One of the biggest needs that nonprofits have is the creation of professional marketing in order to advertise their mission to the public. Having a company like the Overland Agency come along to provide MHHFH a professional website has made all the difference in our organization.

Meghan Pollard, Executive Director









Client:
Mt. Hood Habitat for Humanity (MHHFH)—the Habitat for Humanity International affiliate for East Multnomah and Clackamas Counties—is a nonprofit organization that seeks to eliminate substandard housing. With a presence in more than 90 countries including all 50 states and U.S. territories, Habitat has built more than 225,000 houses, providing greater than one million people in some 3,000 communities safe, decent, and affordable shelter.

Challenge:
Mt. Hood Habitat needed to develop an online presence that enabled visitors an in-depth view of their projects and achievements. Their website needed to showcase the range and benefits of their services, encourage volunteering and donations while simplifying processes for both, and allow site visitors to opt in to permission-based marketing campaigns. And, the site needed to successfully engage an array of audiences: prospective families, volunteers, donors, board members, the media, and the community. Additionally, it was important to promote the philosophy of the parent organization, while strengthening the brand equity.

Solution:
The Overland Agency, having built several pro bono websites for community nonprofits, was familiar with Mt. Hood Habitat’s content and functional needs. Using our proprietary Content Management System (CMS) and a .NET 2.0 and C# framework, Overland successfully designed and built a scalable CMS-driven, web-based tool, allowing Mt. Hood Habitat staff to effortlessly manage and update content from multiple sites. The newly edited content is now more easily accessible to the multitude of site visitors, creating seamless access to a wide variety of resources and options: calendars, press releases, a newsletter, application forms, photographs, volunteer and donor opportunities, and dozens of valuable links.

Result:
Since the site launched, Mt. Hood Habitat has realized enormous interest from web visitors in the Portland metropolitan area. Through visually engaging and strategically designed site paths, the site allows visitors to quickly glean Mt. Hood Habitat’s unique value proposition—and easily get involved with the simple volunteer interest form. The site also functions as a brand-building tool, and the organization’s staff enjoys using the CMS’s intuitive editing tools.

This project won:

• 2008 WebAwards: Standard of Excellence for Non-Profit Website
• 2008 Interactive Media Awards: Outstanding Achievement Award for Non-Profit Website
• 2007 International Creativity Award: Gold Award for Public Service/Non-Profit Website