Friday 5 September 2008

charitywater.org/birthdays - ah - what a website!

What is it about this website that is so brilliant?

Communication style and content

As soon as I came to the home page I knew what the website was about and what I was meant to do. And that is because three red buttons on the left clerly indicate that this is about your personal involvement in fundraising for this project.

What NGOs call 'issues' or 'educationsl content' is secondary content - on the bottom left.

This website is a perfect example of how to communicate online - a text-light website, focussing on video. Video clips are short and narrated in an accessible, everyday language.

Acknowledging that watching 33 case studies could be too much they offer a Guided tour of the project where they present 5 projects covering different issues related to lack of water.

Live updates of the latest on the website - new pages, new donations, comments - make the content of the website fresh 24/7.

Fundraising
The ask is very clear and there is an ask for a specific amount.
The fundraising model is also interesting - instead of doing wish-lists people are invited to put money towards the project.

Design
Flash - a bit annoying because you can't navigate directly to some pages, but it means that website owners have a very good control over how people will interact with the site.

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