Crisis UK are the national charity for homeless people. The charity offers year-round education, employment, housing and well-being services.
Charity, Complete website redesign, CMS
Strategy, UX, Design, Creative, Build, Payment integration
Last year Crisis helped 10,000 people out of homelessness
Crisis UK identified the requirement for a new website in 2016. At the heart of the new site they had needed a new payment gateway that enables easier donations. However, donations were not the sole aim; the new website would also mark the charity’s intent to provide an unrivalled digital experience for supporters and, crucially, beneficiaries.
As well as improving the experience for donors, the Crisis team was keen to ensure that the new site offered supporters something more than just a place to donate.
The new site has been built to encourage engagement with the charity throughout the year, not just at Christmas. It has been launched at the start of Crisis’ 50th anniversary, as the charity embarks on a year-long programme to develop a plan to end homelessness for good.
Designed based on insights from all of the charity’s key audiences, including supporters, homeless people, staff and professionals in the wider sector, the new site has been built to cater for a range of key user journeys. It showcases Crisis’ pioneering research into the solutions for homelessness, and provides more accessible information for its members including mobile-friendly timetables for the classes and courses it provides to support people to gain the skills they need to leave homelessness behind.
Following the research phase, the website and donation platforms were developed collaboratively with Crisis in five two week agile sprints.
The website is built on open source CMS platform, Umbraco and integrated into Raisers Edge – the system that Crisis UK uses to manage all of its donations and communications with supporters
Working with a partner that is as passionate as they are knowledgeable is key for us. DAM Digital has extensive experience working with charities, like Marie Curie and PDSA, to help them with the issues we are facing. We’re confident that the new site provides an accessible, engaging platform to help our members, and inspire support for our ambitious long-term plan to end homelessness.
