DEC creates new website
Howard Lake | 4 August 2011 | News
The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has redesigned its website to present more effectively how donors’ money is spent and to encourage more giving.
Created by digital agency SiftGroups, the new design incorporates more rich media content such as video, slideshows and interactive maps. It also features more social media integration, including for the first time blogs and the facility for visitors to discuss and comment on the DEC’s work. The web design was paid for by DEC’s member agencies, not by funds donated to DEC appeals.
DEC Chief Executive Brendan Gormley said: “The launch of our new website heralds a step change not just in technology and functionality but also in accountability and transparency. We are aiming to make much more information about our work not just available but genuinely accessible.
“We also aim to create a platform for our 14 member agencies to share with our donors details of their work in the most immediate ways possible – with pictures, video and Tweets from the frontline of the aid effort.”
The new website coincides with the DEC’s 2010-11 Annual Report which for the first time includes a breakdown not just of the aid that has been delivered but how money was spent to deliver it.
Nick Torday, Account Director at SiftGroups, said: “The new DEC website concentrates on stronger story-telling to communicate how people’s money is being spent and the real difference it makes on the ground. Combined with our user-centred design process, the underlying technology of the site follows this core strategy, providing a quantum leap for the DEC in terms of how it communicates with its visitors as to where their money is going.”
The current DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal has so far raised over £30 million with roughly two-thirds given directly to the DEC and one-third through its member agencies. Nearly half of the funds given straight to the DEC processed so far have come in via the web and over £500,000 has been given by text donations.
www.dec.org.uk
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.