Find out how a New York funder raised their eyebrows in a meeting with a 2-people, 3 year old non-profit from Birmingham and took them for a London-level business. Thanks to a website and a business card.
First of all I want to let you know we are not a charity ourselves. We never had and we don’t plan to, so it’s hard for me to understand all the things you need to juggle or the steps you have to go through to start making an impact in society.
The first obstacle in your way is usually funding. Or so my clients have told me. And to get it, you need to sell your idea. But there’s a key mistake that most charities make that has the power to ruin any chance of success.
Let me explain.
When GirlDreamer (non-profit and social enterprise) started they obviously didn’t have the resources, authority or connections they have now.
When I met them by chance in a coworking space in Birmingham and learned about their epic path and goals I was like…
‘Holy guacamole’
2 young girls, with such enthusiasm, authenticity and dreams?
It was a very insightful chat for me over some delicious cake and tea.
So later that day I (obviously) went and check their website to learn more about them.
Obviously.
- DIY Logo
- Website made with their best intentions.
- Noisy, chaotic
- Too many colours
- Too many… things
- …
While I left that chat seeing them as a 10, their website made them look like a 4.
I still love them.
But it was a bit sad, seeing as how the work they do is really needed nowadays.
It wasn’t until our third or 4th catch up that I went ahead and asked the daring question.
“Are you happy with the way your website and brand look?”
It’s a dangerous one, as people can easily get offended by this. Especially when there’s so much emotion in it. And you know they’ve probably stepped out of their comfort zone 100 times to create that website and logo.
The reaction was mostly as you’d expect.
“Well… uhm… we did the best we could.”
And then the next step was key and a real display of setting pride aside and open-mindedness.
“What would you suggest?”
When I showed them my proposal for a brand redesign and a new website the reaction was
“Oh, my, god. This is us!”
But that wasn’t the important bit of my presentation. I actively wanted them to understand what was wrong before, and what was fixed.
Basically I made them aware of how I had felt.
Them being a 10 on site, but a 4 online.
After understanding the problem and talking about it (this time over some cookie dough on a Saturday) it was clear I felt they were bigger that what they felt they were. They were conscious of their impact, but couldn’t help the feeling of being a small non-profit of just 2 young women of colour. Their website and brand was dragging them down heavily, because it made them feel like a tiny 4.
They also rapidly noticed that that was how their potential funders and partners perceived them too, and how that was definitely (and invisibly) limiting their chances and potential.
It felt soooooo good that they realised so quick.
It was smooth sailing from there. We built a new brand and a professional website from scratch for them.
Yay! Job done for me.
But you know what? This is the BEST part.
They instantly felt proud of their brand.
It gave the brand more meaning, more purpose and brought them instantly to a level they weren’t before, both visually and mentally.
They even wanted to wear t-shirts, lol.
And started talking to everyone about it.
Yasssss! I was so happy for them and the effect it had.
In terms of content we also helped them fix the common but major mistake in websites. They talked about themselves instead of telling the user “This is what YOU can get here (from me)”.
Why?
It’s not a CV.
A website is not for pride.
No, no, no, and one more time.
No.
For a website to be useful, you need to focus on what the user wants from you, and give it. The next time we met
(yes, I always do over food, mostly chocolate, guilt doesn’t come)
I wanted to reinforce this idea. We told them to keep this in mind:
“It’s more about them than it is about you.”
Since then, we have received tons of feedback about the impact of this change.
Probably the greatest (and funniest) example was when they arrived to a new collaborator’s meeting in New York. They were explicitly told that they took them for a large organisation from London (them still being just 2 and from Birmingham).
Based on their website and brand looks.
Before they opened their mouth.
Mission accomplished.
And this has happened several times in terms of new opportunities.
Since then, they managed to increase their funding many times over, increased their team to 8 people, and keep getting offered lots of opportunities around the globe. Even met the Royal family (holy sh**!!) in a private event 2 years ago.
Can you f***ing imagine?
It’s not like we have a thing for Royalty or anything. More like the opposite.
But to be at that level, just 2 years after starting? Damn!
I am still amazed about that, and they keep surprising me when I learn about their newest achievements.
