About the Bianca Nikol Merge with Mercy Foundation

The Bianca Nikol Merge with Mercy Foundation was founded in 2018 after 18-year-old Bianca Roberson was fatally shot while driving home from a college shopping trip. Created by her mother, the Foundation works to educate youth and communities about the impact of gun violence and the loss it causes.

Working with Our Local Nonprofits

At LBDesign, we have been working with and supporting the Bianca Nikol Merge with Mercy Foundation since 2023. We were privileged to design and build the organization’s website, incorporating online donation and event registration functionality into the WordPress site.

We continue to support the foundation by maintaining its website and supporting its email marketing efforts.

The post Walk for Me 2025: Remembering Bianca Roberson appeared first on LBDesign.

Table of Contents

1. Start with Your Audience and Aims
2. Write Copy for Your Website
3. Gather and Organize Your Images
4. Include Videos
5. Don’t Forget the Legal Pages
6. Deliver Everything to Your Web Team
7. Be Open to Feedback
8. A Big Task Worth Doing Well
9. Got Questions?

1. Start with Your Audience and Aims

Before you write a single word or choose a photo, you need to be clear on who you consider your target audience. With whom are you trying to connect and engage?

Once you have identified your target audience, then you can be to think about what you want those visitors to your site to do:

• What kind of information will my visitors be looking for?
• What do I want people to do when they visit my site?
• What impression do I want to give?

What are the sorts of actions that you want visitors to your new site to take? Here are a few examples:

• If you’re a local business, you might want people to call, visit, or request a quote.
• If you’re a nonprofit, you may want visitors to donate, sign up for a newsletter, or attend an event.
• If you’re a consultant, maybe you want leads to book a meeting with you to discuss their needs.

2. Write Copy for Your Website

Writing content for websites is different than, for example, writing a technical white paper, a newspaper article, or even a marketing flyer. Below is some guidance for writing copy specifically for websites.

Use clear and simple language

Write the way you would speak to someone new to your business, organization, or nonprofit. Avoid jargon and complicated terms, unless your audience expects them. If using jargon is required, be sure to explain it or give it context.

Make it easy to skim

People scan websites quickly. To make it easier for visitors to quickly get a sense of the messaging on the page, use:

• Headings and subheadings – A heading or subheading should (generally) have no more than 2 or 3 short paragraphs. For content that requires more than 3 paragraphs, consider restructuring the copy to allow for the insertion of more subheadings.
• Short paragraphs – Aim for 3 – 5 sentences, although when writing for the web, a paragraph can be a single sentence.
• A lead – The lead is typically styled with a larger font size and in a different color than that used for paragraph copy on the page. These highlight paragraphs should be 1-2 shorter sentences.
• Bullet points or numbered lists – work to make the formatting or grammar consistent across the bullet points. For example, use present tense, gerunds, or past tense across all bullet points in a single list.

Focus on your visitor – your target audience

Be sure to focus on the aims and goals of your target audience. Speak to why they may be on your site. Make sure you see and understand their needs or concerns. Then, you can explain how you can address or resolve those challenges.

Be consistent in your tone and grammar styling

Write in a way that flows easily from one sentence the next, and from paragraph to paragraph. You can help make sure your writing resonates with your target audience by following these few tips:

• Be consistent in your use of person. Use you, we, or I – and stick with that pronoun across your writing. Do not jump between them as this will likely cause confusion.
• Stick to a single tense. Avoid flopping between past, present, and future tenses.

Include a call to action

Keeping in mind our goals for the site – what we step we want visitors to take on our site – it is important to make that clear to the visitor. A simple, direct call to action can help ensure that our visitors understand what we are asking them to do and will be encouraged to take that action.

Here are a few examples of calls to action:

• “Call us for a free estimate.”
• “Schedule a tour.”
• “Sign up for our newsletter.”

3. Gather and Organize Your Images

Quality images make a big difference on the quality of presentation of a website. Taking the time to review and organize your image library will make it easier to include them in your new site.

