The Digital Revival of EFAFI International

CSU Monterey Bay

CST-499 Capstone Final Report

Sevren Gail
06/15/16

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Executive Summary
EFAFI International is a Non-Profit Organization that focuses on supplying children in
the Philippines with services required to get them through school. The organization has great
intentions, but they are struggling to acquire the funding they need to have a powerful impact on
the situation there. Money is abundantly available in other countries, but the organization
requires a digital makeover to connect to these markets.
The goal of this project has been to help EFAFI International by providing the needed
digital support to allow them to lift off and have a significant impact on the community that
needs them. The document further describes the organization and their goals and covers the work
Ive done to help them in their cause.
Beyond the intent and scope of the project, there is additional information below
regarding the ethical and legal considerations, risks and dependencies, the involved stakeholders
and community and criteria for evaluation.

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The Organization
The Problem
The Proposal
Initial Project Goals and Objectives
Stakeholders and Community
Project Scope
Timeline/Milestones
Resources and Budget
Approach/Methodology
Initial Ethical Considerations
Legal Considerations
Risks and Dependencies
Actual Timeline/Milestones
Actual Project Goals and Objectives
Project Report
Priority Updates
Theme Selection
Logo Design
Website Construction
Android App
Future Work
My Takeaway
Final Deliverables
Testing/Evaluation

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Introduction

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The Organization
EFAFI International is a Non-Profit Organization whose purpose is to provide children in
the Philippines with the supplies and support they need to get through school. The problem faced
by many of these students is that they are plagued with poverty and generally have to help their
family to survive, which takes away from their ability to finish school. When they go to school,
frequently these children are not able to afford the uniforms and other required school supplies.
The organization helps by providing food to help curb the starvation that plagues many
families, supplies, uniforms and tutoring. The goal is to guide and assist the kids through grade
school and hopefully avoid the generational loop that prohibits these families from escaping the
clutches of poverty.
The goal of the EFAFI Internationals CEO, Tim Whelan, is to manage the organizations
goals while maintaining complete funding transparency. He wants to ensure that every
philanthropist and donator can see exactly what his or her money has been spent on.
The Problem
While the organizations goals are noble, they are having trouble acquiring the funding
needed to help a significant number of students. A small number of students have made
remarkable success making it through school, but EFAFI International needs to find a better way
to reach out to the international community and engage potential donators. The Filipino wealthy
(largely) have no interest in changing the dynamics of their economy, so finding money there is

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not really an option. While there is plenty of money available in other countries (especially the
US), the organization needs a better mechanism to connect digitally to these markets.
EFAFI has a website, but as Whelan admits, it could use some work. Hes looking for a
variety of changes to the look and function of the website to encourage visitors to donate. Hed
like a more colorful and cleaner look and feel, as well as the use of marketing techniques to
encourage user interest. One example hes mentioned is a set of must-click headlines to
increase interest.
An additional need is to expand the organizations web presence by branching out from
the website itself. The CEO has mentioned the desire to establish a solid presence on Twitter and
Facebook. There are also other social networking sites that can be utilized to spread their
message, and an email newsletter may also assist in this effort. The organization also needs to
increase search engine ratings so that those searching for a good organization can more easily
find EFAFI International.
As to Whelans goal to produce transparent accounts of spending, he would also like to
see an intranet of sorts to help the organization maintain information digitally in the background.
Such a site would need to interact with or replace the organizations database and would keep
track of all donations as well as where the money was spent, but would also be useful for
keeping track of volunteers and associates and communications within the organization.

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The Proposal
The problem laid out above has many branches. My plan was to knock them out in
several stages, taking care of the biggest needs first. Prior to starting the project, he needs to
revamp the website and branch out to social networks seemed the greatest. For the website, I
planned to create a new logo and look, as well as employing many of the marketing mechanisms
suggested by the CEO. I planned to find a free web template that has clear and easy-to-use
interfaces for EFAFI International associates to keep the website updated, including newsfeed
compatibility to show success stories. The newsfeed would be tied to an email list so that articles
are automatically mailed out after posting. It would allow website visitors to donate easily
directly through the website using a variety of monetary units (credit, paypal, possibly other
means like bitcoin). It would additionally allow donors to create user accounts that allow the
users to review the reports of how their money was used.
The next goal was to reach out to multiple social networks. I planned to set up or modify
existing social networking accounts and tie them to the website to engage the social networkbased market. This was expected to be critical for the expansion of the organizations web
presence after the website was finalized. Another idea was to search for online NPO compilation
lists and request representation of EFAFI Internationals website in hopes of increasing the sites
web search ratings.
An additional idea, if time permitted, was to create a smart phone/tablet app that can
allow users to donate, read up on success stories and also examine the details of their donations.

