What is your urgent message mission cause
?
What is Your Urgent Message?
Awareness Websites
5 key components not to miss.
Powerful Introducion
with strong (hook) first sentence
clear cause and effect
moving/dramatic prime image
Call to Action
e.g.: petition, attend an event,
volunteering, info sign-up form
First Steps
offer 3 to 4 initial steps
for viewer to get started
Showcase Statistics
also known as “numbers”
which a simple plugin can manage
Case Profiles
putting a human face
behind the cause or mission
Mental Health Awareness Campaign
(Example Campaign)
Your powerful topic introduction is essential to raising immediate interest in the web page’s topic and/or organization’s mission. Like when driving by a road sigh at high speed: if you can’t capture the message in a couple of seconds, then you may have lost your first best opportunity.
Using the current national mental health crisis as an example, the “hook” might be:
It is estimated that more than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness.
Choose your topic image judiciously. Multiple images tend to dilute the main message more than a single, powerful, full image. And be careful not to go negative with the image unless your message really requires it. (Optimism tends to work better than pessimism in most awareness campaigns.)
Your awareness website’s call to action is the glue to involvement. Even if your urgent issue has been well stated with a powerful “hook” opening statement, without offering a decisive way for the viewer to involve themselves, you may have not yet created a possible solution. You have their attention now; tell them what they can do about it.
Taking the above awareness topic as an example, what might be a good call to action? An example might be:
Join Fathers for Positive Mental Health now!
(via pop-up form). Or,
Mental Health Awareness Week is October 1. Join Family Walk for Awareness!
which might call for people to walk (perhaps as part of a coordinated national campaign) through their town with homemade signs.
First Steps (which expands the call to action) might look like:
Showcase statistics (or corresponding numbers) to generate greater passion for the mission.
57.8M
Affected Americans
26%
are ages 18 and older
1
People
Case Profiles (also called “client profiles”). Put a human face to the problem and show how their life has benefited from the support of the organization.
Sample profile:
Sam Mendez relies on his job as an air traffic controller for his family’s livelihood. The stress of the job was beginning to affect, not only his work performance, but home life. Not enough quality time with his wife of ten years (who also has her own work and homelife pressures) and his two children. Consumption of alcohol as a means to unwind after work was becoming too frequent. However, Sam could see the signs of a terrible road ahead and that this behavior could not be sustained much longer.
Fathers for Positive Mental Health provided Sam with healthy off-work alternatives. He joined a FPMH Group in his area and rediscovered his inner strength. Eventually, he developed interests in the culinary arts and began practicing soccer with his son and daughter.
Sam still feels the pressures of his profession, but now the stress remains at work.
Why do I only assist nonprofits? The simple truth is that, as the operator of Dot Org Web Works, I can’t imagine working for any other entity. I’ve been a nonprofit professional in one capacity or another since the early 80s. And for 20 years, I have led DOWW in developing awareness websites for dozens of great organizations that do meaningful work. DOWW is a labor of love, and I count myself quite lucky to be a part of positive change through so many committed people–from Los Angeles to Portland and all over the United States.
The design and development of an awareness website can be a real challenge if not downright intimidating. There’s the branding to pinpoint, the levels of priorities to establish (program intensive versus donor-focused), the user experience, and then the design. But the best part is, is that your new customized website will be done with great care, with your viewerships in mind, as promised, and you’ll be shepherded through the process like a parent to child.
Dot Org Web Works, the intelligent way to get your cause and services noticed is to use website design professionals who are also nonprofit professionals.