What types of images to include

• Logos or brand graphics in vector format (SVG, EPS, AI, or scalable PDF)
• Photos of your team, office, or store
• Photos of your volunteers
• Photos of the community you serve or your customers
• Photos of your work or services in action
• Event or community photos
• Product images

Image selection guidelines

General guidance

• Use high-resolution images (at least 1200px wide).
• Avoid blurry or pixelated images.
• Assemble a mix of portrait and landscape oriented photos.
• Get permission or licenses for any stock photos. (In an age where AI-driven bots can search the internet for copyrighted images used without permission, this is a particularly important step.)

Banner/Hero images

• Use high-resolution images (at least 3000px wide).
• Banner and hero sections (banner sections at the top of key pages) require images that are very wide. They are often prepared in 16:9 format.

Staff/team photos

• Use images that are similar in presentation, i.e., all teams members are wearing the same style of dress (business casual, informal, etc.)
• Make sure that the individual team member photos have similar composition, tone, lighting, and feel – and background.

Standard image sizes

While images can be any size or proportion, the following standard sizes can help you select the right images for your site.

• 16:9 (and 9:16)
• 4:3 (and 3:4)
• 3:2 (and 2:3)
• 1:1

NOTE: For website projects with LBDesign, we will handle preparing the images for the website.

Organizing tips

• Put all images in folders named for the page they go on (e.g., “About Page,” “Home Page”.)
• Consider using clear file names like “about-page-photo-1.jpg” instead of “IMG_3482.jpg”. (NOTE: For projects with LBDesign, we will handle the file renaming as we prepare the images for insertion into the site. We will do so in keeping with the search engine optimization goals for the site.)

4. Include Videos

Adding videos to a site is increasingly a must these days. Videos can either be used for visitors to click and watch, or as backgrounds in banners and key areas.

Good examples of videos for visitors to watch/hear include:

• A short intro video from the owner or key leader
• A walk-through of your product or service
• A testimonial from a happy client
• A testimonial from a donor, board members, or volunteer about the value of their involvement with your organization
• A testimonial from someone in the community your organization serves

Video tips

• Keep videos under 2 minutes (generally speaking.)
• Upload them to YouTube or Vimeo so that they can be embedded into the relevant pages and blog posts.
• Consider using a CDN like bunny.net for your videos, especially videos used in the background of banner or hero sections. (A CDN is a content delivery network.)
• Let your designer know which pages they belong on.

5. Don’t Forget the Legal Pages

Depending on your business or organization, you may want or need the following page content.

• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Accessibility Statement

For these three pages, it is advisable to consult with your attorney about the specific language for these pages.

6. Deliver Everything to Your Web Team

Once you have written your copy, gathered images, and uploaded your videos to streaming platforms, it is time to share that all with your designer or developer.

Best ways to share content with your web design team

• A shared Google Drive folder
• A Dropbox folder
• A Microsoft OneDrive or SharePoint folder
• Email if the files are small enough – and if you are not sending more than 3 or 4 emails.

NOTE: For projects with LBDesign, we will discuss with you how we can best share content when we begin working together.

On the cloud server where you are sharing your content, be sure to structure your folders clearly so that the team responsible for building your website can find what they need to create each page on the new website. The following sets out a suggested approach to folder/content organization.

/Website Content
  /Home
    home-copy.docx
    hero-photo.jpg
  /About
    about-page.docx
    team-photo.jpg
  /Services
    services.docx
    service-photo1.jpg
    service-photo2.jpg

7. Be Open to Feedback

Sometimes your web team might suggest tweaks to your content – perhaps shortening a paragraph or splitting up a long page. This isn’t to rewrite your work, but to make sure it fits well within the website and works for your visitors.

8. A Big Task Worth Doing Well

Preparing your content is a big task, but taking the time to do it right will make your website more effective at achieving your goals. Assembling and organizing your content as set out above will make your website project progress more smoothly.

9. Got Questions?

If you have any questions about the above, or if you’d like us to work with you on your next website, newsletter, or marketing collateral needs, we would love to hear from you.

The post How to Prepare Content for A New Website: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on LBDesign.

With podcasts proving an increasingly popular way to reach wider audiences, many nonprofits are recognizing the value of being featured as a guest. But how can an organization secure an invitation to a podcast – and what steps should they take once they are there?

