Company: Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Oakland, CA
Company Description: The Kenneth Rainin Foundation is a family foundation that collaborates with creative thinkers in the Arts, Education and Health. At the Rainin Foundation, we believe in taking smart risks to achieve breakthroughs. We support visionary artists in the Bay Area, create opportunities for Oakland’s youngest learners, and fund researchers on the forefront of scientific discoveries.
Nomination Category: Web Achievement Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Non-Profit Organizations
 Nomination Title: Kenneth Rainin Foundation Website Redesign
- Which will you submit for this nomination, an essay of up to 525 words describing the nominated achievement(s), OR a video of up to five (5) minutes in length describing the same? CHOOSE ONE:
Written essay of up to 525 words
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video:
- If you are providing a written essay of up to 525 words about your nominated web achievement(s), provide it in this space:
Total 524 words used.
The Kenneth Rainin Foundation’s previous website dated back to 2013. After nearly a decade, site load time, image pixelation and other issues had emerged due to unsupported plug-ins and coding that conflicted with major WordPress updates. In 2022 we set out to redesign the site and in June 2023, we were proud to debut our new website with:
- A seamless user experience that clearly expresses who we are, reflects our mission and values and documents our progress.
- An intuitive navigation for visitors to easily access important information and the grantee portal.
- An inclusive design for all, including people with disabilities.
We brought on our longtime partners, Mission Minded, as strategists and developers and Perkins Access as accessibility experts. Our strategies centered around refining the grantee journey and telling the Foundation’s whole story rather than siloing our content into our three program areas. We invited grantees, partners and peer funders across our work in the Arts, Education and Health to participate in paid site user interviews to guide our site structure and design. Their thoughts informed key improvements:
- “I wonder how easy it is for a grantee to go to the website and then drop into the proposal.” We added a button across the top of our site to streamline access to our grants management system for grant reporting and applications.
- “It’s not super obvious what grants are out and available to apply for.” Funding opportunities can now be accessed in one menu click. All our funding opportunities now live on one page with banners to indicate which grants are open, closed or invite-only.
- “I’ve been tracking their equity journey closely.” We added a new section to share what we’re learning. To increase transparency, we uploaded our financial information so interested parties could access it directly rather than having to search for it elsewhere.
We were thrilled to see a 44% improvement in average page load time in the two months after launch compared to the same period before. The Disability and Philanthropy Forum celebrated this accessibility milestone by sharing our blog on social media. Grantee, partner and staff feedback also helps us know that we achieved our goals. For example, we received this comment on LinkedIn:
- [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]
- "Congratulations on the launch of your redesign! Your project is a roadmap for organization-agency-accessibility collaboration. Thank you for your partnership!"[REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]
- [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]
- Optionally, list the appropriate creative and production credits for the nominated achievement(s) you are nominating, such as the following: Advertising Agency/City: Client: Art Director: Cinematographer: Creative Director: Designer: Director: Illustrator/City: Music Producer/City: Photographer/City: Printer/City: Producer: Production Company/City: Programmer: Writer: Web Development Firm/City:
Geoff Freed, Accessibility Consultant; Adam Sypnier, Web Developer; Rosie Powers, Strategist; Megan De Trane, Digital Communications Specialist and project lead; Teri Gardiner, Communications Officer; and Amanda Flores-Witte, Communications Director.
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