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Luanne Brown
July 16, 1996
Contents
Abstract
Introduction
Recommendations
Get Off to a Good Start
Research
Define Your Objectives
Determine Your Audience
Timing Is Everything
Budget
Pad Your Time Budget
Have a Singular Creative Vision
Translate, Don't Transcribe
Understand What Users Like
Factor in Maintenance Time
Conclusion
Discover the hidden challenges of going online for the first time. Gordon Todd, Director of Communications for The Nature Conservancy of Washington, gives some hard-won advice to other organizations venturing out onto the Web. Find out just what it takes for a non-technical, membership-based organization to transition from the traditional media to this new form of communicating with the world.
(The Nature Conservancy of Washington Web site can be accessed from http://www.tnc-washington.org 
.)
The Nature Conservancy of Washington is a private, non-profit organization committed to protecting plants and animals in their natural communities. They do this by purchasing and managing private land preserves throughout the state. Currently, they own 29 preserves in Washington State and have over 30,000 members.
"Even though we're a non-profit organization, we have to work in a very business-like fashion, making the same types of decisions as a profit-making organization," says Gordon Todd, Director of Communications. Publishing on the Web is sound business practice as far as he is concerned. "It's like being in the Yellow Pages."
The journey into cyberspace has been an exciting one. Everyone knew it would involve some work, but no one knew exactly how much. Gordon was surprised to find so many hidden challenges along the way and has plenty of practical tips to help other organizations as they journey online for the very first time.
Get everyone in the organization invested in the concept from the beginning. Ask for their ideas, educate them about the process, let them know how they might contribute.
From the very first, Gordon talked to the other departments at The Nature Conservancy of Washington and encouraged their participation. It was a conceptual leap for some. Gordon admits that even he had a hard time understanding the finer points. "It's like jumping into three-dimensional chess when you're used to playing two," he confides.
Working together as a team from the first has really helped. The staff started by brainstorming a huge wish list that they pulled into an outline and took with them to their meetings with Tim Girvin Design. This wish list served as their starting point for discussions about how the site should look and what it should contain.
Talk to other non-profits or similar businesses that have gone online. The Web has a culture of sharing ideas and experiences. Look at as many Web sites as you can. You'll quickly learn what keeps your attention and what drives you away. Find out what common features these sites share so that you can figure out what would appeal to a broad range of users. Encourage your co-workers to do the same and ask for their feedback. Build on the strengths of other sites and learn from their weaknesses.
Understand why going on the Web is a good fit for your organization. Don't just dive in because the Web is the new thing. Going online should add value to your already existing outreach campaign. Look at it from several different perspectives.
Determine how your objectives will change with a move to the Web.
The Nature Conservancy's objectives for their other outreach efforts include: reinforcing their identity, informing their membership about what was happening inside the organization, and educating them about the importance of conservation.
In print, they focus on their achievements, telling members, "Here's what your dollars are doing." But with their Web site, Gordon feels they can enlist and empower visitors, through education, to help The Nature Conservancy fulfill their broader mission. A Web site gives them the opportunity to pose the larger question, "Why buy land?" and to demonstrate the answer, "To protect biodiversity."
Don't try to be everything to everybody. Understand how your audience on the Web will be different from your traditional audience and make sure you are able to meet their information needs and interests.
Another major difference between The Nature Conservancy's print objectives and their online objectives is the recognition of a broader audience. They define the Web audience potential, beyond their own membership, as anyone with an interest in the environment. However, Gordon feels strongly that it would weaken the site to make it too broad. In other words, they're not trying to convince people that they should be interested in the environment; they are trying to inform those people who already are interested.
Is going online right for your organization NOW? What are your upcoming challenges? Is there an event you could strategically link the launch of your Web site to, like a capital fundraising event? You may decide that the Web would be great... but not right now. Look at your other priorities.
Turns out the timing was perfect for The Nature Conservancy. They had been talking about it for a while and Gordon, as well as others in the organization, felt that this was the perfect time for them to let more people know who they were and what they were doing. So when Microsoft offered to sponsor this effort, it was an offer they were already prepared to accept.