Start Local Podcast and Chester County United Way

Over at the Start Local Podcast, veteran podcasters Joe Casabona and Liam Dempsey, are partnering with Chester County United Way to deliver a free workshop for individuals from nonprofit organizations and their board members. Joe and Liam will share practical strategies to help organizations make the most of podcast opportunities.

Participants will learn:

• How to identify podcasts that align with their mission
• Tips for pitching themselves or their organization as a guest
• How to prepare for a successful podcast appearance
• Ways to leverage an episode once it’s published
• And more

Whether new to podcasting or looking to refine their approach, attendees will gain tools to build visibility and maximize every opportunity.

Registration is being managed by Chester County United Way. Learn more about the Start Local Podcast.

The post Delivering a Free Workshop for Nonprofits Looking to Be a Podcast Guest appeared first on LBDesign.

The USDA Cancelled a $250,000 Food Order

In early April, the CCFB shared on LinkedIn that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) cancelled a $250,000 food order to the Chester County Food Bank from The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) for the quarter beginning April 1, 2025. If the USDA cancels future quarterly orders, the food bank could lose up to $1 million in USDA food – food that is shared with those who do not have enough to eat.

Read the CCFB’s full post on LinkedIn.

Chester County Food Bank Calls for Local Assistance

Since the USDA cancelled that food order, the leadership at the Chester County Food Bank has turned to its local community to ask for help covering the gap in funding. They have also invited the community to contact our local elected officials to encourage those politicians to reinstate these vital food orders.

An Opportunity to Support Our Neighbors

As a business, we call Chester County home. We have been based here since 2009 when our own Liam Dempsey relocated back to the USA from the UK. Over the course of more than fifteen years, we have put down ever-deepening roots. We even had a podcast focused on business and nonprofit leaders in and around Chester County – the Start Local Podcast.

When we saw the news of the cancelled food order, we knew we wanted to help address the issue. Then we saw on social media that our friend and colleague, Laura Berry of Bowers R&D Associates, shared that she and her colleagues were conducting a fundraising campaign and food drive for the Chester County Food Bank.

Read Laura’s full post on LinkedIn.

Believing that we can always go further together, we contacted Laura to discuss coordinating our efforts to support the CCFB. We agreed that LBDesign would help drive donations to the food bank through the Bowers R&D fundraising campaign.

Our Call to Action

We are inviting our friends and colleagues, especially those who live in or around Chester County, Pa, to donate via the Bowers R&D campaign on behalf of the CCFB. We have already made a donation and invite you to help in any way that you can. Together, we can help prevent our neighbors from going hungry in the days and weeks ahead.

[lbdesign_button link=”https://chestercountyfoodbank.org/ways-to-give/donate-now/” new_tab=”false” type=”default” size=”default” style=”default” custom_class=””]Support Our Local Food Bank[/lbdesign_button]

The post Call to Action: Donating in Support of Our Local Food Bank appeared first on LBDesign.

The Setting: A Rushed New Website Project

We have a long history of working with – and retaining – our clients for many years. In many cases, our clients relationships abide for over a decade. In late January, we were approached by a valued client with whom we have been working closely for years. They asked us to design, build, and launch a new WordPress website in just over two weeks. They were heading into the busiest season of their year, and frankly, they needed a more robust website than what they had. It was a tall ask – but we love supporting our clients, so we took on the project.

A Hurdle on Launch Day

Everything was going smoothly until launch day. We always include the Gravity Forms plugin in our client builds because it is the best forms plugin available. We hit a significant hurdle with an email subscription form. We were struggling to create the exact format to meet our design. We expected that Gravity Forms could be configured in keeping with our needs, but given the overall rush of the project and the pressure of launch day, we couldn’t work it out ourselves.

Asking for Help from a Reliable Partner

Feeling the stress of launch day, we reached out to the Gravity Forms support team for help. It was a bit of a “Hail Mary” play, knowing that tech support tickets typically take 24-36 hours for a reply. Instead, we received a thorough, detailed, and comprehensive response in record time: LESS THAN 10 MINUTES. Not only did the Gravity Forms tech support team provide a clear explanation of the solution to our problem (along with annotated screenshots), they also sent over a pre-made form that we could import directly into our build.

