Review of Uniting Care and St Vincent de Paul - Shona Chandani

Religious and social justice organisations are a vital part of the community. “Major issues at the intersection of gender and social justice... Because they involve understandings of justice and well-being for individuals and groups, gender-related social and political debates inevitably implicate moral and religious questions” (Fried, 2008). For this reason, among others, charitable organisations that are religious in nature can be very effective in the area of social justice.

The internet has opened up a new portal for religious and social justice organisations to get their message across. Young people in particular are participating more and more in online communities and religion. Mia Lovheim (2004) stated that a 1998 survey showed one in six Californian teens expected the internet to become a substitute for their current religious practices. This also means however that there is a new element of competition. The content of an organisations website can decide whether or not they will gain or lose support. Websites like GuideStar and Charity Navigator are further stepping up the need for honest and effective online communication.

According to Megan Wilson (2003) there are six criteria which may be used to evaluate non-profit web sites; the useability of the web site; its educational value, its effectiveness of conveying the mission of the organisation, its layout and content, its accessibility and the frequency of updating information. These are the criteria that will be used to evaluate and compare the websites of Uniting Care and St Vincent de Paul.

The home pages of both websites are remarkably different considering their deeper content is very similar. The first thing that greets you on the St Vincent de Paul website are several links to make donations to various appeals, before you are even told anything about the organisation. Uniting Care’s homepage is all about setting the tone of the organisation, information about their work and images to represent inclusion and diversity are the main focus. The mission statements are easily viewable on both websites and are backed up by and expanded on with practical goals and aims. Spirituality and social justice are key components of both mission statements as are their religious ties. For Uniting Care the mission statement is directly tied to the Uniting Church’s goals, values and aims because they are funded and run by them. St Vincent de Paul emulates the ideals of the catholic church without actually being directly linked to a specific church. For the Uniting Church this connection is a positive one as it allows them to bridge the gap between religious, political and social issues. The religious connection is not so helpful for St Vincent de Paul; it only seems to limit their work to groups deemed suitable by the church. Neither organisation officially requires their members, volunteers or the people they help to be Christian there is a tone to the St Vincent de Paul mission that suggests otherwise.

Social justice issues is an important component of both mission statements. Realistically, only Uniting Care accomplishes a commentary on this. St Vincent de Paul manage to deliver several mixed messages in their political statements and almost no social commentary. On one page they describe themselves as apolitical and on another they are pushing issues for the election. Uniting Care has expanded their services in recent years particularly in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community. While this is reflected in the media it is not so on the Uniting Care national website which I consider to be an oversight by Uniting Care as it could attract many people to their cause (Cook, 2008)(Zwartz, 2006). The single most common piece of media communication about St Vincent de Paul is an article detailing their loss in a discrimination lawsuit where an volunteer was pushed out of the organisation because she isn’t catholic.

Quality, quantity and accessibility of information are an essential part of a website. An effective search tool is a vital component of this. The St Vincent de Paul search tool is run by Google and very difficult to use although it is mercifully free of ad space. Using the search engine it was difficult to come up with links that were related to the organisation and/or search topic. Uniting Care’s search engine was much more user-friendly and the advanced search options were easily accessible. This is a pattern that was repeated throughout the website perusal. Most of the information available on both websites is catered towards getting people involved, financially or otherwise, in their cause. St Vincent de Paul really fail themselves here not by lack of information but in layout. A great deal can be learned about the organisation, its work and partners from their website but because of poor design it can be difficult to find.

While first impressions may not always be accurate, they are important and for many people a website is now the first port-of-call in an information search. Overall, both websites struck a positive note and got their message of peace, social justice and inclusion through Christian values across. In terms of the quantity and quality of information available, St Vincent de Paul was far more convincing about their organisations goals and activities but because of the superior design of Uniting Care’s website, media communication and search engine a person looking at both organisation purely online would be lead more towards Uniting Care. Also, given the small hypocrisies in St Vincent de Paul’s mission statement and their lack of any communication on social justice and therefore political issues they are clearly failing in some of their primary goals.

References

Cook, Rachel (2008) "Honours for Youth Worker", Melbourne Community Voice, Accessed: http://mcv.e-p.net.au/news/honours-for-youth-worker-5109.html

Fried, Adam (ed.) (2008) “Pulpit Politics: Gender, religion, and social justice in 2008”, Accessed: http://www.fordham.edu/academics/office_of_research/research_centers__in/center_for_ethics_ed/calendar_of_events/2008_pulpit_politics/

Lovheim, Mia “Young people, religious identity and the internet in Dawson”, L., Cowan, D. (eds.), Religion online: finding faith on the Internet, New York: Routledge, 2004, ch. 5 pp. 59-73

Wilson, M (2003) “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Nonprofit Web Sites”, Accessed: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/webbuilding/archives/page9370.cfm

Zwartz, Barney (2006) "Good News for Gay Clergy", The Age, Accessed: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/good-news-for-gay-clergy/2006/07/11/1152383741260.html