The Fetzer Institution is a private philanthropic institution whose mission is to “to foster awareness of the power of love and forgiveness in the emerging global community.” For over fifty years the institute has funded people and projects like “Speaking of Faith” on NPR and “Bill Moyers” on PBS, as well as supporting the outreach of leaders like the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu.
Fetzer has accumulated a vast library of information on the topic of love and forgiveness, but this has remained largely out of public reach. The challenge for the Fetzer Institute was not only to redesign an out-dated website, but to create an expandable database of projects, partners, research, videos, podcasts, publications and events that could be managed by a very small communications staff.
Interactive Knowledge has a long-standing relationship with Fetzer through two other web projects, “The Mystery of Love” and “The Campaign for Love and Forgiveness,” so their home site redesign was a natural evolution of our work together. IK began as a consultant with the goal of shaping the new Fetzer web presence so that it mirrored the organization, programs and mission of the institute.
IK spent several weeks studying Fetzer’s previous website, reading background materials and interviewing key staff members over the phone before conducting on-site group discussions with the entire staff in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Once the interviews were completed, IK began developing the plan for the website, database and social media tools. The final plan included visitor profiles, site goals, site organization, content outline, wireframes and schedule.
Fetzer requested that the entire site be developed using Joomla as the content management system and designed using the fonts and colors of their new identity program. IK began with the wireframes approved in the plan and designed the templates and text styles using the most diverse section of the site for content. The online library required extensive planning for both the backend development and content organization.
The Fetzer website launched on schedule in mid-September 2009, just in time for a highly promoted award ceremony at the Dalai Lama Center in Vancouver.
