Case Study

For Dhwani, climate change is not something she reads about in the newspapers or sees on TV. It is tangible, everyday reality. The 12-year-old lives in a tiny village near the Sundarbans. The loss of the protective green cover of the mangroves is something she has grown up seeing. She has learned to read the signs for when the rivers are getting ready to flood their homes and farm lands. For her family of five, there is no recourse but to flee to safety, on higher ground. They return when the waters have subsided, leaving a carpet of sand and filth behind. This may happen days, or even weeks, after the incident.

For these families in xyz village, much of their lives go by in this never-ending cycle. Of running away from disaster and then rebuilding their lives from the ground. Being poor farmers, every flood and cyclone is a herald of further poverty. More loans, more slogging, less food all around, no scope for educating their children, and no hope for any redemption. Until Sukoon stepped in.

Sukoon is a non-profit organisation that works with communities affected by climate change. It focuses on protecting the environment, using self-help groups to build a climate resilient ecosystem. The organisation also helps these communities sustain their livelihoods by supporting them with training, new market opportunities, healthcare, education opportunities and support, and more. Sustainable climate action is not possible without the active involvement and participation of the most affected communities. Climate change often perpetrates a vicious cycle of poverty and desperation. It is difficult for rural communities to stay focused on sustainable paths. Their livelihood, their very lives even, are at stake.

And this socio-economic imbalance is something Sukoon addresses, alongside climate action initiatives. Founded in 2014, the nonprofit works in villages in six districts of West Bengal. These villages have seen decades of natural calamities. Survival is second nature to them. They innately understand the need to sustain their local environments. Sustainability is not a new concept to them. However, having to deal with the pressures of manmade change has eroded their will. Sukoon brings them a ray of hope. In terms of helping them actively build their lives while protecting the environment.

Over the years, the organisation has helped over 50,000 households. They did this by empowering 10,000 self-help groups. Each self-help group works with a volunteer, who understands its objectives and needs. Over the years, Sukoon has been sustained by a few well-meaning donors. Mostly friends and family of founders. Both donations and volunteers came through word-of-mouth referrals. As the organisation started growing in scale, these efforts were not enough. It had to mobilise both volunteers and money, in a sustained manner. And this had to come in without the team putting a whole lot more time and energy into it.

Like most organisations in the impact sector, Sukoon was more focused on the work it was doing on the ground. The nonprofit did not have the resources to dedicate to building discoverability. The founders of Sukoon believed that the work they did should speak for itself. Donations often came from the founders' networks of friends and family. Volunteers too came to the organisation in the same manner. 

As the organisation grew, so did the number of people and communities it was helping. And so did its needs. It was no longer enough that volunteers and money trickled in whenever. There was a sustained need for these resources. The team had to start dedicating a large part of their time to finding these resources. And this was not a sustainable option. Nor was it in the interests of the organisation.

The challenge here was a simple one. Of discoverability. Unless people knew that Sukoon existed and understood the work it did, they would not be able to decide how to contribute to it. The organisation had no website. It had a cursory presence on social media, intermittently driven by the founders' sporadic posts. For Sukoon to be present and found on the internet, they had to start from the basics. The organisation needed a website.

They started looking for help to build a website, keeping costs low. And while doing the research for this, someone guided them to the aikyam fellows forum. One of the founders left a post there, asking for help to build a website. And the aikyam fellows team reached out to them. Right at the outset, the team posed a few questions to Sukoon.

1. Who is(are) the primary audience(s) for this website?

2. What are the actions that you want people to take on the website?

3. Share references to any websites that have inspired you. In terms of design/writing/user friendliness/navigation

These questions helped the Sukoon team distil their thought process around building the website. This clarity would help create the website that would accurately represent Sukoon to its audience. Sukoon had clarity that it was primarily looking to raise two resources through the website: volunteers and donations. Here are some of the steps taken in the making of this website. 

1. The content and the design for the website was created keeping Sukoon's objective in mind.

2. The information that volunteers and donors would look for was given prime importance.

3. For volunteers, this included information on

1. Sukoon's programmes/initiatives

2. the impact created by these programmes

3. how they can contribute

4. where to sign up

5. whom to contact for more information

4. For donors, this included information on

1. programmes

2. what their money will be used for

3. how to donate, which included tax benefits and other info

5. Call-to-action buttons on the home page indicated where one could volunteer and/or donate.