Sites for nonprofits

D.C. Open Government Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing government transparency, hired us to redesign their Drupal site. They had been using a theme very similar to the stock Drupal theme and needed a visual identity that also helped tell the story of what they do.

Using the colors most commonly linked with the United States government seemed like the right idea — with the most space devoted to white to take advantage of the obvious associations between clean and open. We also used rocket-glare red to draw attention to the Report a Violation item, creating a call to action that stands out without stealing the show.

To streamline the experience for both visitor and editor, we also modified several content types and consolidated some navigation items. For example, combining several of the site’s dynamic content avenues (News, Announcements, etc.) into a single Blog cuts down on clicks — plus readers are much more likely to use RSS when looking at something that acts like a blog instead of a news section.

As a side note we’re very proud to be a part of this project, as we wholeheartedly support efforts to increase government openness.

Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees is a Sonoma County, California nonprofit that helps immigrants settle into new communities. After they saw themselves on our list of nonprofits using Drupal, they asked us to add some new functionality to their site, including a home page slideshow and new design elements.

More on GCIR in their own words:

GCIR seeks to influence the philanthropic field to advance the contributions and address the needs of the world’s growing and increasingly diverse immigrant and refugee populations. Our goals are to:

• Enhance philanthropy’s awareness of issues affecting immigrants and refugees and their new communities.
• Deepen the field’s understanding of how these issues are integral to community building in today’s dynamic social, economic, and political environment.
• Increase philanthropic support for both broad and immigrant/refugee-focused strategies that benefit newcomer populations and strengthen the larger society.

We’re super proud to introduce the new web home of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, a literally world-renowned nonprofit. Tanenbaum brings together people of different faiths by guiding schools, workplaces, and medical institutions and honoring peacemakers of wartorn regions.

The list of religious and political dignitaries*, corporations**, universities***, and charities**** who support Tanenbaum — via financial support, accolades, or contributions — is completely ridiculous. I offer you mere samples of each:

*: Billy Graham, Bill Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Kofi Annan, Madeline Albright, Joe Lieberman
**: Walt Disney Company, Conde Nast, Verizon, Kraft, Prudential, Shell, Viacom
***: Oxford, Princeton, Harvard, George Mason, Fordham, Columbia
****: Carnegie Corporation, JP Morgan Chase Foundation, Merril Lynch & Co. Foundation

And many many more. Somewhere in there, there’s little old us.

Tanenbaum’s old site was static (AKA hard to update, inflexible, and hard to expand) and didn’t present the clearest picture of exactly what they do.

They wanted to distinguish their programs from each other in an obvious visual way, instead of having only one look for the entire site. Being able to update their own content at the drop of a hat was also on the shopping list.

Looking over their content management system options, they narrowed it down to Drupal, WordPress, Ruby on Rails, and Moveable Type.

Already leaning towards going open source, Tanenbaum was impressed by Drupal’s flexibility.

So (PRESTO) we created a custom Drupal build for Tanenbaum, as we’re known to do from time to time. We developed:

• a complete E-commerce solution allowing sales, donations, and gifts
• Google Maps and social media integration
• different sections for each program
• a promo ad management system
• forums
• a couple dozen distinct content types
• Views/CCK-based automagical content displays
• easy-to-create photo galleries
• and a roped-off section offering premium content for paying members.

Pulling over and restructuring all their content followed, plus some proofing along the way. Tanenbaum’s old blog was hosted at wordpress.com, so we brought that on over into the new Drupal site too, consolidating their web presence and brand into one much-improved location.

So YEP we’re happy Tanenbaum’s new Drupal site is live and firing, and now we’re on to the on on to the next one.

The Image Initiative, Inc. is a Syracuse, New York nonprofit dedicated to helping young women of color. They asked us to build an expressive website that puts them in charge of all their content and gives them plenty of room to grow.

The site features a custom Drupal build, an original theme with multiple highly distinct templates, and lots of Views/CCK work to ensure all their newest content goes where it’s supposed to go. We’re very proud of the finished product!

The American Museum of Natural History, one of the world’s five most-visited museums, has had us create a subsite for the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival two years in a row. The sections needed to fit the website’s feel, but in a distinct fashion. We contributed custom PHP and themed up the site’s design, leaving breathing room for big, crisp, quick-loading images.

Armistead Booker, associate media designer at AMNH and this project’s point of contact, describes our coding contributions as a “completely overhauled backend to the site, which was a vast improvement from the festival site in previous years.” He also confirms that we were “on budget for this project … accommodating our demanding schedule and timing just as we requested.”

Be sure to click around the rest of the AMNH website so you can get a feel for how our contributions fit in.

Some AMNH fast facts:

• Founded in 1869
• Four million annual museum visitors
• 460,000 field-trip visitors annually
• 13 million annual website visitors
• 200 scientists on staff
• Over 90 publications per year
• International expeditions yielding 60,000+ new exhibit items annually

Much, much more on the museum here.

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