Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing stability, equity, and hope within communities.
Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity’s website contained a lot of content, but not in a format that helped people navigate it. It was full of outdated information, inconsistent messaging, inefficient functionality, and dated design elements. Add to that the fact that almost none of the volunteer, participant or donor forms could be submitted through the website–it was almost causing more problems than it was fixing. We got started where we always do: with the messaging.
Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity (IHHFH) is a local arm of Habitat for Humanity, which has been around since 1976. They are clear on their mission: to make sure everyone has a decent place to live. But knowing your mission and knowing how to talk about your mission are two different things–especially for nonprofits. We worked together to identify some key problems they were solving for each of their primary audiences (those who benefit from their services, those who volunteer for the organization, and the donors). We also explored the ways they were solving those problems, and illustrated the transformation each of those audiences’ lives would go through if they joined IHHFH in their mission. On their homepage we minimized the number of words needed to send the message–and spoke as much as we could through design elements, making the messaging consistent, but easily scannable.
Branding
As a branch of a prominent, existent organization, there was only so much that could be done from a branding standpoint–but we created a set of sub-logos that really speak to the mission of this local organization with the outline of Iowa, the heart, and in the area they operate in–the home.
From a website design standpoint, we identified key pages (the homepage and a few interior pages) and designed them to accentuate the written content than would be there, making it easy to read and navigate. Using color blocks, consistent typography, and icons added to the cohesive, uplifting feel they were looking for in the design.
Website
The bulk of the project with IHHFH was designing and developing their website, which took several months. As mentioned in the messaging section, nonprofits face the challenge of having three distinct audiences. This often means needing three separate websites that still feel like one cohesive site. To address this, we built a custom WordPress site on Oxygen. We discovered they were doing a lot by hand—especially for their applicant audience, managing homeowner waitlists, distributing forms, etc. Websites should work for your audience and for you, so we created a custom online survey with conditional responses to determine homeowner eligibility. This pre-screening process will streamline applicants to the waitlist and show them what they need to improve if they don’t qualify initially. We also set up an automatic reminder for applicants who didn’t qualify, prompting them to reapply in six months, reducing the staff’s workload. For sensitive information, we converted their PDF applications into encrypted, self-hosted forms to ensure security.
This project will fundamentally change how the staff works and how their audiences find what they need. We loved working with IHHFH and look forward to seeing more of their great work in the community.
Mobile users are 5x more engaged today than pre-launch
Core Metrics
Site Engagement: 14.01%--> 34.41%
Mobile Surge: +144% engagement post-launch
Launched August 7, 2024
Engagement Rate: Improved from 14.01% (July/Aug 2024) to 34.41% (recent 30 days).
Homepage Performance: The engagement rate for the homepage climbed from ~13% to ~59%
Organic Search: Sessions from search engines increased by 48% (from 1,254 to 1,866 sessions per month).Organic Social: Social media traffic grew by 59% (from 195 to 310 sessions)
In the 30 days immediately following the launch, mobile performance metrics saw a dramatic shift compared to the month prior:
Engagement Rate: Jumped from 8.7% to 18.7% (a 114% increase).
Average Session Duration: Increased significantly from 14 seconds to 47 seconds, showing that mobile users were finding much more value in the content.
Active Users: While the number of active users decreased from ~6,800 to ~4,900 (likely due to the end of a high-traffic launch promotion), those who did visit were far more engaged.
When comparing the pre-launch period in 2024 to the last 30 days in 2026, the improvement is even more stark:
Mobile Engagement Rate Today: 46.18% (compared to 8.7% pre-launch).
This means that today, mobile users are five times more engaged than they were on the old website.
Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity
“I chose IFC Studios for our website because the approach they presented was smart. From beginning to end I felt like everything we worked on was strategic and well-planned. They are responsive, easy to work with, and true partners in the process. I trusted them with a heavy lift on our website and they delivered.”
Jenna Jordan - Marketing Director, Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity
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