United Way

United Way of America is a nonprofit organization that works with almost 1,200 offices throughout the country in a coalition of charitable organizations to pool efforts in fundraising and support. In the Greater Dayton region, they play a pivotal role in the lives of children, adults, and seniors by providing direct service and supporting local non-profits.

United Way’s focus is to identify and resolve pressing community issues and to make measurable changes in communities through strategic partnerships. The organization has historically been America’s largest non-profit by donations from the public.

The United Way of Greater Dayton needed to create a streamlined, user-friendly website that strategically appealed to United Way’s target audiences. With these research-driven improvements, Wilderness ventured to:

1. Direct people seeking aid
2. Increase volunteer engagement
3. Drive donations

Improving the Visitor’s Experience

The new site was focused on improving donation and volunteer conversion, as well as providing a streamlined user journey towards helpful information. We found that only 3% of users clicked the correct CTA to receive the information they were looking for. Only 6.1% of users made their way to the donation page, and an even lower 2.2% accessed the volunteer page.

Wilderness Agency worked with United Way through necessary stages to implement decisive UX/UI improvements to the functionality plan for the existing website. Design and copy were also reimagined to create an inviting, cohesive digital environment.

“The United Way has had a special place in my heart for over a decade. When I met friend and mentor, Alan Elijah, who was then president of United Way. My respect for the organization continues under Tom’s leadership. It is one of the most critical organizations in the region. I am proud of our team who has been able to contribute to the long term success of United Way.

+ Richard Kaiser

Wilderness Agency was able to notably optimize their CTA’s to drive 633% more users towards the necessary information pages, as well as organize the site’s information structure which increased donation and volunteer conversions by 134% and 1,809%, respectively.

Implementing Live Chat

For over 50 years, United Way has been answering the call for Miami Valley residents in need of help. Their dedicated specialists will listen, identify underlying problems, and connect those in need with community resources and services. They currently support more than 1.6 million residents in the nine-county service area —Butler, Champaign, Clark, Clinton, Greene, Madison, Montgomery, Preble, and Warren counties.

To make their services even more accessible, Wilderness helped them enable 24/7 Live Chat on their website. This service is essential to providing immediate support for those experiencing struggle: “You need help, you need a plan, you need an advocate when you face a crisis or barriers to service. 211 is your 24 hour lifeline to a free, confidential, and compassionate professional who will review your situation and connect you with resources to meet your needs. Translation services are available.”