In online movement-building, few names demand attention like Avaaz.org. Since launching in 2007, the advocacy organization has grown to a collective force of almost 7 million members. Often described as a global version of MoveOn (US) or GetUp (Australia), Avaaz plays a leading role in international actions – tackling everything from corruption and poverty to conflict and climate change.

Despite their success – or more accurately, because of it – Avaaz hadn’t furthered their online presence for almost 4 years when this summer they tapped us to lead their full scale redesign. We dove deep with their core team for more than 4 months, guiding them through our Online Design Program (ODP). Being under their hood with fresh eyes, we developed some important insights and learnings together. We wanted to share three in particular with you here, which we thought you might find helpful in your work:

1. HOW DO YOU MAKE CHANGE?

   If there’s a single differentiator in Avaaz, it’s the importance they place on thinking about how change actually happens in the world – and in making the case for their model clear to their members. They know what they do – advocacy and organizing – and they know how and why they do it. And just as important, they now present it overtly as a guide and contract with the public. Presenting a clear, credible and consistent “theory of change” is vital to Avaaz’s success, as is their ability to use this framework to engage members in collective agenda setting. How do you enlist your members to shape priorities? How do you articulate why your change model is effective and accountable? These are tough but essential questions.

2. DO YOU HAVE REAL-WORLD IMPACT?

   Everyone likes to celebrate success. And everyone who takes action – giving their time, money, energy, passion, etc. – wants to know if they’ve had an impact. This is Engagement 101. The highlights section we developed for Avaaz is a curated, representative collection of key successes that Avaaz members have contributed to over the years: like the International Whaling Commission’s decision to uphold the 24 year old ban on whaling and the Ugandan government’s backing away from anti-gay legislation, to cite just a couple of examples. You can’t squirrel away those kinds of sucessess in stuffy annual reports. In the absence of evidence, stories and appreciation, members will question the usefulness of their contributions and leadership. And what if they’re actually not having an impact at all? Well, that’s an even bigger problem to confront for an organization (see point #1).

3. DO YOU KNOW YOUR MEMBER EXPERIENCE?

   From analytics, interviews and other research, we identified two basic reasons people go to Avaaz.org: to learn about the movement and what’s happening (information), and to engage on specific issues (action). These are two very distinct needs and audiences for them. And so they require two markedly different user experiences to be successful. The information pages we developed are richer and more story-oriented, capturing the breadth and magnitude of the movement; structured for specific audiences to find what’s valuable to them. The action pages, however, are more spartan and to-the-point; a user ready to take action (more than 95% of the time sparked by an email) isn’t delayed or distracted by anything – load time, excessive information, navigation, lack of clarity as to what’s being asked, etc. You can only really identify and tackle a challenge like this if you’re willing to dig in and learn about your member experience – and respond to what you find.

   We know from our past projects that many of our clients wrestle with these issues. If these challenges sound familiar, think about how you might apply these takeaways to your organization.