Gravity Forms to the Rescue

In a moment where every hour mattered, the Gravity Forms support team showed up with the expertise, clarity, and speed we needed. Their dedication to their customers and attention to detail helped us launch this new client site exactly as we promised our client we would.

We have always appreciated Gravity Forms for its flexibility and power, but this experience reminded us why we continue to recommending it: because the people behind the product are just as reliable as the product itself.

The post Gravity Forms: Top Quality Support When You Really Need It appeared first on LBDesign.

A Phase 2, If You Will

We initially launched the show in April 2020 to help local businesses and nonprofits respond to the pandemic. Our guests shared insight and expertise on how to pivot business practices in the wake of Covid lockdowns. We paused the show in late 2020 as local, state, and federal agencies had their own systems in place to support businesses.

Earlier this year, we spearheaded efforts to relaunch the podcast, yet with a very different focus. With the worse of the pandemic in the rear view mirror, we wanted to help business and nonprofit leaders connect and growth together. We are eager to enable those who live, work, or play in and around Chester County, Pennsylvania to see the good work being done by good people in our local area.

Going Live and Garnering Attention

The second phase of the Start Local podcast went live in June of this year, with a conversation with US Representative Chrissy Houlahan. Since that initial conversation, we have spoken with Andrea Youndt, CEO of the Chester County Foodbank, Robert Jefferson, an attorney with Gawthrop Greenwood, Laura Manion, CEO of Chester County Chamber of Business & Industry, Eric Kuhn, Managing Partner of Pillar Real Estate Advisors, and more.

Tune In to the Start Local Podcast

Publishing every two weeks (every fortnight), the Start Local podcast is available on your favorite podcast player. All the episodes and show notes are available at https://startlocal.co.

The post Reintroducing the Start Local Podcast appeared first on LBDesign.

Convening on Tuesday, October 17, 2023, this engaging and welcoming conference packs a great schedule of presenters and talks that are sure to spark the interest of a host of professionals across a range of tech sectors. TECH360 scored a major venue win this year with West Chester University hosting the full-day conference at its new Science and Engineering Center.

Building on the Success of Previous TECH360 Conferences

With roots going back to 2013, TECH360 hit the pause button in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid. Yet it returned stronger than before in 2022, selling out of tickets and proving hugely popular with attendees. On the strength of the last year’s sell-out crowd, TECH360 needed to move to a bigger venue, hence the jump to West Chester, Pa.

Key Topics from Dynamic Leaders at Top Organizations

Talk about a great schedule of learning opportunities! Check out this partial list of talk and panel sessions:

• Future of Work: Human-AI Collaboration
• Preparing Students for an AI Integrated Workplace Panel Discussion
• The Risks and Benefits of ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence
• The 95% of AI Everyone is NOT Talking About
• Personalized, Predictive and Proactive: AI’s Role in the Customer Experience
• and more!

The presenters and panelists this year hail from some of the regions top companies and institutions.

• Seer Interactive
• Unisys Corporation
• Freya Systems
• HireBrain
• West Chester University
• O3
• Fox Rothschild

The full list of presenters and the schedule of the day is available on the TECH360 website.

The good news is that tickets are still available for TECH360. Yet they are going quickly. Better get yours before they sell out!

Supporting Our Local Community: Part of the Planning Team

For the past several years, we have been actively involved in the planning and delivery of TECH360. As the Chair of Marketing and Outreach for ITAG (a public-private partnership through the Chester County Economic Development Council), Liam Dempsey sits on the TECH360 planning committee. He volunteers his time and energy as a way to give back to the local Chester County business community.

We look forward to seeing you at TECH360!

The post Bring on TECH360! appeared first on LBDesign.

As supporters of Good Neighbor Day, we designed and built a WordPress website to help promote the day – and have maintained it ever since. In 2023, we were privileged to play a more active role in promoting the day to the local area community.

As a marketing and design consultancy in Chester County, Pennsylvania, LBDesign is committed to supporting our local community. Our support of Good Neighbor Day enables us to share our knowledge and expertise in a way that gives back to the entire community – Good Neighbor Day is a premier event for the local area.