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This would really help EFAFI International by keeping previous donors engaged and ensuring
the best possibility of multiple donations.
Finally, again if time permitted, I planned to create an internal site for the organizations
associates. This again would be based on a free web template, but this one would be focused on
ensuring security so that the internal company data could remain uncompromised. It would have
to include a multi-level user platform maintained by a web administrator within the organization
so that associates, volunteers and officers have appropriate levels of access. It also would be able
to read from and ideally write to a database.

Initial Project Goals and Objectives

Goal 1 (High Priority): Revamp the website
Create a new logo and look
Find a free web template
Plan out the structure
Assemble the site
Goal 2 (High Priority): Branch out to social networks
Create new or modify existing social networking accounts
Tie the social network accounts to the website
Goal 3 (Medium Priority): Search for online NPO compilation lists and request representation

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Goal 4 (Low Priority): Create a smart phone/tablet app

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Using the website as a template, design an app

Build the app
Goal 5 (Low Priority): Create an internal site for the organizations associates
Find a free web template
Plan out the structure
Assemble the site

Stakeholders and Community

The stakeholders in this project are the members of the organization. While Ill mainly be
working with the leader of the organization, Tim Whelan, the other members of the organization
also claim a stake in the outcome of this project.
The community consists of the society in the Philippines that will be affected by the
charity. This includes the children who benefit directly from the organizations actions and their
families. Other stakeholders in this project include the international philanthropy community.

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Project Scope
Timeline/Milestones
The timeline on this project was tentative at the beginning of the project, as certain
aspects are subject to availability of time. The following was an initial ideal timeline showing
goals and objectives.

Resources and Budget

The budget of this project was aimed to be minimal, as the organization is non-profit and
all money should go toward the projects goals.
The resources used for this project were basically programs I already had access to. For
design, I used Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. For Android programming I used Android
Studio, writing in XML and Java. For web construction I used Wordpress and a free, legally
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acquired version of X theme. I used few free web images and several forum posts, YouTube
videos and free online tutorials. For communication with my client I used email and Skype. The
only cost was the new URL, EnableChildren.org (much easier to remember than EFAFI.com),
which was inexpensive and I am good with absorbing the cost for.

Approach/Methodology
There are a few important things I had to keep in mind while working on this project.
While its important that the design be fluid and consistent, it must also comply with the
intentions of the organization. This required clear communication with the organization and good
communication throughout the process.
Additionally, I needed to be sure that at the end of this personnel in the organization can
maintain the site once Im done. This meant I will need to ensure that they can continue to
communicate with me over the next months to ask whatever questions they may have regarding
changes to the site.
Finally, I had to consider the goals in order of priority and be sure to complete the highest
priorities first, as there was not time to complete all objectives.

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Initial Ethical Considerations

My chosen Capstone project is to try to pump new life, using technology, into a charity
NPO, EFAFI International, which has seen limited success do to a lack of funding. They give
children in the Philippines the resources and support they need to attend school and succeed. As
things stood in the beginning, theyd managed to make a major impact on a small number of
students lives with great success. The idea was that, by using the Internet and social media as a
platform, the NPO could reach the international community of philanthropists and get the
funding it needs to really make an impact.
I think there are a few possible ethical dilemmas that Ill mention here. These are things
Ive had to consider while choosing whether to help out this charity. The first is the fact that so
many need the help. There will always be a limit to how many can be helped, but what happens
to those who arent that fortunate enough to be included? I spoke with the organizations CEO,
Tim Whelan, who clarified that the Department of Social Welfare Development selects the
programs participants based on income and while friends and neighbors can recommend
someone to the program, they still need to seek screening through the department. This ensures
that there is no possibility of favoritism and that the people most helped are the ones with the
most need.
My other concern is what is the ultimate conclusion to the goal and how will it impact the
society overall? This, however, is actually the focus of the NPO. While the specific actions of the
program give students the resources and support they need to attend and succeed at school, the
ultimate goal is to unravel the cycle of poverty that exists by raising the number of children who
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complete their education. Once a child completes his or her education, he or she has everything
they need to build a life in the Philippines.
As far as my involvement, I wanted to cause as much of an impact of the success of the
organization as I could while making sure to empower them to use the tools I will create for
them. Since I cant guarantee my future involvement, the last thing I want to do is create a
fantastic website and set up an Android app that nobody there can modify or maintain. My goal
includes working closely with the people of the organization to create easy to use backend so that
they can tailor the tools to their needs. I made sure to use tools that they could learn easily and
with which they could procure relatively cheap assistance.
Overall, I feel great about the organization Im planning to work for. They have a good
purpose and an aim to be as transparent as possible. Additionally, I feel that I was in a good
position to help them do a lot of good. Overall, Im very excited about the project and hopeful
that the project has a direct positive impact on the success of the organization.
Legal Considerations
Based on the type of work done, I didnt really encounter any type of legal concerns. I
built everything with free and freely available resources and all rights are reserved for the
organization. There were a few things that might have incurred cost, but they were essentially
donated to the cause.

