Klitschko Foundation is a leading Ukrainian charity in sports, science, and education initiatives. It helps youth and aspiring sportsmen while building a solid support network. The organization was founded by the Klitschko Brothers in 2004.
Before I was invited to help the organization, Klitschko Foundation already had a website. Yet unfortunately, it was dated and didn't work quite well. So the Foundation wanted to rebuild it. After discussions with the organization's leadership, we established the following goals:
Increase Participation in Activities
Boost Incoming Donations
Grow Authority and ReputationI started researching how non-profit organizations work in Ukraine. In general, most charities fall under one of four categories:
The 2014 revolution in Ukraine was followed by the Russian invasion and the annexation of Crimea with parts of Eastern Ukraine. This caused a significant shift toward donations to the Ukrainian army and children aid organizations.
The positioning of the Klitschko Foundation's activities in the existing reality was one of the reasons it was challenging to raise funds.
Going further into the research, I talked to nineteen people who would fit into a profile of a typical donor. My goal was to understand why people donate or not to charity causes.
To make the path to the solution more streamlined, the organization leadership and I established core principles:
Many people found charity websites confusing. Yet, we needed to show a lot of information. So I created an information architecture map of the website, describing which content each page would have. This helped to make the website navigation more straightforward from the beginning.
Before I started to work on this project, the Foundation already had a basic brand identity. A Ukrainian marketing agency created the logo, and the primary color came from the official Klitschko Brothers brand.
While working on the basics, I wanted the color theme to be better associated with children—since the original color was inspired by a pair of typical boxing gloves. So I adjusted it towards a pastel tone that felt less aggressive in a given context. In addition, I added a purple-ish color as a supportive tone.
The goal of the primary page was simple: answer the most common questions a visitor would have, and make it engaging. Therefore, the sections on the page were prioritized in the order of importance for a typical visitor.
To achieve high transparency, the organization regularly publishes details financial reports.
To test our solution, I invited five candidates. Since the website itself was pretty simple, there was no need for overly complicated scenarios for this testing. So instead, I created a simple prototype of the main page using the actual content provided by the Foundation.
I aimed to see if the typical issues I've learned previously persisted. The participants received a few minutes to browse the website and then were asked a series of open-ended questions:
I received lots of positive responses about how information is presented and is easy to understand. Unfortunately, I couldn't test if the people would be more willing to donate to the Foundation or engage in its activities. This is something that should be observed over time.
I needed to change a few things. Back then, Vitali Klitschko was actively building his political career. While many people supported him, there were ones who did not. Some in the organization's leadership thought that having the Klitschko Brothers' photo on the front page would've deterred potential donors who opposed Vitali politically.
But after the initial tests, we quickly reversed this decision. Of course, people looking at Klitschko Foundation expect to see the Klitschko Brothers engaged in its activities.
Another solution I needed to adjust was the "donate" button. During my research, I heard complaints that many charities way too aggressively ask for donations. So instead of putting the button prominently in the header, I decided to put it in the bottom right corner, fixed on the screen. It would always be there, yet not so in-your-face from the start.
This was a bad idea.
As the tests showed, multiple people did not notice the button at all. And as I learned later, many donors already know about the organization. When they visit the website, they immediately look for the donate button. Thus, I moved the button to the header.
About a year into the release of the website, I reached out to the organization's leadership. Since the launch, they observed a steady increase in visitors and donations via the website. Moreover, thanks to well-presented work and detailed financial reports, Klitschko Foundation became one of the Top 10 Most Transparent Charities in Ukraine.
Credits: usability testing photo by Unsplash/Headway. Vitali Klitschko photo in the Mistakes chapter by EPA/Andreas Gerbert
