Creating significant social change isn’t the work of a single particular person or group—it’s the results of collaboration. Nonprofits, companies, and digital platforms should work collectively to inform compelling tales, increase attain, and encourage motion.
That spirit of collaboration was the main focus of Crafted Future: Code for Good, a digital occasion exploring what it takes to design digital experiences that transfer individuals to make a distinction.
From storytelling to technique, attendees discovered how a brand new web site for Brooklyn Org reinvigorated the nonprofit’s digital presence to encourage group motion, and even earned a Webby Award for its efforts.
What’s Crafted Future?
Crafted with Code, now in its sixth yr, is an annual showcase sponsored by WP Engine that highlights spectacular Webby-recognized initiatives constructed on WordPressⓇ[1].
Crafted Future is a digital occasion sequence that dives deeper into Crafted with Code tales, sharing distinctive insights into key issues for planning, producing, and optimizing Webby-worthy initiatives.
You could find all of the earlier Crafted Future discussions on The Webby Awards’ YouTube channel.
Meet the panel
The Webby Awards Common Supervisor Nick Borenstein moderated this Crafted Future panel and was joined by WP Engine Senior Supervisor of Company Partnerships Suzi Gaiser, Teal Media Technical Director Austin Whipple, and President & CEO of Brooklyn Org Jocelynne Rainey.
Collectively, they recounted how their groups collaborated to deliver Brooklyn Org’s mission to life on-line.
What does it imply to code for good?
The panel opened with a broad dialogue of what it really means to code for good. Teal Media has 16 years of expertise doing simply that as an company with a fame for producing “artistic with a conscience.”
Rainey was fast to level out the intricacies of what coding for good really entails, because the digital presence of a nonprofit—very like the people who work for it—has to satisfy varied wants.
“I feel constructing for good is knowing that you’ve got quite a lot of completely different stakeholders that you simply’re bringing to the desk by means of your web site,” mentioned Rainey.
“You wish to ensure that there’s one thing there for everybody—there are donors, people who wish to volunteer, nonprofits, individuals in search of companies, employees members, and board members—so it needs to be a spot the place everyone seems to be welcome.”
Making a well-branded web site that shares a company’s message and fulfills important person wants isn’t any small activity, so the dialog drilled in on how Teal Media labored with Brooklyn Org and WP Engine to craft a transparent, compelling message on a basis constructed for development.
The Brooklyn Org mission
The brand new Brooklyn Org mission got here from a stroke of genius sprinkled with luck. The group, previously named Mom New York, was in search of a option to slender its message and communicate extra on to residents of Brooklyn, a borough with a inhabitants giant sufficient to make it the third-largest metropolis in the USA.
“My Chief of Employees had been keeping track of the brooklyn.org URL, which had not been bought, recognizing that it was a terrific alternative for us to succeed in a bigger viewers,” mentioned Rainey.
“We went by means of a rebranding course of, and the web site impressed the brand new identify. We contemplate ourselves Brooklyn’s group, so this helped us inform our story loads higher.”
With a brand new identify and a site to match, the group partnered with Teal Media to begin conceptualizing its new digital residence.
“Whereas we’re the consultants in some features,” mentioned Austin Whipple, “it’s actually the purchasers who’re essentially the most professional in their very own communities, so it’s about pairing our information collectively.”
Utilizing WordPress because the core CMS, a brand new customized theme, and a big library of versatile elements, all constructed upon WP Engine’s managed WordPress internet hosting, Teal Media was in a position to construct a digital answer that meets the assorted wants of Brooklyn Org.
The brand new web site espouses Brooklyn Org’s mission in a manner that speaks to its huge community of nonprofits, donors, volunteers, and people looking for sources or help.
A digital residence with connection on the core
Collaboration between Brooklyn Org, Teal Media, and WP Engine was important in protecting the event of the brand new web site on observe, and everybody had their roles to play.
The Brooklyn Org workforce, being closest to the mission, labored carefully with Teal Media to make sure each component felt intentional. WP Engine additionally labored carefully with the company from a technical perspective to satisfy their wants.
“The way in which that I at all times give the analogy is that WP Engine is actually the plot the place somebody needs to construct their dream web site,” mentioned Suzi Gaiser.
“We then work with companies like Teal Media, the digital architects who can construct that dream web site. Our platform is the place the home lives, so we wish to guarantee it’s performant, scalable, and safe.”
Teal Media—the architects of Brooklyn Org’s new digital residence—then must make judgment calls about the best way to present the most effective expertise, each for finish customers and for the people who will proceed to make updates and create new content material down the road.
“It’s about setting affordable guardrails. There are quite a lot of WordPress web page builders on the market, and you are able to do quite a lot of good with these or quite a lot of injury. Not each group has devoted web site administration people,” mentioned Whipple.
“We construct units of elements that are then used to compose particular person pages. It’s like a web page builder however barely extra restrictive, so we’re not asking a busy comms staffer to sit down down for an hour and craft a press launch,” he continues.
“We simply ask for the content material a web page must comprise, examine a few packing containers for taxonomy, click on publish, and it’s up there. It’s associated to different related content material and matches the model requirements we set out firstly of the mission.”
With the muse in place and the architects proud of the construct, the group can proceed to increase upon a transparent, genuine, and constant message. At the same time as they develop, discover new audiences, and publish new content material, the Brooklyn Org web site will nonetheless really feel deeply linked to and rooted in its group.
“Being clear, being concise, and being true to who you might be as a company is admittedly necessary,” mentioned Rainey.
“Ensuring people have a spot to go to listen to your story is vital.”
Hold crafting the way forward for the online with WP Engine
Thanks to our companions on the Webby Awards to your continued partnership, and to Dr. Rainey and Austin Whipple for sharing your time and insights. We’ll proceed to share extra Crafted With Code tales all year long, so keep tuned to the WP Engine weblog to take a look at much more Webby-worthy initiatives!
Searching for a plot to construct your subsequent nice digital vacation spot? Be part of us this Thursday to be taught why digital architects trusted WP Engine as the muse for 43% of Webby-nominated websites constructed with WordPress this yr!