Building a Web Presence

Seven years ago, we were approached by the leadership of the Good Neighbor Day (GND) committee and asked to contribute a new website for the festival, then approaching its fortieth year. Working closely with that leadership team, we crafted a WordPress website to reflect the essence of Good Neighbor Day. We built in an advanced system to allow the organizing team at GND to recruit and organize the many local food and craft vendors that sell their wares on the day.

Good Neighbor Day is online at https://goodneighborday.com.

Boosting Online Visibility through SEO

We understand the importance of online visibility and worked closely with GND organizers to improve the ranking of the Good Neighbor Day site in search engine results pages. Our focus was to get the GND site onto the first page of search results listings, and ideally close to the top of the first page of results. We are pleased to share that our efforts bore fruit and the GND site is now performing well on searches.

Fostering Community Engagement and Connection

LBDesign’s support extended beyond the website. We were actively involved in pre-event planning meetings, promoted the event through our own social networks, and volunteered at Kerr Park on Good Neighbor Day itself.

Looking Forward to 2024

With Good Neighbor Day now almost of weeks in the past, we are already looking forward to GND 2024. We are excited to have been invited to participate in planning activities again. We have committed to designing and building a new website for Good Neighbor Day. We look forward to creating an engaging, dynamic WordPress website to help promote and organize this community event.

See you there in 2024!

The post Supporting Good Neighbor Day in Downingtown, Pennsylvania appeared first on LBDesign.

As a marketing and design consultancy, marketing is a big part of what we do. Working closely with business and nonprofit clients, we create focused marketing strategies and campaigns. We have come to understand that good content is key to any successful marketing campaign. To help others learn from our experience, we are sharing sources that can help generate meaningful content.

Why We Need Good Content

Creating good content is about fulfilling a need. If people are searching for something – whether it’s information about a certain product or service, solutions to a particular problem or issue, or something else – they need answers and guidance. That’s where our content comes in. If our content provides people with what they’re looking for, they’ll find value in it. If they value it, then they’ll engage with it in some way.

Getting people to engage with our content is especially important. That engagement with our content will remind our current clients and customers that we are still around and doing good work. It will also draw in new clients and customers. Beyond sales, our engaging content can be a vehicle for connecting with others in our industry – potential collaborators on future projects and opportunities.

Ultimately, good content is about generating sales. We get that. Yet, the focus of our content – a blog post, a white paper, a podcast, a newsletter – is to meet a need or solve a problem for a customer or potential customer. We must fulfill the needs of that audience, and if we do that well, good things will follow.

What Makes Good Content

Now that we have established why good content is important, let’s talk about what makes good content. Good content should be…

• relevant to our audience. What’s ‘relevant’ may change depending on our audience—whether it’s current clients and customers, prospects, partners, or someone else—but in order to serve people’s needs, we want to create content focused on specific audiences.
• specific and sufficiently detailed. In order to be meaningful to our audience, our content should answer a question, provide a solution, or clarify confusion. We want to provide substance, so vague content isn’t going to do the trick. We need to deliver more specificity than can be gleaned in a quick scan of headings.
• timely. Content can be timely in one of two ways:
  1. Temporally relevant – This means content based on news, changes to the law, industry trends, tech advances, and more. Content of this nature may not be as relevant over time, but there is value in keeping our audience up to date on recent changes and developments.
  2. Evergreen – Evergreen content is content that is not time sensitive. As it does not have an expiration date, so to speak, evergreen content remains relevant for a longer period of time. Evergreen content is usually ripe for repurposing. With adjustments, evergreen content can be used again and again without losing its value.

Where to Source Good Content

There are a number of ways to find and generate meaningful content. We placed sources for good content in two big categories:

Internal Sources

A very convenient way to source content is to look at what’s happening with our own business and with our clients.

• What trends are we seeing?
• What are some questions that we are regularly asked?
• What are some common mistakes our clients, or prospective clients, make?
• What common misunderstandings do we see a lot?
• What relevant new products and services are available that could bring value to our clients?

As experts in our field, we can provide the answers our clients are seeking.

