Aligning WaterAid’s global digital strategy for their next chapter

A black and white photograph, seen from behind, shows a person with long, wavy hair wearing a patterned sweater, writing on a sticky note with a marker. Their right arm is raised. Numerous handwritten sticky notes are arranged on the surface in front of them. The entire scene is set against a white background with three large, abstract colored shapes: a purple oval, a dark green circle, and a lime green leaf shape.

Aligning WaterAid’s global digital strategy for their next chapter

Reshaping WaterAid’s multisite strategy and content workflow to support a confident, future-ready rebuild.
Fresh alignment

All key stakeholders have a shared understanding and buy in to a unified digital strategy.

Clear budget expectations

A realistic expectation of budget defined to facilitate the next steps to implement the strategy.

Clean foundations for an RFP

A clear brief, including core goals, needs, and strategy prepared as part of the request for proposal.

Setting the scene

WaterAid is a leading international organisation on a mission to bring clean water and hygiene to everyone, everywhere. They’re well known for bold, creative campaigning and have done a brilliant job growing awareness globally, especially in the UK, with standout partnerships with the likes of Glastonbury and the London Marathon.

Digitally, things have become a bit more of a challenge. Their sites run on Drupal, but on a rather dated theme. Spinning up new campaign pages or entire sections had become clunky and inconsistent. This meant their digital ambitions weren’t quite lining up with their wider comms strategy.

A medium shot of four people in a meeting room gathered around a table. On the left, a man with glasses wearing a blue and white patterned shirt and a woman with curly blonde hair are seated at a light wood table, with a woman standing between them. The woman standing, who has wavy blonde hair and is wearing a white shirt, is adding pink sticky notes to a blue glass whiteboard. The man is looking up at her. To the right of the standing woman is another woman with short, curly brown hair wearing a long-sleeved brown polka dot dress, who is looking at yellow sticky notes in her hands. Further right, another woman with long, straight brown hair wearing a green sweater vest is seated, looking towards the whiteboard. The blue whiteboard has the words "GOALS + PAIN POINTS" written at the top, with "GOALS" on the left and "PAIN POINTS" on the right. There are several yellow and pink sticky notes on the board. On the table, there are mugs, a water bottle, and a metal canister. The background shows a glimpse of a window and office cubicles.
Our workshops started by focussing on finding common goals, frustrations, and expectations acros the team

The challenge

WaterAid wanted their Drupal ecosystem to be far easier for their content and marketing teams to use. They needed the ability to quickly launch new digital comms to support campaigns, and to archive old reports and content without wrestling with the CMS.

As a global organisation, they also needed a refreshed multisite setup that would let every country benefit from shared components, while still giving each team the flexibility to create region-specific journeys that support their own strategies.

They knew a rebuild was the right direction, but weren’t sure how to shape the scope, estimate a realistic budget, or align the needs of fundraising, content, and marketing stakeholders.

SystemSeed were hired to run a structured discovery process and in-person workshop, helping WaterAid define the web development scope, create high-level wireframes, and outline the technical architecture required to deliver on their organisational goals.

A black and white collage image shows three separate photos of whiteboards being used for project planning. The top left photo shows a whiteboard with hand-drawn wireframes and notes for website sections like "MEGA MENU," "LANDING PAGES," and "CORP PARTNERS." Below it, another whiteboard shows a flowchart with user icons, text "1. Rich Storytelling," "2. Overall Impact Sub," "3. Project Library," leading to an "ACTION" box with arrows pointing to icons and "@" symbol. The collaged photos have rounded corners and are arranged with dark green and purple abstract shapes around them.

The solution

We led a month-long discovery process with WaterAid, including a five-day in-person workshop.

We began with a UX audit of the existing site, then carried out a thorough landscape review focused on WaterAid’s priority areas: strengthening their multisite strategy, improving donation conversion, and supporting a wider range of fundraising activities from events and campaigns to corporate giving.

Alongside this, we reviewed their current Drupal setup for editing and storing reports, and explored more modern, flexible approaches better suited to their future focus and goals.

This groundwork set us up perfectly for the workshop, where we co-created optimal user journeys with stakeholders from marketing, fundraising, web and content. From this, we produced three key artefacts:

  • High-level wireframes and user journeys for the most critical parts of the new site, covering donation CRO, multisite structure and clearer navigation.
  • A recommended technical and hosting architecture, along with an improved Drupal editing setup designed around WaterAid’s future needs.
  • Guidance on shaping the scope and requirements for their RFP, helping them brief and assess future development partners with confidence.

The outcomes

Following our discovery process, WaterAid were able to:

  • Set an accurate, realistic budget for the site rebuild.
  • Create a clear, detailed RFP that would make it easy for vendors to understand their needs and demonstrate their capability, as well as allow WaterAid to choose a suitable technical partner.
  • Align all key stakeholders around a unified digital strategy and roadmap, that balanced immediate organisational priorities with WaterAid’s wider two-year strategic plan.

 

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