Their followers now often mention how they love what they do and the brand, and they recognise it as an icon in the sector.
Since the team is proud of their (actually pretty simple, but not messy) website it encourages them to actively promote themselves without any shame.
Now, if you are daring enough to start your own social enterprise.
Here’s how you can make your life easier.
Some don’t, and I can’t tell you why because I don’t know either.
We have created a method specially for your case.
With 2 goals in mind.
Simple,
and affordable to start.
And quick.
Ok, 3.
Here’s what you’ll get:
- The easiest way to stand out in the (resource limited) social enterprise and charity sector that will allow your project to attract attention, funding and new opportunities.
- I believe I can fly! The single piece of work (the website) that will make you believe that what you’re doing is real and bigger than yourself, and make you commit. This is our most common feedback from clients.
- Last year I asked my accountant friend for a quick tax return issue to avoid paying and slower work from a third party one. I ended up waiting for 3 months. Then I went and paid a recommended third party and got it done in 2 days. Familiarity brings contempt. We can’t do it for free, but we will care more, do it faster, professionally, and hassle-free for you.
- A single stop solution with design, development, hosting and domain. All done for you. We will even buy the domain that you want for you. And marketing insight as icing (honestly this alone has more value that the full price).
- How a basic (different from low quality) website is all you need to kick-off. There’s always time to gather more money and resources and build a custom one with a full branding, accepting donations, products and tons of content. The key is doing it when you need it, step by step. Don’t let it slow you down in the meantime.
- For the play-safe minds. A predictable design outcome, without risk of getting something you don’t like when you receive it.
- A sexy 5-pack. The website that covers everything you need (and more) to start without losing focus. Home, About, What we do, Contact and Cookies Policy.
- One of the cheapest ways you can get an online business card (a website) for you to back your words after introducing yourself and your project.
- The right way to launch and focus on your thing. Avoiding dealing with different service providers or contractors. Each different one is an extra obstacle. One single payment will include everything: design, development, the first year of hosting and domain, and the set up of it all.
It’s quite common that you find yourself running around not sure where to focus your efforts. Or what will be best to focus on this early stages.
Don’t give up. And this is important, so let me repeat it.
Don’t. Give. Up.
Every successful charity has been there.
You HAVE to be there.
Otherwise you won’t learn what a good leader needs, which is the mentality, attitude and purpose to follow through where many jump off.
Sadly that’s not all that it takes.
Do you want to know what else can help you?
- The staple tool for any organisation to become professional and trustworthy in an ocean of online scams, money grubbers and dishonest people (even more important in the social enterprise sector)
- Blood and biz don’t mix well. You will find how reassuring, quick, and stress-free it is to work with a professional versus asking a skilled friend or colleague to do as best as they can, whenever they can.
- The major mistake most small businesses do in regards to their brand is choosing themselves their logo and colours. They undervalue design, and that stops them from growing and building up. We do the hard work for you, and the colour and typography options we suggest to you are carefully picked to ensure readability, hierarchy and a good user experience (and plenty of other things a designer needs to take into consideration and have nothing to do with likes or dislikes).
- Good websites don’t need lots of content, they need intent (we guide you to achieve this), and a project’s soul (you need to bring this from home). That’s all you need.
- This one’s for the geeks. The must-have technical duo to make you future-proof. A website platform (WordPress) that will allow you to grow when you need it. You won’t be handicapped by ready-made platforms like Wix or Squarespace. You won’t need to throw away and start from scratch. And if you want to get more hands on, you will be able to with the most used drag and drop visual editor in the world (Elementor).
- The step by step instructions that will allow you to fill your website’s content. We will provide you with an “empty” website to fill yourself. But you will only have to worry about adding your touch. We will tell you exactly what to write and where, and if you follow these guidelines you will end up having a great website, clear for your audience to understand and take action.
- From 0 to hero in 4 short steps. Pay, fill the form with your content following our instructions, wait (24h) for us to build it and deliver, go out and do good to the world.
- Oh Captain, my Captain. You’ll have control and ownership of your website. Once it’s live, you’ll receive an administrator account. You shouldn’t need to use it, but you can if you want to make absolutely any change that you want on the website.
