Reach for Uganda
Formerly the Arlington Academy of Hope
The Reach for Uganda is the Design TLC Pro Bono Client for 2019-2020.
About Reach for Uganda
After winning a State Department diversity lottery visa, Joyce and John Wanda moved from Uganda to the U.S. in June, 1995, and settled in Arlington, VA. Witnessing the impressive learning experiences of their children in Arlington Public Schools, John and Joyce were inspired to provide a similar education for children in their native villages. Less than 1% of Ugandans graduate from a university, as John and Joyce had, and they both knew how rocky and pot-holed the road to such success was. In 1999, they began to smooth that road by providing tuition support to five village children and recruited other supporters from their church and workplace. Over time their program has evolved into a vibrant school, with over 300 students and nearly 150 on a waiting list.
Website Review and Refresh Process
Design TLC is excited to help support this important program by providing pro bono website maintenance, enhancements and consulting for 2019-20.
Learn more about our pro bono program, TLC from The Heart.
New & Improved Website Home Page:
Objective
- Provide pro bono website maintenance, enhancements, and consulting for 2019-20 to support this important program.
Approach
- Conducted a full review and audit of the existing website.
- Migrated the site to faster hosting on Kinsta, utilizing their nonprofit discount.
- Removed bloated code and unnecessary plugins while maintaining consistency with effective elements of the old site.
- Enhanced the sub-page design by ensuring the page title is prominently featured at the top with improved content flow.
- Optimized oversized images to improve page load speed.
- Organized content using accordion displays for better readability and user experience.
- Installed GiveWP software to enable AAH to collect donations without paying extra fees to Donor Perfect, thanks to GiveWP’s donation of a one-year license for the TLC from the Heart project (to be configured in Phase 2).
- Set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console, submitted the sitemap, and planned Phase 2 SEO optimization.
- Improved the Hero area by crafting a more compelling headline and call to action, positioning the description below the photo instead of overlaying it.
- Structured the homepage content to automatically feature the next upcoming event.
Outcome
- The website now loads faster, with a cleaner design and better content organization.
- Donation capabilities have been improved with GiveWP, eliminating unnecessary processing fees.
- The site is now optimized for search engines with Google Analytics and Search Console integration.
- The homepage and sub-pages provide a more engaging and user-friendly experience, improving content visibility and navigation.
