A website is the face of an organization. It’s the resonating first impression and the digital platform for storytelling. The previous version of our site was outdated and confusing until our Executive Director Adam Nevins recruited CIV Digital for a complete overhaul. Three months and a few megapixels down the road, our newly furbished site was launched in November, and with it, an entirely new face of ServLife.

After asking a sampling of donors how they interpreted ServLife’s mission and receiving a variety of ambiguous answers, we knew it was time to rebrand – not only our mission statement, but our image as a nonprofit. That image had to be reconstructed from the ground up, which led to our partnership with CIV and conversations with CIV’s founder and CEO, D.J. Smith.

CIV caught our attention with a previous redesign they’d done for International Justice Mission. With their knack for story-telling and passion for entrepreneurial organizations, the CIV team embraced the opportunity to partner with us. What first drew D.J. to ServLife were the big ideas behind what we do: alleviate poverty, help children, plant churches.  What needed improvement was our ability to condense and connect those ideas to our donor base and site users. The key to achieving this, according to D.J., was the stories, and more importantly, communicating them effectively.

“I was in contact with Adam while he was traveling, and I was hearing the stories. We wanted to portray those stories for others to see. We wanted to key in on individual stories about real people, real places, real needs, gifts, hopes, and talents – all in an effort to make it real for people here in the US.”

Thanks to CIV, our revamped site comprises not only a far more effective communication tool, but a way of enabling donors, both current and potential, to engage in the realities of individual life in India and Nepal. We’ve acquired a new face by which to tell our story.

“At the end of the day, it’s hard not to be supportive of ServLife’s mission, especially in that part of the world,” reflected D.J. “There’s a lot of really great work being done, and it’s all about trying to create a connection with that work.”