Erin Stephey
Dr. Licastro
ENG256
10 February 2019
Empowered Nonprofit Through Mode and Affordance
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is a nonprofit organization that is working towards protecting and empowering migrants and refugees through their Lutheran faith. This organization has helped many migrants and refugees and will hopefully help hundreds of thousands more. Not only do you have the option to donate to help this organization, you can also volunteer or become a partner through your church, service, organization, etc. This nonprofit utilizes a website to reach their audience and clearly define their intended purpose.
When you first visit the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service website you see the navigation bar at the top, followed by a split hero image that takes up the majority of the homepage above the fold. Below you will see part of the hero image that is displayed on the homepage of the LIRS website.
On the left side of the hero image there is text that says “Asylum seeker. Immigrant. Refugee. Human.” Viewers that read this side of the hero image can see that the word “Human” is emphasized because of the linguistic and visual changes that are apparent with the word, such as the background blue color as well as the white font color. By looking at this text as well as the rest of the website above the fold, you understand that the genre of this website is a nonprofit website. If you look at the websites of other nonprofit organizations you will see that many of them have a hero image that either has a picture of people in need or state a short blurb of how they wish to help others. Other nonprofit organizations also have a more eye catching tab for donations to be made or a tab for people to volunteer to help the organization.
LIRS is one of those nonprofit organizations that has a navigation bar with one tab that catches the eye of those visiting the site because the font of the text saying “DONATE” is white instead of blue, like the other options in the menu, and it has a large orange colored bubble around the text.
Because of this eye catching button, we can infer that the intended audience is towards donors as well as volunteers because of another tab labeled “TAKE ACTION”.
When taking a look at the “ABOUT US” tab it tells the viewers the background history of the nonprofit organization. This tab also has a dropdown menu that states the mission and vision statements, partners that work with and help LIRS, as well as the staff and leaders of the organization. The dropdown menu gestures improve the user experience by letting the viewers know when they hover over the tab, more options will fall underneath.
From these pages we get a sense of who the authors of this website are. There are multiple names listed under the “OUR LEADERSHIP” tab so this means that there is a large group of people contributing around the United States from California to Maryland and from Texas to New York. When looking at each name individually, the Board Chair is titled “The Reverend Michael Rinehart.” Because of this title people believe that his credibility is legitimate as well as the information included within the LIRS website. Also looking at the partners that LIRS has, this is a potential secondary audience because in this tab there is a place to fill out information to become a partner. Whether the partner is a church, a service, or a foundation, these potential partners can view the existing partners of LIRS in the “OUR PARTNERS” tab as well as at the bottom of any page, there is a button that says “Partner Login” where you can access specific information regarding becoming a partner.
Because of the sections labeled “HISTORY” and “OUR WORK” that describe what the organization has done and will continue to do, this website is very informative. Viewers can access previous efforts that have helped many migrants and refugees along with future efforts that LIRS is hopefully going to continue to work towards. Not only is the website informative, but it is engaging, inviting, and involved because of the noticeable call to action with the “DONATE” button and the sans-serif fonts used throughout the website.
Previously mentioned, this button is very eye catching so more people are inclined to visit that page and donate money to the nonprofit organization. The medium that the LIRS authors chose to use was web. I think the authors chose this particular medium over others because today more and more people access information through mobile devices since it is more convenient. People are able to look up information quickly, donate money easily, sign up for updates about situations occurring, become a partner with LIRS, share their own story, etc.
This is much more convenient and accessible than looking at a flyer posted somewhere that tells people to go to a website or send money to a specific address or come into a nearby office to sign up, etc.
I think that the main intention of LIRS is to receive money from donors as well as help from volunteers that can help the nonprofit organization reach their mission and vision statements. I also think the authors of LIRS intended for more awareness of the nonprofit organization as well as more awareness about these current situations occurring today.
After analyzing the website entirely it is clear that the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service organization utilizes their website to effectively communicate their mission to their intended audience of donors and volunteers. Because of all of the modes and affordances within the website, this makes the website that much stronger and user friendly.
References
LIRS. “Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.” LIRS, 6 Feb. 2019, www.lirs.org/.
IRC. “International Rescue Committee (IRC).” International Rescue Committee (IRC), 2019, www.rescue.org/.