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Risks and Dependencies

The aspects that would most affect this project are the conditions required by the
organization. If there are too many up-front requirements or if there end up being too many
revisions, this could cause a delay that could compromise the timely completion of the goals. As
its not clear exactly how much time the project will take, the goals are sorted in order of priority
to ensure that the most important goals will be completed first.

Actual Timeline/Milestones
This timeline was modified to represent the new priorities and project completion point.
As shown below, the Android app was moved up in priority to primary, while other goals became
secondary.
Actual Project Goals and Objectives

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After some discussion with the client at the beginning of the project, it was determined that the
goals needed resorting. Getting the computer science aspects of the project done were moved to high
priority and the other items (which could be completed by someone without my training) would be
handled if there was time at the tail end of the project.

Goal 1 (High Priority): Revamp the website

Create a new logo and look
Find a free web template
Plan out the structure
Assemble the site
Goal 2 (High Priority): Create a smart phone/tablet app
Using the website as a template, design an app
Build the app
Goal 3 (Low Priority): Branch out to social networks
Create new or modify existing social networking accounts
Tie the social network accounts to the website
Goal 4 (Low Priority): Search for online NPO compilation lists and request representation
Goal 5 (Low Priority): Create an internal site for the organizations associates
Find a free web template
Plan out the structure
Assemble the site
Project Report
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Priority Updates

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As frequently occurs with projects, the reality of the project varied greatly from the
proposal. After multiple meetings with the client, it was determined that the priorities should be
re-sorted to place the smart phone/tablet app at the top of the priority list, just under the website.
The NPO wanted to see an Android app with notifications that occurred whenever a news story
was posted. It was critical to them that the Android app match the website and that any changes
made to the website were reflected on the app as well.
The cost of the venture was forefront in the minds of the people at EFAFI, both up front
and later on, so it was critical that I choose a web design mechanism that didnt require
knowledge of multiple programming languages to modify.
Theme Selection
With this in mind, I had to select a mechanism that would be cheap or free, supported
simple news blog posting and would appear well on tablets and phones. To meet the criteria set
by the client, I chose to use Wordpress to create the website. The next hurdle was to select an
appropriate theme for the website construction. There are several free themes available, but the
best theme to which I had access was the X theme. Normally, this theme costs about $70, but I
fortunately have a friend with an extra license he was willing to part with.
The X theme is known for having great flexibility, so I could meet all the requirements
for the website, but is also easy for someone who is not a programmer to learn to make simple
modifications to using their point and click interface. The theme also has plenty of support online
and a team devoted to keeping it up to date with future updates, a fact that will help to ensure
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that the organization wont have to pay an expensive contractor to make modifications at any
point in the future. Finally, the theme has features that allow its users to easily test different sized
windows and a variety of dynamic resizing options to support smaller devices like tablets and
smartphones.
Logo Design
Before beginning the website creation, I had to work with the
client on a new design. After some back and forth with EFAFI, I
collected a list of conditions and was able to begin designing the logo.
The organization wanted a new logo with plenty of color and a sense of
family and collaboration.
I played around with several different concepts before settling on a family doing a high
five. I did a web image search for people giving high fives and assembled what I believed would
be a good representation of a family, and then vector drew silhouettes of the people to ensure that
the logo wouldnt be overly complicated. I used Adobe Illustrator for the logo assembly. I chose
bright and vivid colors that would attract the eye and would print well in CMYK process, but
made sure the design could be easily converted to black and white for a single color print.

