The website lirs.org for the non-profit organization, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) was analyzed in depth. The non-profit organization was designed to help refugees and immigrants escape the life-threatening conditions of their home country. For a full analysis, the audience, purpose, context, author and genre were analyzed to determine if the website effectively or ineffectively promotes LIRS and their mission. The website for LIRS is ineffective because of the lack of videos, pictures, color and more resources for the people they developed this service for, refugees and immigrants.
The primary intended audience for the LIRS website is donors and volunteers. In the top white navigation bar, all the tabs are written in blue, excluding the last tab which says “DONATE” and is an orange button. The orange button is the only color above the scroll line on the landing page.
This directs your attention straight to the donate button which show it is geared towards donors. There are also various pages which directly transfer you to the donation page also.
Also, under the “TAKE ACTION” tab, there are different pages dedicated to volunteers and how you can become a volunteer. The second intended audience is refugees and immigrants. There is a resource tab on the top navigation bar geared toward refugees. In the top right-hand corner, there is also a link for “Loans Customer Portal” which is a source where refugees to get loans. If refugees were the primary audience, the site would not be in English or they would include translation options. The primary audience consists of donors and volunteers so values they hold include helping others and donating time and money to make a difference in immigrant and refugee’s lives. The author is able to appeal to these values by showing sparsely how volunteers and donors can and have helped the immigrants. The secondary audience includes refugees who Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service are trying to help since they value America and want to escape from the conditions of their home country. The author appeals to them by showing they give out loans to help get refugees and immigrants inaugurated in America and also manifest ways that they are able to succor refugees and immigrants throughout the website.
The overall intention for the LIRS website is to show what Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is and what they do, as well as accumulate donations and get volunteers. The website itself lead me to this conclusion because the website has a lot of “Take Action” and “Volunteer” categories, as well as a donation page. In addition to the orange donation button on the top navigation bar, under the “Take Action” tab there is an option to “give,” which includes donations, and under the “volunteer” tab there is another big button blue button that asks for donations also. There is a secondary intention of persuading immigrants and refugees to use this service instead of some of the other non-profits designed to help them. This is due to the “Loans Customer Portal” button in the top right-hand corner. Some of the other non-profits designed to assist them don’t include loans on their website, so this is unique to Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services.
The medium of the LRIS website is the web. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service chose this medium because it is easily accessible, especially to donors or volunteers that have access to a computer, phone, tablet, etc. Being published on the web makes it easy for volunteers or donors to donate money or time no matter where they are. The main colors used on the website are blue and white. There are some pictures throughout the site, mainly of immigrants and refugees or a picture of the statue of liberty. Each page of the website has one picture at the top of the page. There should be more pictures and videos to display what these refugees and immigrants are going through, as well as the impact the volunteers and donors have on them. Readers can interact with this text however they like, but most common will be with a computer, laptop or tablet at work or in their house.
The author of the website is unknown but is produced by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is made up of a board of directors, an executive committee, at-large members from all over the nation, and staff leaders. This source is trustworthy because the company made the website, providing accurate information, links and pictures. The author of the website comes across as asking for money and volunteers rather than showing how they help refugees and immigrants. LIRS has a reputation of helping refugees and immigrants that are in danger if they go back home. This text works to alter the reputation because their website is aimed to make donations and acquiring volunteers. If their main goal is to help immigrants and refugees, they should make that more prominent when looking at the website. They could also include visual representations like videos of real volunteers helping, refugees and immigrants receiving items and care purchased from donations or even a translated video telling refugees and immigrants how they can use this program to seek asylum.
The genre of this text would be non-profit or humanitarian. It is a non-profit because they are ameliorating refugees and immigrants to escape the dangers of their own country and do so with the support of volunteers and donations. It is also humanitarian because LIRS is concerned with and working to improve the security, safety and health of refugees and immigrants. The website is like other non-profits because it is geared toward donors and volunteers. The website is designed to easily navigate to a donation page or a page where you can volunteer. On each page of the website there is one picture of a refugee, immigrant, leader or volunteer to give a visual representation of what this service does. It is also similar to humanitarian sites because the purpose of their organization is to promote the welfare of refugees and immigrants, which is the definition of a humanitarian organization. They include some visuals of the refugees and immigrants as well as some testimonies from previous refugees and immigrants they have helped to show how they have promoted their welfare and overall well-being.
To make the website more effective they need to appeal to all their audiences and viewers. Since the organization was developed to assist immigrants and refugees, it should be accessible to them also and not aimed unanimously toward donors and volunteers. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service could offer a translated version of their website that would be more accessible to them. The
website also needs more colors, different fonts and visuals. A plethora of colors other than blue and white would be more appealing to donors and volunteers, as well as an average lay-person who comes across the website. Most of the pictures already portrayed on the website are faded, so there is not much color present.
Also, majority of the fonts need to be changed to a san-serif font for people with reading disabilities, like dyslexia, are able to read and navigate through the website easier.
Lastly, there should be more pictures throughout the entire website, as well as videos. If people are donating their time or money, they want to see where their money or time is going. If refugees and immigrants are deciding between taking a loan from Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services or a different organization to help with their transition to the United States, they want to see what this service offers in comparison to the other ones. With these suggestions, the website could become more effective in reaching people with disabilities, refugees and immigrants, as well as attracting more donors and volunteers.
Citation:
“Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.” LIRS, 6 Feb. 2019, www.lirs.org/.