At AWIU, we’re rich in stories: about International Women of Courage, about the small grants we issue to non-profit organizations that benefit women and children around the world, about our own high-achieving and caring membership, about connections they’re making that are propelling us closer to our AWIU vision of “A compassionate and interconnected world with equality for all.”
Thanks to a grant from the Capital Group, this spring we embarked on a refresh of the AWIU website and the launch of a related social media strategy. These are powerful tools that, now rejuvenated, will help us tell our stories, get the word out and build a foundation for AWIU’s future.
“One of the most effective ways for a non-profit organization to establish an identity with a larger audience is through social media, where we can introduce messages that speak to our mission and individual programs, told through the voices of the AWIU community,” said AWIU president Maggie Sabbag. “This grant is so appreciated!”
Enter Lilli Parks of Welby Creative, AWIU’s new consulting website and social media guru. Lilli’s role is technical and design manager, essential skills for a robust communications operation. Now AWIU is primed to move communications in an efficient and all-encompassing direction, where AWIU branding will become more evident and all digital communications more consistent in terms of design, content and timing.
Working with Lilli to revisit the AWIU website was a team of members: Miranda Cohen, Lian Dolan, Chun-Chieh Lin, Betsy Richman, and Maggie Sabbag. “We all agreed we wanted a more ‘contemporary’-looking site. We discussed requirements, functionality, and aesthetics with Lilli and gave her a project brief,” said Miranda. “There were several go-arounds in which we all met online to edit, replace photos, and fine-tune functions. All in, it was a two-month process, which is remarkably fast.” The site launched Saturday, July 22nd.
What you probably won’t notice: the refreshed website features customized contact forms, relevant social media links, integrated email newsletter opt-in forms, an e-commerce platform for donations and memberships, and a membership portal. Lilli also implemented a new content management system (CMS) for easy content management.
Like a good facelift, things “look better” – see if you can spot the differences: pages reduced from 100 to 30, easier to read, more white space, larger photos, and a consistent approach to lay-out, fonts, photo framing and application forms throughout. “Our next step is to revisit the content to update it and make sure it reflects our current programs, people and processes,” said Betsy Richman.