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Website Construction
With the logo design out of the way, the stage was set for the design style, although there
has been a few different design phases to experiment with different looks. I wanted to help draw
the organization away from the busy and simplistic look of the original website and introduce
some more period-relevant design elements.
While the original design had some texture towards the top of the screen, interfering with
the legibility of the critical information up there, the rest of the site tended to have a plain white
background. I cleaned up the header a bit and gave more texture to the rest of the page.
The website had a cornucopia of requirements, but the main idea was to contain the
information from the original website, to allow people to make payments to the organization
through the site, allow user login to view transaction history and to allow the organization to
create news posts with custom headlines.
While I had worked with Wordpress once before, meeting these requirements meant
learning the X Theme and increasing my knowledge of Wordpress. The first hurdle was installing
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all the necessary software and resources, which required a few tries. This was followed by
several tutorials. The theme is quite extensive and dynamic, so this took some time, but its
everything I expected from the hype.
The design elements were generated in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator and were
either created in these apps or collected from free online sources and modified using the Adobe
apps.
Android App
The Android app is meant to be a companion to the
website, so I had to wait to begin its construction until after the
website was well under way. The truth about the Android app is
that it was suggested over a year ago when I had two other group
members to help me with this project. While the idea was well
received by the organization, it was pitched by a person who was
much more fluent in Android programming than me. This
presented a unique challenge.
My previous training in Android programming was about a week and a half in one class,
so I had to take some serious crash courses. Fortunately, the education Ive received has been
diverse and robust enough that I was able to find all the resources I needed to set up and learn the
software, Android Studio, and assemble and test a working app within the Java / XML structure.
The app had to mirror the website, which I was able to do only after trying several
different approaches. I eventually ended up creating a portal to the website, which ensures that
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the app includes the website content and also that future website changes would be reflected on
the app without someone at the organization having to know Android programming.
The next hurdle was setting up a mechanism to read the websites RSS and generating a
notification when a news item was posted on the website. This was the biggest challenge of the
project, as it required research into RSS structure and parsing and a thorough understanding of
Android class interactions and notifications, as well as how to set up a service to run in the
background while the app is inactive.
Finally, I had to handle the other aspects of the Android app. I set the app icon and
notification icon to EFAFIs new logo and set up the app name. To ensure I (or another) could
make easy modifications, I added comments and cleaned up the structure of my Java code.
Future Work
Moving the Android app to high priority meant moving most of the priorities to low.
While I went into the project knowing some items wouldnt be addressed within the capstone
timeframe, I am pleased that the high priority items and the computer science aspects of the
project were completed.
I intend to continue working with the organization in an unofficial capacity. Id like to
help them complete the low priority goals of the project so they can increase their web presence
and reach out on social media to reach more people.
Additionally, while much of my work was directed by EFAFIs requirements to ensure
future cost reduction by allowing them the means of independently adjust the website, I still
intend to work with them to help them evolve their technology and modify it to suit their needs.
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My Takeaway

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This project has been a whirlwind, but Ive learned a ton. I havent done much Android
programming in the past, but I got to experience the whole process from design and creation to
uploading to the play store. I also got to experiment with different web themes and learn al about
the X theme.
Most of what Ive learned has involved Android programming and the X theme, but Ive
also learned a lot (partially from making mistakes) about time and project management, client
interaction and communication. Another good experience was learning new methods on a
timeline, with a deadline depending on my learning it on time.
During this time there were a variety of challenges and I know that I walk away from this
experience with a more solid understanding of the industry Im entering. I also know, moving
forward, that Im a stronger person after working through this process, just as every step Ive
taken to get here has made me more complete.
Final Deliverables
The deliverables for this project are the website, with all relevant passwords and data, all
designs and artwork used to create it and the passwords of the social networking accounts
created throughout the process. Ill also include the logo in full color and black and white, so
they can use it for stationery or advertising. EFAFI will also be given all the modules and files
for the Android.
Testing/Evaluation

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The testing for all attributes of the project was supposed to be the satisfaction of the
organization. Ive been attempting to reach my contact at EFAFI, but have been unsuccessful.
However, my conversations with him in the past have all been positive and the direction Ive
been going with the project has met with his approval thus far. As I intend to continue working
with the organization after this project, Im sure that well be able to make any other adjustments
at that point.

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