Case Study: Nonprofit Website Redesign — Shawna Cooper's Portfolio

THE PROBLEM

The Catholic Charities of Dallas (CCD) website redesign project was the first major project I accomplished as their website and communication manager. This is one of the projects I am most proud of in my career as I could use my skills to help many people in my community by telling their stories.

This project was a collaborative effort between myself and the Blackbaud designers, project managers, plus our fundraising department, and executive leadership at CCD. It was a VIP (very important project) to bring more online donations and transactions for the four divisions and 16 programs at CCD. Here are a few details about the overall project:

CLIENT	Catholic Charities of Dallas
INDUSTRY	Nonprofit Marketing
TIME	Nine Months
MY ROLES	Marketing and Website Coordinator Content Strategy Content and Blog Writer Photographer Digital Content Manager
LOCATION	Dallas, TX

THE SITUATION

NOT MOBILE FRIENDLY

Before the redesign, the old CCD website was not mobile-friendly (responsive) and did not meet the needs of our organization. To solve this, we requested to have a responsive website built, which would perform well on any device.

NO All-IN-ONE PLATFORM

Streamlining donor and volunteer databases was a must-have item on the website redesign plan. By integrating the CRM with the website, valuable data could be collected without a CCD staffer having to manually type it in. It would also influence email marketing and donation solicitation.

The different departments at CCD could not access information from multiple platforms. Having it all in one would save time, and resources, with less manual typing in information for those outside of the organization.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

Creating the menus proved to be a challenge during the planning of the new website. With four divisions and multiple programs within each division — it was decided that a megamenu was the best course of action. the mix-and-match navigation on the older site was the number one complaint users had about the site.

A donation button should stand out on its own — and not compete with other buttons. The bottom call-to-action button for the World of Goods Shop was a dead link. It had to be changed.

BRAND INCONSISTENCY

With many variations of fonts, colors, logos, and buttons within the old website, creating a website with consistent branding was necessary. A style guide was provided, but the former marketing department did not always follow the recommended rules.

STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY

The old website had a mismatched storytelling experience. The majority of the photographs were not pictures of real people. Stock photos and clipart were used to express the impact of the charity.

Unrefined IA

The site navigation was not user friendly. A new sitemap was developed.

No consistent branding

There are several distracting fonts, colors, styles, and layouts.

BEFORE REDESIGN

Old Catholic of Charities website before the redesign

A Double Donate Call to Action?

The donate button is in competition with the donation store.

Google Translate

Translation features were needed as many of the users of this website do not read or speak English.

+75

Website Pages

CCD Programs

Divisions of Leadership

THE TASKS

I was very fortunate to work with an incredible team of designers at Blackbaud for this long project. After several meetings, messages over email, and phone calls, it was inspiring to see their first designs of the new vision for the website.

THE ACTIONS

PLATFORM
MENU
homepage
story

Blackbaud created a website using WordPress that was integrated with Raiser’s Edge CRM. Some of the benefits of integrating these tools provided CCD with:

● Automatic data collection
● Detailed reporting for online donations, event ticket sales, volunteer sign-ups, and more
● Captured demographics instantly

This put an end to the staff manually typing in the details and numbers!

In order to accommodate each program within the four divisions of CCD, a mega menu was designed.

To keep the navigation user-friendly and easy to follow, a link to each program page was made for easy access no matter who is reading the website.

A donation button should stand out on its own — and not compete with other buttons. The World of Goods Shop was not built into the website.

The DONATE NOW button was built into the header so that each page would have a clear way to hit the donation link on the website.

As simple as having a button on a website is — it is a powerful element for a nonprofit organization.

Here are a few of the upgrades made within the new responsive site:

● Five slider images with a call-to-action
● Mega menu with dropdowns specific program
● Calendar of events
● Featured programs in tabs
● Impact numbers at a glance
● Links for clients, donors, and volunteers
● Recent blog posts and news
● Board's password-protected portal

No clipart and/or stock images were not migrated from the old website. Instead, I created new photographs during events and interviews with my own camera equipment.

With these images, carefully worded pages, and blog posts, the new website quickly became a rich resource for telling the CCD story, how donation dollars made an impact, and how to stay up-to-date on events.

The new website was designed for powerful storytelling from the sliding banners with call-to-action buttons to the integrated blog with social sharing.

There were separate sections made to support different users: clients, donors, and volunteers.

THE RESULTS

The new site launched in September 2014 as a responsive website with a better browsing experience on any screen.

The nonprofit charity's website redesign was met with positive feedback after a nine-month planning phase. Despite working with limited tools during my time at Catholic Charities, I put in a great deal of effort to ensure the success of the new website.

The previous website had unreliable analytics, but after the redesign, I observed a consistent increase in web traffic throughout my tenure at CCD. The optimized website also enabled me to launch successful marketing campaigns, including North Texas Giving Day, Volunteer Luncheons, Annual Galas, and more. The website's improved functionality played a significant role in my achievements.

charity galas | nonprofit marketing

Bishop's Gala 2014, 2015, 2016

Raised $1Million
each event

fundraising | marketing

2015 Crystal Charity Ball Recipient

$575,000

online fundraising | nonprofit marketing

North Texas Giving Day

Raised +$60,000 online in one day
SEPT 2015

"This was a growth project for me. I was stretched in many different directions, but I loved the work and impact it made."

– Shawna Cooper

As a one-person marketing team, I felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to ensure that the website redesign and subsequent marketing efforts accurately reflected the mission and values of Catholic Charities Dallas. It was challenging at times, but it also allowed me to hone my skills in various areas, from graphic design to content creation, and project management.

Overall, the experience of leading the website redesign for CCD was incredibly fulfilling, and I'm proud of the impact it had on the organization and those it served.

A snapshot of the inside of the new Blog Design after Website Redesign image

TAKE AWAYS

Experiencing a website relaunch with a fresh design can be incredibly gratifying. Initially, I didn't fully anticipate the amount of effort that would be required, but I am grateful for being entrusted with the project. The redesign of Catholic Charities Dallas' website was a transformative experience that impacted me on multiple levels. Although I wouldn't suggest undertaking such a project solo, I discovered ways to make it a success regardless.

RESOURCEFULNESS

Despite the limited budget, I made every effort to infuse the website, blog, and social media platforms with impactful storytelling. This resulted in a vast collection of visuals and stories that I could draw from each year for the Bishop's Gala.

It was a privilege to be entrusted with capturing the essence of Catholic Charities Dallas, and I encourage you to browse my photo galleries for further evidence of this.

BEING GRATEFUL

Working at CCD was a rare experience where I didn't feel like I was working hard, thanks to the joy I derived from meeting and serving the individuals and families we supported. I had gratitude and dignity on the forefront on my mind.

I am incredibly grateful for the trust placed in me to share their stories, and the website redesign allowed me to fully express my creativity and vision for the greater good.

Case Study: Website Redesign