Catholic Charities upgrades website, making it more user friendly

Catholic Charities has just launched a newly redesigned website with a clean look and easy to find information for those who need help and those who want to help. Visit http://www.ccwny.org to see it.

“We’re really excited about the new refreshed website,” said Rose Caldwell, chief communications officer for Catholic Charities of Buffalo. “It had been eight years since we had a new look, which in Internet terms is like ancient history. We knew we needed greater functionality for users. We just wanted a great experience.”

The first thing viewers will see on the site that launched Jan. 14 are three big buttons – Get Help, Give Hope, and Get Involved. Behind those links are full lists of services and phone numbers to contact the 80 locations that offer Catholic Charities programs. There are also links to donate time and treasure, contacts to the development team, and volunteer and internship opportunities.

The intended audience is both the people in need and the donors whose generosity help those people.

“Obviously, our major priority is being easy for people to find our programs, to find what will help them,” explained Caldwell. “We have buttons that say ‘Get help’ and people can fill out a super quick form, they can easily find out what’s available in their county. Even if they are unsure what they’re searching, I think there’s help for that,” said Caldwell.

The site also has intranet links for the trustees, staff and appeal volunteers.

Catholic Charities teamed up with Abbey Mecca to design the site. The Buffalo-based advertising, marketing and public relations firm, works with Catholic Charities to handle the advertising needs.

“They know us well. We appreciated their ideas. They listened to everything we needed and wanted,” Caldwell said.

The site saw a soft launch last Friday.

“We let our employees know. We’ve gotten a lot of great comments and positive feedback from them. That’s a good start I think,” Caldwell said.