Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation
The Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation is one of the largest foundations in Chautauqua County, New York. Founded in 1948, the Foundation gave away just $300 in its first year. Today, they grant between $1.7 and $2.2 million every year and have awarded more than $59 million to advance the physical, educational, and cultural well-being of the people in southern Chautauqua County.
This one was near and dear to my heart! I grew up in Chautauqua County and worked at organizations there for several years. It was such a pleasure to work with them and give them the web presence they deserve!
Struggling with their website
The Foundation’s staff—executive director Linda Swanson and administrative assistant Jan Salter—had long struggled to update their existing website. It was built on an older version of Squarespace that made it hard for Linda and Jan to update text and images, manage fonts and colors, and keep their site looking fresh. It wasn’t always easy for them to find an image that would ensure the logo and menu were readable, and over time the menu had become clunky and made the site difficult to navigate. It also lacked a clear call to action for grant applicants to submit an application.
Here’s a look at their old home page:
A fresh web design
I knew Squarespace was the perfect home for the Foundation’s website; the site simply needed to be redesigned on Squarespace 7.1. Linda and Jan both have limited experience with website maintenance, but Squarespace 7.1 is so easy to use that I knew they’d pick it up in no time. I wanted them to be able to confidently add pages, images, text, buttons, and blog posts to the site as needed.
Best of all, I was able to help them make the website more accessible. Chautauqua County’s population includes a strong and growing population of Hispanic people who speak Spanish as a first language. The Foundation wanted to offer a translation option that would translate their site into Spanish to encourage Spanish-speaking nonprofit leaders to apply for grant dollars. Because the Foundation did not have a budget to purchase a translation plan through a service like Weglot, I used Google Translate’s free web translation option.
The result? A simple, clean website with an easy-to-navigate menu, clear calls to action for grant applications, and an easy way for Spanish speakers to connect to the Foundation’s good work.
