Case Study
Nonprofit Support Program
A website that connects Hartford-area nonprofits to resources and supports.
Overview
A resource hub designed to help Greater Hartford nonprofits quickly find and access supports, programs, workshops, and other resources available to them — from capacity-building grants to technical assistance, training, and peer learning opportunities.
The Challenge
The Hartford Foundation's Nonprofit Support Program (NSP) has been a trusted partner to local nonprofits for decades, providing a wide range of supports. When they needed a new website, there was already an established brand trust in the community. The challenge was related to the range of supports they offered — most nonprofits knew of NSP but only utilized a small percentage of their resources. We wanted to build a simple website that allowed nonprofits to easily access the immediate supports they need, while also letting them know about the myriad other options available to them.
The Solution
Our vision for this website was based on an old phone directory ("press 1 for Planning, press 2 for Boards"). We arranged a grid of offerings on the homepage that linked to individual pages for each area of work. Since NSP already had great local awareness and their mission was straightforward, we wasted little real estate on the "About Us" information, and made the work front and center. Once nonprofits clicked through to the second-level pages, they were greeted with the whole range of programs or grants available within those categories. This website project began with a series of focus groups where we asked nonprofits what they wanted from a website. One clear thread emerged: Nonprofit employees are very busy. We made the tone of the site welcoming and friendly, but we knew nonprofits wanted us to get straight to the point.
Outcome
This site has been in use for almost a decade, and it has a strong base of dedicated users. Nonprofits appreciate the simplicity of the design and use the site to find grants as well as workshops. The Nonprofit Support Program has a small team of dedicated employees, and I helped train them on the backend of the site — not just how to edit a page, but how to think about maintaining and growing content. With NSP now in the lead, the site has become a valuable resource for the community. We are currently working on a workshops archive that will create a searchable list of all past NSP workshops — something we believe will have utility to nonprofits even outside the region.