9web - 9web - a forward thinking web design studio

Chris joins us from a position at the University of London and will be responsible for producing of high quality, scalable websites and web applications, primarily in object-oriented PHP.

He has a strong track record in both public and private sectors developing web applications and working with virtual learning environments.

We have been courting Chris for some time now so we are delighted to have him on board and excited about the opportunities this opens for us to extend our back-end development repertoire.

Chris said:

Having worked with 9web on several projects since 2007 I am aware of the high quality output we produce. I am delighted to be bringing my experiece to the team on a full time basis and can't wait to create more fantastic websites.

Elephant Family is a small but hugely ambitious charity, working to save the Asian elephant from extinction and abuse. Their vision is a world in which the Asian elephant is no longer an endangered species and is able to live unthreatened within its own habitat.

This project is in partnership with Open Fundraising and will be run in a highly collaborative manner. We will be working closely with the Elephant Family team to determine the requirements for the website and developing the information architecture of the new site. Open will be creating the visual branding, defining the fundraising strategy and developing the new look and feel for the website.

The 9web development team will then be responsible for translating the visual design into standards compliant front end code and building the website on an open source content management system, making sure that all administrative processes are straightforward and seamlessly integrating the site with various third party systems to streamline Elephant Family’s fundraising and public engagement activities.

This is a very exciting project and we look forward to delivering a world class website to support the continued good work of Elephant Family. We're also quite looking forward to Elephant Parade in London in May!

Ruth Powys, Director at Elephant Family said:

Along with a new brand and identity, Elephant Family will launch a new web site for this summer with the expertise of 9web. We're confident their skills, capabilities and charity know-how, will place Elephant Family at the cutting edge of the sector allowing for a fully functional site that's going to extend our fundraising and campaigning capabilities and help our immense cause!

The PFRA works with charities, professional fundraising organisations, statutory regulators, local authorities and national governments throughout the UK, to regulate face-to-face (F2F) fundraising paces and to ensure the continued use and sustainability of F2F.

The new website must engender trust and confidence in PFRA as a trustworthy source of information and as an impartial regulator; provide the facility to publish excellent, high quality content that is easily navigable and deliver an engaging online experience for the key stakeholders.

We will be working with the PFRA team to define the site architecture and deliver a user-centred visual design for the site. We will then develop the site functionality on an open source content management system, putting the PFRA firmly in control of their web presence.

Ian MacQuillin, Head of Communications at PFRA, said:

We have two core stakeholders: charities that use F2F and local councils on whose patch F2F takes place. Both have different expectations of what we can do for them, which gives us a slightly schizophrenic public persona.

This is a sophisticated brief to 9web. Not only do we need a website that will allow us to provide important information to both stakeholder groups without dividing them into two separate camps, but we also need a website that will help us instill among both groups even greater trust in the PFRA in our dual roles of self-regulator and supporter of F2F fundraising.

I've got no doubt that at the end of our partnership with 9web, PFRA will have one of the best and most easily-accessible websites in the charity sector.

F2F fundraising recruits more than 600,000 new charity donors in an average year. Around 18 per cent of all current donors making regular gifts to charity have been recruited by an F2F fundraiser. Collectively, they give £10 million a month to charities.