You might have noticed a new look here at Do Nation. (‘Do Nation’, there’s the first clue: we’re no longer The DoNation). A subtly new name, a new logo, and an entirely new look website.

No, we didn’t just think “if Google’s done it, so should we”. There was a bit more to it than that, here’s the story.

The name and logo:

Five and a half years ago I was tossing and turning in bed, mulling over what to call this business I was starting: JustAction, JustSaving, Agoodo, FourtyTwo Percent…? Suddenly it hit me: ‘Do Nation!’ I’ve never looked back, I’ve loved our name ever since.

But it hasn’t been perfect. I couldn’t begin to count the number of times I’ve been asked “Are you ‘the donation’ or “The Dooo Nation?”, the distinction in our logo was just too subtle. The lowercase lettering didn’t help.

And, somehow, the ‘The’ in our name made the ‘Do’ hard to pronounce clearly, without sounding like an angry moron by over emphasising the ‘Do’. I wish I’d kept a collection of the address labels that we’ve received: The Dew Nation and The Jew Nation were classics, but my all time favourite has to have been the package that arrived for “The Gay Nation”.

This was all quite amusing and easy enough to live with – a name is just a name, after all.

But then I realised that the subtle play on ‘donation’ was having more influence than I realised. People saw our name, our logo, and automatically assumed we were asking them for cash (exactly what we’re NOT about!), so would immediately switch off.

But I still love our name.

So we’ve kept the name, but made some tweaks: we’ve done a Facebook and dropped the ‘The’; we’ve added a space – Do Nation; and we’ve created a clearer, more distinct logo:

I hope you like it. I see it as a natural transition from our old, recognisable but fresh, and addressing all of those niggles. Interpret the circle as you will – a fingerprint, reflecting the personal nature of behaviours; a spotlight on doing; or just a good old oblique blue circle.

Those of you more familiar with Do Nation may be asking “what about ‘Donate by Doing’ and ‘Do Good for Business’?”. What about them? We realised that these names were superfluous. They were confusing things just when things didn’t need confusing. Which brings me onto the new web pages…

The new look site

We’ve been driving an artificial divide between the two sides of Do Nation: fundamentally, our offer for businesses is no different to our offer for individuals. Whether you’re a sustainability manager looking to engage your staff in energy saving actions, or a marathon runner looking for support from your friends through action, it’s all the same. You’re a person looking to inspire those around you to create change.

And so we’re bringing both parts into one place. Alongside our paid-for professional tiers, there will soon be a free tier available to small businesses, charities, and individuals.

Our new homepage sums this up nicely.

What were called Simple and Standard programs will now be called Pro and Plus, with a Free tier being slotted in below them. See here for more info on how they compare.

Try it out, support us

The new Free tier isn’t publicly available just yet. We’re going to be opening it up to a few lucky people to host their own campaigns over the coming weeks, with the aim of launching it fully before the COP21 in Paris this December.

In the meantime, you can get a taster for how it works by making a pledge for the Do Team (me included!): we’re cycling to Paris for the COP and would love your support.

If you’d like to cycle to Paris with us and raise support through actions, fill in this short form and we’ll be in touch about being one of those lucky early users…