environmental Protection
GreenPeace
Purple- Homelessness and Housing
Habitat for Humanity

I am not looking for a cooky-cutter layout template that I can get for free on the web. I want an edgy, clean, high-energy design that will attract 18-30 year olds.  Please try to avoid dark and dismal color schemes, and opt instead for brighter colors.

Please don't feel like you have to take my suggestions word for word. I am just trying to give you an idea of how I see things in my head. That does not mean that other ideas will be given lower likelihood of winning. I am open to suggestions to all above comments.  Feel free to ask questions as well.