Today we’re excited to announce the launch of a new website for the foundation—our first major update in eight years. In that time, as the foundation has grown and evolved to more effectively address inequities in the United States and around the world, the way people find, consume, and share information has also evolved. We knew we wanted a more dynamic website to better explain our story, more effectively showcase our work, and more readily engage in global conversations about building a better world.
Susan Byrnes, who became our chief communications officer last June, shares some highlights.
Why did you refresh the foundation’s website now?
Our 2013 site was designed as a passive information portal for grantees and job seekers and also offered basic information for general audiences. The new site is intended to be much more engaging, with up-to-date information on the foundation’s work and the people behind it. Last year, 6.7 million people came to our website, and we want to make sure they can easily find what they need and readily understand our mission and approach.
It’s also critical that the new website is easy to navigate, especially on mobile devices, and that it’s designed to comply with universal standards for accessibility for people with low vision or cognitive impairments. These changes make the information accessible to even more people. From a design perspective, we’ve used a font that works in all the languages commonly used around the foundation, and a key next step for us is translating the content into other languages. We also have a new color palette. The photos and infographics that bring our work to life will take center stage.
If you were to offer a guided tour of the site, where would you start?
At the beginning—the foundation’s beginning—with the Our Story page. In this section, Bill and Melinda explain in their own words why they started the foundation and what motivates them today. Both came from families that prioritized helping out in their local communities. Both were taught to give back and to be optimistic about the future. A timeline traces Bill and Melinda’s journey as philanthropists, from donating PCs to libraries in the 1990s, to a newspaper article that catalyzed their commitment to children’s health, up through the dedication to global health, development, and education that defines the foundation today. Many people may not know there’s a thread that connects it all. That’s part of the idea behind the website relaunch: To not only recount what we do, but also to share why we do it. Bill and Melinda’s personal “why” is part of that picture.
What else would you call out?
The Ideas section is a new platform where people can hear directly from a diverse array of experts on pressing issues. Our previous website wasn’t updated very frequently, but here you’ll regularly find new content, including articles and speeches by Bill and Melinda as well as our CEO Mark Suzman. You’ll also see contributions from others as they share their views on some of our key priorities, such as ensuring an equitable response to the pandemic. We rolled out the Ideas section last fall, and since then nearly a half-million new visitors have come to learn about our work on COVID-19 and other issues. To know when new articles are published, you can sign up for our newsletter, The Optimist.
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What else will look different, from the users’ perspective?
You’ll find information much easier to access, in ways that are both visually appealing and work on mobile phones. The new website will focus on engaging audiences with more inspiring content and storytelling, providing a better understanding of how we work to drive positive impact. Now you can easily navigate to pages to learn what we’re working on and who we’re working with in, say, Kenya or India. We’re launching new U.S. Program pages for a deeper look at that work as well. You’ll see even more data, both in terms of our grantmaking and in the ways our partners are making a difference in their regions.
How does the relaunched website illustrate how you communicate at the Gates Foundation?
It actually reflects a bit of a culture change. With the redesign project, we established an agile process, which gives us an opportunity to test ideas, learn from insights, and continuously work to provide useful and inspiring content. We’ll have more flexibility to try new things with the new platform, and we hope to learn and evolve our approach through the process. The launch of the website is the start of this work—not the end.
Anything else you want visitors to know?
We’re excited about the changes and would love to hear from you. What do you think of our new site? What kinds of stories or information would you like to see? Please share your thoughts with us at [email protected].
