AER Website Redesign - More Effectively Helping Soldiers to Help Their Own

Challenge: Founded in 1942, Army Emergency Relief (AER) is a non-profit, charitable organization independent of, but closely associated with, the United States Army. It's motto is Soldiers Helping Soldiers, and it offers aid to military members and their families through financial assistance, interest-free loans and scholarships.

The immediate challenges facing the existing AER website were as follows:

No online assistance application, forcing soldiers and their families to go to phsysical AER office locations
Lots of complicated, non-actionable procedural content
Lack of timely content coupled with and overall dated and static appearance

As such, AER was looking for a website redesign which would not only allow it to more effectively communicate with soldiers and their families, but would strengthen its overall brand and make it a trusted resource for active and retired military personnel.

Solution: Create an online presence that connects with today’s diverse AER audience(s) to increases applications for assistance, scholarships and donations by:

Communicating the AER story in a way that relates to the individuals needs and reinforces the AER brand of “helping soldiers”.
Promoting AER as the go-to option for individuals seeking emergency assistance, making donations to support soldiers, and applying fo scholarships for military families.
Positioning AER as a partner and trusted adviser in soldiers' financial well-being.

Specifically, this meant creating a website that would become the personality and face for Army Emergency Relief which would:

Offer compelling content that resonates with audiences
Have a modern look and feel that is strong but honest and approachable
Be actionable, offering online applications, timely news and social media, and simple yet effective navigation
Use staggered calls-to-action and messaging to help increase conversions
Utilize effective methods of promoting AER's key differentiators to educate and grow their audience