Hartford Foundation for Public Giving Launches New Website

For many years now, virtually every organization, both large and small, has a website to inform people about the work that it does. When the organization is the 90 year-old community foundation serving Hartford and 28 surrounding communities, it can be a challenge to adequately articulate all that is involved in working with nonprofit organizations, donors and other community partners to improve the quality of life for all residents. The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving embraced this challenge and sought to build a new website where users can identify themselves and their contributions and develop a greater sense of community to motivate them to do more to support the place they call home.

The vibrant new site was designed to create a clear, compelling and active user experience that brings the Foundation’s purpose and impact to life through the use of more approachable and streamlined content and storytelling featuring videos, photos and stories that highlight the contributions of donors and grantees. The site seeks to tell the story of the Hartford Foundation, from its mission and values, to how the Foundation is putting those values to work in the community. In addition, the site offers new resources, such as an interactive grantee checklist and a searchable funds database, which will make it easier for nonprofits and donors to get involved with the Foundation.

The website’s new features include:

• A fully responsive site where all content is easy to access and explore on any device.
• An interactive checklist that helps grant seekers determine whether they meet the Foundation's basic guidelines.
• An interactive map on the home page that displays Foundation grants over the past five years.
• A redesigned donate page to allow donors to more easily identify and support a cause that they support. Donors can now sort over 1,000 funds by category, town, alphabetically, or search for a specific fund.
• Opportunities for community conversations around key issues.
• The Google Translate tool provides all residents with the ability to read the site’s content.
• Spanish translations of key pages of the site.

With input from the staff and other stakeholders, Tom Zeleznock, communications officer for web and social media, and Hartford-based design firm CO:LAB worked to develop a site that provides more clarity around the work the Foundation does, is easier to use, more intuitive and welcoming and offers the ability for users to engage in conversations and provide input.

“Through this website, we aim to share new information as we learn, and highlight the stories of those people and organizations that are making Greater Hartford a better place,” Zeleznock said. “We encourage you to visit the new hfpg.org and browse for yourself.”