Strategic Website for a Nonprofit Supporting Women and Their Communities
Website Customization
The Challenge:
Asha Project India is a non-profit in India that exists to empower women to use their skills to help support their families and bring hope back to their communities. They sell products made by the women who are then paid a fair wage for their work. They also offer various volunteer opportunities for others to help in their mission of ending the cycle of poverty.
The Asha Project website was built on Squarespace, but didn’t show off their work or allow people to purchase products online. As the Project expands, they needed the ability to offer product sales throughout the United States instead of only in areas local to volunteers.
I worked with the organization to design a website that features their products and also highlights the other opportunities available, as well as the impact they are making.
Why is your website important to your business?
“I think making our website, and marketing in general, picture heavy will convey that we are not just selling products, we are investing in the lives of real people an d their purchase makes real impact.”
Is your website attracting your dream customers?
“No, but here is what I think should be happening - I think (and hope) that the customers who come to our website will be wanting to quickly identify what we are about (our women and impact) and what we can offer them (products and opportunity to be part of the impact).”
THE PROCESS:
The original Asha Project India website was on Squarespace, but only had basic information. The organization didn’t have the skills or time to design a website that would truly display their work.
The big goal for the website was to sell products, but it also needed to highlight volunteer opportunities, the ability to make donations, and clearly communicate their mission.
Based on these goals and our conversations, I mocked-up the major pages for review and then refined the design based on feedback. We worked together to finalize the design and choose the images used on the website - all from the Asha Project.
The Shop part of the website was designed on Shopify to allow the organization the most flexibility to inventory management, as they sell products on their website, in stores, and at pop-up events. We worked together to choose a Shopify template that fit with the Squarespace design so that every part of the website felt cohesive.
Before launch, I tested the entire website and made sure the mobile version of the website reflected the desktop design.
FEATURES:
Squarespace website
Shopify store
Custom CSS throughout
Easy to update
What your biggest goal for your business and website?
“We need to have a great structure for product sales. We also need to a way for people to find more info on the basic impact of their purchases as well as other projects and community work that Asha Project does.
Ultimately, the sales of products is what funds the non-profit work we do. The first step of our work starting a community group and training women in handicraft skills that they then make and we sell to cover the costs of starting and running that group. However, that is just the beginning. We want to impact that community beyond just the few women in the group who are making money. We do different types of programs and trainings and events in those villages as well as other villages where we don't have groups to benefit the rest of the women, families and communities.
I think that our website needs to ‘move customers along’. The customer who has come to just see a product needs to also be informed of the impact their purchase is having in general and even for the specific woman who made her product. Then the customer who is looking into the impact should be informed about the other community work we do that they can get involved with. Ultimately the sale of products is what is going to keep us funded, but I think that the Knowledge of the impact their purchase has also drives the sales.”
What results have you seen since we started working together?
The Asha Project has continued to host in-person and online sales events and has been able to support their workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters in the area.
Over 150 orders since launching
Website visits up 1,340% year/year
44% of visits from social media
5 interested wholesalers
“Samantha was amazing to work with. Our new website is the picture of what we do and the reason we do it. It is exactly what I hope our customers see when they think of shopping with us and investing in the work we are doing and it is an amazing platform for growing our non-profit work.”