- Aaaaand we have a date! It’s on me. A 20-min 1-to-1 consulting session after your website is up and running where we will share our experience and give you our professional feedback and tips of what you could improve for future revisions. On the house during beta, worth at least £100.
Will I be able to have a good website for my social enterprise that’s just starting and does not have lots of content yet?
For sure. We are going to build a high quality website, and we’re going to keep it simple at the same time. The point is for you to have the basics that you need now, not later. To stand out, be clear and ready for potential opportunities, funders or people interested.
Book your 10 min call to see our face, ask any final question with no obligation, and pay.
The Beta test is now done!
Sign up to the waiting list here to get notified when there's an open place for you.
Have questions? Good, it means you paid attention. The ones who didn’t ask questions at school are still blockheads today.
Why beta?
This is the first time we offer Launch for Good, and for this reason we didn’t want to fully develop the product before we checked if people would like it.
Hence this trade-off.
We put up more manual work this time around, building your website manually and less automated, with even more attention and care to detail.
You will need to wait 24h for us to build the website once we get your form (final version will be instant), and are limited to 3 content form submissions (final version will be unlimited and instant).
You understand this is a beta version and don’t roast us online if there’s something unexpectedly going south and takes a bit more time to fix. You are a bit more patient.
In exchange:
You get it even cheaper. The price will increase soon after.
Oh, and you’ll get a free 20min consultation after your website is live with our feedback for you to improve on it.
Also, beta seats are limited to 20.
Is this a template?
Yes and no. It is a structure template, yes. It is a fixed structure that has been tested and works for all of our clients.
We wouldn’t be able to offer you a custom website at this price. It’s one of the compromises. If someone does, we recommend running.
But believe us when we say that you don’t need it (yet). If you think you do, then this is not for you. We can still help if you want.
Won’t it look the same as all the others done with this process?
No. Unless your project is the same as all the others. You will be able to choose colours, typography, provide pictures, and most importantly, write the content. Your soul should be unique, so your website will look as well.
So, what’s the process like?
- You book a 10min call and pay. This is what secures your beta seat (20 first ones) with the special price and bonuses.
- You’ll receive an immediate email with a link to the form.
- You’ll have all the time in the world to sit and write. It will take you some time, and you should read all the copywriting recommendations.
- When we receive your form submission, we get your website done in 24h.
- Only for BETA. We’ll book a 20min consultation with you to give you feedback on the content so you can improve it.
But Wix is free, and I can choose whatever I want.
Yes, and that’s precisely why.
Too much choice.
And no guidance. Which is what you need right now, guidance.
Unless you’re an expert in marketing, graphic design, UX and website development. If you are confident on your years of experience, just go ahead, although I’d question why you’d use Wix or Squarespace then…
Let me be blunt here.
In Wix you’re going to be presented with several options, most of which you won’t have a clue what’s the “right” choice.
What will you do?
Choose based on what you like. *Sound the alarm for me here*
No professional should do this. There’s a reason and experience for every single decision we make.
Summarising, you will end with a crappy website with no coherence, chaotic, with no purpose, that no-one will have the guts to read.
The likes of which we see when we get new clients come asking for a new website. And what led us to do Launch for Good.
How long will it take for me to have my website ready?
This being a beta version of the product, it will be slightly different from the final version. But we think it’s still as good, if not better.
Once you pay, within minutes you will receive an email with a form and instructions on how to fill it.
Here goes your mission.
Here goes your key values.
Here goes what you can do for your audience.
Easy.
With examples.
Step
by
step.
This will cover everything you have to choose for your website, including design options and written content.
How long you take writing everything up is obviously up to you. We will provide guidelines and instructions within the form, and if you’re willing, you can do it in less than a couple hours.
Our compromise is to have your website ready 24h after we receive your form filled.
What if I want to change something in my website after the initial content?
In this beta version, we allow up to 3 form submissions (including the initial one). You send us the form, we update everything that’s changed in less than 24h again.
After that, you will always have an administrator account for you to access the WordPress backend, and if you’re familiar with it, it’s also pretty easy to update the content yourself.
