Third Sector Cap seeks to drive systematic improvements through advocating for performance-driven collaborations between government and its partners on a national scale. They are also a pioneer for the pay-for-success model in the Higher Education space. We have been working with their internal team on an ongoing basis to optimize their website design, content, and functionality.
Why Viv
After working with Emily Wood on the Campus Compact redesign, she hired us again when she became the Communications and Marketing Director at Third Sector Cap. She was looking for a new agency partner to help her transition their website work away from an existing agency in phases. This led to what could be described as an “inside-out redesign.” Our final stage of a website project usually has us “iterate, improve, and extend.” In this case, we started there. Our flexibility on the process and our ability to work as part of the internal team to keep our involvement lean were key differentiators that won us the work.
The Results
An inside-out redesign
There was not a budget or internal time to reconsider everything on the website out the gate. Instead, we took on the technical maintenance, site support, hosting, and updates to start. Then, we started redesigning different parts of the site – first the homepage and then additional pages. Through that work, we were able to eventually redesign 75% of the site to date. It’s an ongoing effort, and it meant that we were able to prioritize and do the most important parts of the site, keeping in mind the budget and the internal time of the team.
A Mission-centric website
For a mission-driven organization like Third Sector Cap, we knew the website needed to lead with the mission and its impact. We used the space high up on the homepage to establish the complex work of the organization.
We also used an interactive map to provide a sense of the geographic reach, which also worked well to keep the page from getting vertically too tall.
While we have not worked on the navigation to date, we did help the team figure out how to structure the information on the website in terms of putting it into an effective hierarchy.
Logo Update
While we were working with them, the internal team at Third Sector Cap redesigned their logo. They knew from the onset that they needed an agency that could apply this new branding to their website, so we recolored their logo and website for them.
Communicating Impact
Across sectors, they are trying to create performance-driven approaches and models. This is a complicated field, so it requires communicating both what the field is and why they are a good partner to reform organizations.
A map on the homepage with key stats. Demonstrates the impact and national reach.
Insights – a way to dive into that content from the homepage. The idea that their blog posts should look clean and be easily readable because they help showcase their expertise and establish their authority. This is actually a professional services organization.
Audience Engagement
When a website caters to multiple audiences, it is important to create pathways to content that are customized and streamlined. For Third Sector Cap, we redesigned the focus area pages, with each page pulling in articles about a specific topic, like education, for example.
In addition, we cleaned up the presentation of projects. Organized by focus area, they show a title and allow readers to expand for a more detailed description.
Part of the Team
We love working with internal teams who have certain skill sets that overlap with ours and others that we can add to the mix. This leads to cost-effective and efficient projects that ultimately empower the client to update their website independently while giving them the option to call upon our external support when needed.