• We can explain current trends in our industry and what that means for business.
• We can answer frequently asked questions with a blog post, and keep it updated as we learn more.
• We can create solutions to common mistakes, and offer our help implementing those solutions.
• Or we can make suggestions on how to take advantage of new products and services.

External Sources

Another useful way to find content is to look for ideas from other people in our sector. Pay attention to what other related businesses and organizations share. Read blog posts and listen to podcasts. Follow social media accounts and subscribe to newsletters. There’s a lot we can learn from other leaders in our industry.

Also keep an eye out for industry news and updates, advancements, and other developments in our industry that are likely to affect our clients. Sharing that kind of news can make great temporally relevant content, and there can be a lot of value in reporting it first.

Good is Good Enough

When we talk about creating ‘good’ content, we mean relevant, insightful, and engaging content. It’s important to recognize that we’re not writing the next great novel, nor does anyone expect us too. We don’t need to go viral with every (or any) post we make. Yet, we do want our content to be valuable to those that read it. So, remember, our content doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to be good.

Start Creating Content

Want to learn about even more ways to create meaningful content? We can help! We’d love to share our experience with generating content and help you use your content to make the most out of your marketing materials.

The post Sourcing Content: How to Generate Meaningful Content  appeared first on LBDesign.

At LBDesign, we are committed to addressing the injustices that plague our nation and our world. Part of those efforts includes highlighting organizations that are doing good, particularly in the area of social justice. We want to highlight the Chester County Community Foundation, an organization that shares our commitment to social justice.

Introducing the Chester County Community Foundation

Community foundations provide a variety of services to donors who wish to establish endowed funds without incurring the administrative and legal costs necessary to start an independent foundation.

Founded in 1994, the Chester County Community Foundation (CCCF) has been serving Chester County, Pennsylvania for over 25 years. CCCF is currently entrusted with more than 400 funds and holds more than $70 million in trust.

Like many nonprofit organizations, CCCF has faced significant hurdles since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet CCCF has persevered in its work to achieve its mission, and continues to do great work in the Chester County community.

With its COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund, the Community Foundation has mobilized new donors, fund advisors, and weekly virtual grant panels. In COVID’s first six months, CCCF granted $450,000 to keep Chester County’s essential health and human service nonprofits working to benefit the community.

The Community Foundation also worked with Chester County’s Commissioners to administer the Restore Chester County Nonprofit Innovation & Resiliency Fund. At the end of last year, CCCF awarded $3.5 million in COVID-19 relief to Chester County based nonprofits.

A Look at What CCCF Funds

From health and human services to arts & culture, history and education to environmental causes, and everything in between, CCCF works with funds in a variety of fields. The Fund for Women and Girls is just one example of the many outstanding funds CCCF supports.

Created in response to the needs of women, girls, and their families in Chester County, The Fund works to foster economic freedom, well-being, and security for women and their families living and working throughout the county. The Fund delivers on its mission primarily through grant-making and educational programming. Since 1996, The Fund has awarded more than $3 million in grants to 72 nonprofit organizations addressing critical needs for women and girls.

If you’re interested in supporting The Fund for Women and Girls, the organization accepts donations through its website.

More from CCCF

In addition to managing hundreds of different charitable funds, CCCF also has other important informational resources. One such resource we want to highlight is CCCF’s Stand for Social Justice page.

This page explains philanthropy’s role in the fight for diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. It also provides resources for learning and support that can help us engage in conversation about these topics respectfully. Additionally, the page includes a list of organizations related to racial and ethnic justice, gender equality and women’s rights, diversity of gender and sexual orientation, and faith-based justice.

CCCF Grants & Outreach Officer Stephenie Stevens was featured in an episode of Start Local, which may provide additional resources for donors and nonprofits alike. Stephenie shared some of the struggles nonprofits are experiencing in the COVID-19 economy, as well as examples of nonprofits that have successfully pivoted to offer their services and programs in new ways. Stephenie also suggested ways for donors interested in supporting local charities to review and vet those nonprofits.

In these difficult times, we are proud to be in community with organizations like CCCF. We applaud the work they continue to do to support Chester County nonprofits. We hope that you will join us in supporting their efforts and their commitment to social justice.

The post Highlighting the Chester County Community Fund appeared first on LBDesign.