About the Project
Partners: Smoot Tewes Group
The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute is an important voice for civil rights in the United States. The organization continues the life's work of Medgar Evers, who was assassinated in Mississippi in 1963, and his wife Myrlie, who served as chairperson of the NAACP.
The Evers Institute was on the verge of a major fundraising campaign to support several new programs, but their website hadn't been updated in several years. They needed a new website that reflected the new directions of their organization and that could help attract new interest from younger Americans ... and they needed it fast.
Projecting a Modern Image While Respecting the Past
In our initial meetings, we talked about the need for a responsive site that worked across devices and the importance of a simple site navigation architecture. The Evers Institute wanted to highlight their new programs and provide a simple way to make donations. But more than anything, they stressed that the site needed to reflect the importance of their work and honor the legacy of Medgar Evers.
With that in mind, we decided on a simple but elegant site that would work well on mobile devices. We designed a site architecture that puts the Evers mission front and center, and we drafted text that emphasized inclusion and avoided partisanship. We worked with ActBlue to integrate a simple donations mechanism.
With an ambitious deadline of a few short weeks, we knew that using WordPress and incorporating a ready-to-go responsive theme would be key. Working with Evers staff, we were able to launch a new, modern website in time for the rollout of the Evers Institute's new programs.
