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Rainforest Trust has protected more than 50 million acres of wild lands by establishing protected areas across more than 62 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. In 2020, they embarked on a new strategic plan that included ambitious fundraising goals. To achieve these goals, they needed a new website that would differentiate them from their competitors in the conservation space, and demonstrate their impact in a way that would compel donors to act.
Our discovery and research led to two pivotal discoveries. First, stakeholder discussions clarified the ‘why’ behind Rainforest Trust’s mission to protect wild lands. Second, audience research revealed three main motivators driving donors to act: saving species, fighting climate change, and protecting communities. These insights guided the architecture of a simplified navigation that resonated with donors and resulted in an average donation size increase of 123%.
The conservation space is crowded. The Rainforest Trust site needed to make a big impact to stand out. Our research indicated that donors are drawn to charismatic species like tigers, elephants, and gorillas. We leveraged Rainforest Trust’s expansive portfolio of high-fidelity photography that put their site imagery in the same league as other players in the conservation space, like National Geographic, World Wildlife Fund, and The Nature Conservancy.
We wanted users to feel like they’re exploring a rainforest as they navigate through any page on the new site. Our designers and developers worked together to create images that move as you scroll down a page, and three-dimensional cut-outs of animals that peek around corners of components or float across background images of dense forest canopies. They took every opportunity to add to the immersive experience - even the footer drops you below the surface of a mangrove swamp.
Rainforest Trust’s website was raising funds for more than 110 projects, which confused and overwhelmed donors. We helped them prioritize the most important projects, then organize them into key categories users would find as they browse the site’s three primary sections. Every page includes a pathway to donate, and we highlighted their most compelling message: 100% of donations goes to conservation efforts.
Content can be one of the most time-consuming portions of any project. We set Rainforest Trust up for success by starting early with helpful tools like GatherContent, and workshops that covered best practices for writing for the web, SEO, content chunking, brand voice, and more. So every member of the Rainforest Trust team was prepared to create compelling, cohesive content that struck a balance between urgency and hope and contributed to SEO.
James C. Deutsch
Ph.D., Rainforest Trust CEO
