Fluid develops new site for innovative Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving®
San Francisco, Calif.- March 7, 2005 - Fluid Inc., a San Francisco-based interactive digital design and development firm, announced the launch of the redesigned www.SchwabCharitable.org. The new site is designed to educate investors on the benefits of planned charitable giving, and cements the Fund's leadership in donor-advised philanthropy.
The Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving is a public charity, established to increase the effectiveness of American giving. As a leading national donor-advised fund, the Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving offers the Charitable Gift Account, which provides investors with a convenient and tax-smart way to give to the charitable causes they support. Since inception, the fund has received over $576 million in contributions and has helped donors distribute more than $261 million to over 18,000 charitable organizations throughout the United States.
"When we engaged Fluid to redesign SchwabCharitable.org, we had four primary goals: increase awareness of the benefits of giving via our Fund, increase the number of Charitable Gift Accounts, help our donors locate charitable organizations for grant making, and provide clear-cut information for investment professionals to help them aid their clients in the decision-making process," said Kim Wright-Violich, the Fund's President. "The new site achieves all those goals and more, taking our online presence to a whole new level."
Fluid leveraged its experience modeling methodologies to deliver a site well-tailored to the full range of individuals visiting www.SchwabCharitable.org. In addition to extensive end-user and stakeholder interviews, Fluid conducted an iterative process of prototyping and usability testing to evaluate information design alternatives and identify those that best excelled at achieving the site's goals.
"Once we completed the usability testing and knew we had arrived at an intuitive information design, we then developed a visual design vocabulary that reinforces, in electronic medium, the Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving brand identify already evidenced in print," said David Hogue, Fluid Director of Usability and Information Design. "The final site is also fully XHTML, CSS2, and accessibility compliant while being integrated with GuideStar® for charity search functionality and SalesForce.com® for lead generation utility."
"We have been receiving rave reviews about the site since it officially launched on October 15th. Donors and prospective donors are telling us that it is one of the clearest and most informative sites they have come across, which is wonderful to hear," said Michael Smithwick, the Fund's Marketing Director. "It will definitely help us increase our donor base."
About Fluid, Inc.
Fluid is a San Francisco-based digital solutions firm that has been providing digital experience design and Internet application development services since 1990. Fluid specializes in the delivery of user-centric solutions that combine inspired design, rigorous usability and innovative technology to help clients build their brands and improve their bottom lines through better interactions with customers, consumers and employees. A leader in Rich Internet Applications (RIA), Fluid's services include web site design and development, kiosk design and development, guided selling and e-commerce solutions, user experience design, and usability analysis. Fluid's clients include Charles Schwab, Macromedia, Amerada Hess, Mattel, General Electric, Wells Fargo, Yahoo!, Avery Dennison, The North Face and The Leakey Foundation. More information about Fluid is available at http://www.fluid.com/.
About The Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving
The Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving is an independent, nonprofit organization established in 1999 to offer donor-advised funds and other philanthropic services. As of November 30, 2004, the Fund has received $576 million in contributions and has distributed more than $261 million to charities. The Fund has distributed more than 68,000 grants to more than 18,000 charitable organizations. For more information about the Fund and the Charitable Gift Account, please visit www.schwabcharitable.org. The Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving, an independent non-profit organization, has entered into service agreements with certain affiliates of the Charles Schwab Corporation. (Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. and Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc.)