The Goal
The foundation came to us with a view to strengthening their web presence and, ultimately, increasing donations. There were a number of technical reasons why their old site needed upgrading, including responsiveness, but their previous site’s main shortcoming was that it was ill-equipped to tell the stories of the children and families helped by people’s donations. It housed a small number of patient stories, but these were limited and not prominently displayed.
The goal of this project was thus to develop a bold, visually appealing new site that would serve as a powerful storytelling vehicle as well as a hub for individual and organizational donations. The new site would have to adhere to UCSF brand guidelines, but would otherwise have free rein visually to highlight patient and family stories and encourage potential donors.
The Results
Compared with many Chapter Three projects, the Benioff Children’s Hospitals Foundation project was fairly straightforward. After all, the new site would have only two purposes: encouraging people to donate to the foundation and providing them with an online hub for doing so.
The foundation possessed a plethora of patient and family stories that they wanted to showcase, but their old website could only feature four at a time. What we provided them with was a set of flexible templates for displaying icon-type cards featuring clickable patient stories. We also provided them with an improved taxonomy for sorting through these stories, with categories including COVID-19 stories, child life, health equity, and innovation.
Ways of Giving
The resulting product was a bold, attractive, patient-centric website centered around telling the story of why people’s donations matter. Organizationally, the site is very simple, consisting of three sections: Ways to Give, Impact Stories, and Get Involved. Visitors are able to donate from right on the homepage or to explore specific ways of giving, while a set of four featured stories on the homepage invite visitors to explore how their donations make a difference.
Simple, user-friendly, responsive, and emotionally gripping, the new site delivers on all of the client’s needs and wishes. In the years following the site’s launch, the foundation has expanded its collection of patient stories to over 100, all of which are made easily navigable by the site’s taxonomy. It has clearly worked; since the site’s launch, the foundation has increased its charitable donations substantially – largely through the power of digital storytelling.