Word of advice though. The baby is out and breathing. If you break it, you’ll have to pay for the doctor if you want it fixed.
When we move out of beta, we also want to give you the freedom of making unlimited changes automatically, without any waiting.
Isn’t this too cheap for a professional website?
You might find it way too cheap if you’ve had any previous experiences. It is. It might sound like a sales tactic, but let us explain.
If you would ask for our advice, we would tell you to run from anyone offering a website at this price, at the same speed you would run from your soooo clever cousin that tried to help.
Why are we offering it at this price then?
We just work optimally.
We have automated what we can, and provided as much written help as we can, so that it’s the most hassle-free that it can be, for you and for us. That way we don’t need to provide lots of support, and you can get it blazing fast and to a high standard.
The focus on getting it cheap was also to make it accessible to those social enterprises that are just starting out and precisely, don’t have lots of funds (yet).
So they have to prioritise.
Will it be easy for me? I don’t really have a clue about websites/hostings/domains and don’t have the time to learn.
We know you don’t.
Making it easy for you was one of the key features we were looking for.
It’s really easy.
To put into perspective, the forms you’re used to fill to ask for funding are many times more complex than the form you’ll need to fill here.
You can also send us an email if you’re really in trouble understanding how to do it.
But really, we have prepared clear step by step instructions so you don’t need to. And we take care of all the technicalities. We will even buy your domain of choice for you.
Don’t get the wrong idea though. You will need to sit down and write every section. Write in a way that you might not have done before and making an effort.
Guided, yes.
But we can’t force you to go and do it. It’s one of the main challenges of being an entrepreneur, so you might as well get used to it. 🙂
Any running costs?
Yes, of course.
The first payment will cover the hosting and domain for the first year.
One month before the next year starts, we will get in touch for you to pay the renewal.
This will be £80 for hosting in our private server + whatever your chosen domain cost is (usually £10-£20).
We won’t add anything on top.
If you don’t pay on time, we will sadly take it down on due date.
If you want to shut it down, just let us know. No questions asked.
You are also free at any point to contact us if you ever want to leave us and move your website elsewhere.
How can I pay?
Card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Once we see you’re human, in the meeting, we’ll give a link right there and then for you to do the payment, and we’ll wait for you to do it to confirm and kick off the next steps without delay.
What kind of support will I have?
Launch for Good is designed around you not needing support.
Everything will be guided and hopefully you won’t need any extra help. This is what allows us to keep the cost down and accessible.
However, if you have any questions about how to fill the form, you can send us an email.
We won’t fill the form for you, as you are the actual soul of the project.
However, once we generate the final website with your content, we will offer you a free 20-min meeting to give you our feedback about how your website looks and tips on things you can change.
Is there any kind of warranty if I don’t like it?
No, there isn’t. You know what you will be getting, and you are free to write the content you want. We can’t think of a refund reason for the service provided.
No testimonials?
No.
It’s a beta.
You’re one of the first ones to benefit from this limited time deal.
The price will increase after the first 20.
We have extensive experience on designing and building pro custom websites though, and many happy friends.
You can check some of the results at girldreamer.co.uk, jeremyindika.com, beatfreeks.com, beatfreeksyouthtrends.com, wedontsettle.com, commoncausefoundation.org, reachupyouth.co.uk, mikaylasinead.com, anisamorridadi.com and aestheticallyamna.co.uk, to say a few.
Who is this for?
If you want to stand out in the social sector, and if you don’t want to stress yourself dealing with different stuff you don’t feel too comfortable around, services, providers, tech stuff. Making it all connect, that’s what this deal provides.
We also make custom pro websites for those who are in their next step of the journey.
But we started seeing lots that couldn’t afford those as much as they would like. Yet.
They were aware of the crap they had (as much effort they or their friend put into it).
Some others were not.
And we were aware of how that was limiting them, and not allowing many great projects have an impact. So we decided to find a solution.
A professional website without all the hassle with an accessible cost.
The first stepping stone.
From there, it’s really up to you to decide.
Beta
£480
Book your 10 min call to see our face, ask any final question with no obligation, and pay.