Best Non-profit Website

Half of San Francisco’s adult shelter beds are operated by a single organization, which also provides food, education, counseling, job training and other services to over 14,000 homeless people a year. Episcopal Community Services (ECS) is a remarkable non-profit organization that transforms the lives of low income and homeless people. They are so good at what they do that 96% of those in ECS’s housing programs never return to the street. However, without a memorable web presence, ECS struggled with visibility to the greater community – the organization needed to tell San Francisco residents about its efforts to encourage involvement and increase donations of time and money. While ECS had a website, the site was trying to do too many things for too broad of an audience, making it hard to digest and navigate. Heat created a website for ECS that provides insight into the organization, what it does and how visitors can help. The site showcases short documentaries about people who have gotten off the street thanks to ECS, and the staff that have helped them do it. Heat’s creative work also demonstrates the effect of homelessness on the city of San Francisco, and ECS’s unique approach to solving it – in an easy-to-digest infographic. Most importantly, the simple interface of the site allows a visitor to focus on the emotional message and clearly see how ECS is benefitting the city. Since the launch, ECS’s new website has received twice as much traffic as their previous website.

Contributors:

Executive Creative Director:	Steve Stone
President:	John Elder
Creative Director:	Mark Lawson
Senior Art Director:	Naomi Duckworth
Writer:	JP LeRoux
Account Manager:	Megan Robershotte
Film/Edit:	Phil Velasco
Content Producer:	Andrew Lovold

HEAT

Location: USA