When Heifer International approached us, they presented a unique challenge. Heifer has been helping people around the world get a hand-up out of hunger and poverty for over 70 years by providing livestock and training. Their iconic gift catalog goes out every holiday season, and donors are encouraged to “buy a cow, and change a life!” The simple conversation that had worked so well for them for decades was beginning to lose effectiveness with today’s information-savvy audiences. Donors want to know more. “Where does my money go, exactly? How do I know Heifer is using my donation effectively? How are you helping people out of poverty?” The answers to these questions are complex, and Heifer did not have a digital property that provided them. Sites like Kiva and Give Directly were popping up, that offered a new level of transparency. Heifer needed to change the conversation they were having with donors.
As I started to research the many documents Heifer provided on their programs, I became aware of the huge gap between the actual work being done and the messaging around the work. This new conversation needed to be advised by the experts, so I read hundreds of documents, studied books on development and NGO websites, attended webinars, and spoke with key program directors inside Heifer. Later, I was even invited to travel to Honduras to see the work first-hand.
The most important element in this new conversation is the human one. I knew that facts and research alone could not begin a compelling discussion with audiences. I started by appealing to the universal human aspirations for dignity, equality, personal growth, and respect. This interactive experience literally puts the donor eye to eye with the beneficiary and demonstrates that Heifer is about so much more than cows.
How do you take hundreds of research documents and distill them down into an easy to understand interactive experience? I took inspiration from another industry entirely: museums. Great museums take complex subject matter and make it easy to understand through engaging visuals, interactivity, and tactile experiences.
Just as a great museum exhibit teaches through play and interaction, the new gift catalog offers opportunities to explore the difference your gift makes. Learn facts about livestock, grab the slider and drag it to complete the goat, and get a surprise bleat! The entire purchase experience helps round out the conversation and adds a level of sophistication to the messaging.
As our world is more connected now than ever non-profits are expected to be specific and transparent about where they work and what they do. For Heifer this is accomplished through an interactive world map that pinpoints exact project locations. Then the visitor can click on a location to see details about it. This amount of detail positions Heifer as an expert and establishes a new level of trust with audiences.
The impact of Heifer’s work is apparent in researching their evaluation data. The donor-facing experience needed to demonstrate the impact to the layperson in a quick, powerful, and memorable way. This is where smart visuals and interactive moments come in. I sketched out what the key interactive moments could feel like, using the museum strategy as a guide for the user experience.
This piece demonstrates impact through a simple visual. The visitor is invited to explore the different stages of development, revealing a brighter future for the village.
The new Heifer.org features an entirely re-vamped gift catalog. The “Ending Hunger and Poverty” section now provides an effective complimentary conversation to the “Give a Cow, Change a Life” narrative. The holistic experience raises the level of conversation to satisfy today’s educated, connected, and savvy NGO donor while staying engaging, inspiring, and positive. Heifer International’s digital property is now positioned to create lasting change for the organization for the next 70 years and beyond.