Budgets for sophisticated Web sites are getting bigger and bigger over time. Generally speaking, costs fall into two broad categories: Design and Production, with several subcategories under each. Do a preliminary budget, then run it by someone who's already been through this experience. They're sure to tell you what you've missed and what you've underestimated.
Don't forget to include the cost of your staff's time. Rest assured, no matter what you estimate, it will take twice as long.
"We had never done this type of thing before, so that adds to the time it takes. Also, we don't have a very large staff, so everyone's work load became much heavier," Gordon reports. He adds that what started out relatively simple became much more complex over time, as both the site and the technology they were using became more sophisticated. "We didn't anticipate this in the beginning," says Gordon. But it's bound to happen!
A singular creative vision is essential to success. Gordon uses the following example. "Just like a good movie is the vision of a small creative team, a Web site should be the same. Take a look at Hollywood and learn from their mistakes. When you get a big Hollywood machine on a project with everyone adding their two cents, you can lose your creative focus and end up with movies that are a mess. The same thing can happen with a Web site." Gordon recommends that even though you want the input of others, you have to limit the number of people on the decision-making team.
Look at your already existing content in terms of how it can be translated to the Web. Don't just transcribe it from one medium to another.
Before going on the Web, The Nature Conservancy of Washington communicated with their membership using several different types of printed material including: an annual report, a quarterly magazine -- Washington Wildlands, fact sheets, and a brochure. They also had several outreach programs, like slide shows, used to educate the public about their work.
"We naively, but intuitively, thought that the transition from print to Web would be more like transcription than translation," says Gordon. But they found that it didn't work. Pieces had to be rewritten and adapted to the Web's special needs. Also, because of the broader audience, many new pieces of content had to be created.
This medium dictates that content follow a different paradigm. Understanding the behavior of users helps you sculpt your content to fit this form.
Leslie Kellogg, Development and Communications Assistant, says, "This medium (in terms of content) is more like a buffet. You have to have a bunch of delicious-looking things to nibble from." She recommends creating pages with a mix of visual and printed material and being a bit brutal about editing.
"Define, then refine," she advises, admitting that it's a struggle to hone material down to its pure essence. But it is crucial to online success. People are not going to linger over pages and pages of text. Figure out what you want to say, then say it succinctly.
She also recommends that you use these new media tools to make your content come alive. Explore ways in which using all the media -- text, sound (music, narration, sound effects), video -- and linking between areas of the site can enhance your message and make it enticing to the wider audience. Use all these technological wonders to hook your visitors and keep them there.
Gordon agrees. "Take advantage of this medium. There's not much point in just putting your newsletter or brochure online."
Leslie thinks one of the best examples of using technology to serve content is the Rolling Movie Credit application they used for thanking their contributors and volunteers.
"We had just finished designing a print piece with this information. But it was all wrong for the Web, " Leslie explains. First of all, monitors have a different orientation than newspaper copy. The classic solution, of course, is to just change the font size, but that meant making the type smaller, which everyone felt was "no way to say thanks!"
Even reoriented and resized, the information wasn't very visually appealing. It had nothing to draw the user to it. But by making the text move like a credit screen, they were able to make it interesting and even a bit dramatic!
There's no use creating a fabulous site if you can't put the effort into keeping it fabulous once it's up and running.
Especially if you're a non-profit organization, start collecting the names of people who may be willing to volunteer their time to help you get online and stay there. Take a careful look at the level of ongoing participation that will be required on the part of your organization. Decide how often you are going to update the site, whose responsibility this will be, and don't forget to consider the costs of creating new graphic and text elements.
Gordon says they're still working out these aspects of the project but they're committed to the site -- long-term.
Gordon cautions that if a Web site project isn't managed carefully, it could eat an organization up. Go into it with a clear understanding of what's to be gained from all this effort, and realize that all the nifty technological treats have not only the obvious money-related costs, but also costs in terms of other resources, like staff time. Make your decisions accordingly and remember: It's up to you to manage the process and not let the process manage you.
Luanne Brown writes both fiction and non-fiction for multiple media.
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