Camfed, the African girls’ education and empowerment charity, commissioned Onespacemedia to redesign and build a their website. The project had multiple goals: increase online donation revenues, increase sign-ups to email updates and social media portals and make it simpler for visitors to learn about Camfed’s work and mission.
Camfed is an award-winning organisation with an incredible record – we had to tell the Camfed story effectively so the design of pages and the information hierarchy was intrinsic to the success of the site. The resulting design with a streamlined information and navigation schema, combined with compelling multimedia and infographics works to compel visitors to act, whether to sign up for emails, make donations, spread the word about Camfed’s work or sign-up to Camfed social media platforms.
Online donors want to know where their money is being spent and how it is making a difference. Our research found that the majority of donors prefer to give to a specific appeal rather than into a general charity pot. To address this we worked with Camfed to devise a rolling programme of appeals based on finite fundraising targets. We designed an appeals site section where visitors can browse through appeal information and multimedia, check the fundraising progress of each appeal before choosing to donate. We also ensured that the donation process was streamlined and straightforward and that donor data was passed successfully to Camfed’s business information systems.
One of the (many) great things about working with Camfed is that they have a huge selection of professional photography and video footage. We wanted to put these assets to work and one way we achieved this was by setting up an ecard system. Visitors use ecards to make donations to Camfed in honour or memory of a friend, family member or colleague. We have also utlised Facebook Connect to extend the online donation process so that donors can choose to post a status update on their Facebook wall about the donation, and in turn promote the cause to others. Both of these initiatives are attracting new audiences and generating online donations.
Onespacemedia have been working with Camfed on a highly successful and ongoing social media campaign that is both raising funds and dramatically boosting Camfed’s profile. As well as attracting more than half a million subscribers to its Facebook cause, Camfed is also utlising Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo and SocialVibe. We have integrated many of these services into the new website so that the site shares content with the various portals and ensures that visitors can access Camfed content on their chosen platform.
We leveraged our Google Maps API experience to create an interactive site area that allows visitors to explore Camfed’s work in Africa via a geographical interface. Users can click on a country where Camfed works and explore statistical data, and profiles of schools, students and entrepreneurs. Users can also learn about and contribute to fundraising appeals. Camfed needed a quick and easy way to update the information on the map so we built a web-based management system that allows staff to add/amend and delete map markers and associated content.
www.camfed.org went live at the end of November 2009 and by January 2010 online revenues were up 150% on the same period the previous year. eCards enjoyed great traction with over 30% of donations being linked to this giving method. Site visits across UK and US sites were up over 500% compared the same period in 2008/9. Facebook Causes users reached 495,993 and Twitter subscriber numbers surpassed 30,000. Over 1000 WaterMeetstheSky DVDs were sent out through a website initiative promoting screenings with substantional offline donations being linked directly to this campaign.
Infographic examples on the 'Our Approach' page
Interactive maps showing Camfed's impact
Appeal and donation options
Showcasing Camfed's films
In our biggest project to date we worked with Camfed to design a new website and online charity administration system. We focussed on revenue generation, community building and information delivery as the three key goals of the website.
Socially-motivated documentary filmmakers See Change Films commissioned us to design their logo and website.
We've just launched an online campaign for Camfed that centres around four powerful films. The short films tell the stories of children in Africa who have been forced by poverty to leave school and take a difficult path.
