This is an examination of how well a major donor site performs according to a low bandwidth test, derived from "Web Design by Donor Organizations for Low Bandwidth".
The European Commission is a major donor throughout Europe, and gave a lot of funding to Ukraine while I was there. Their sole purpose isn’t funding, so it would be unfair to be too critical of their first page, which was 300 KB. Fortunately, their links for funding, and subsequently grants, are clearly marked, so it took me less than one minute to find granting information. Their grants page was considerably smaller, at 128 KB. Finding the application took five clicks, and their applications typically came in the form of Word documents requiring download. They did not have a low bandwidth version, which is certainly recommended for their potential grantees in places like Ukraine. But, their site is available in the major languages of Europe, which means it can be read by presumably anyone with an Internet connection in Europe. My only real frustration was that their search engine is a bit tricky. They fund so many different categories, it can take a while to find the most current information and the right category for the type of project one is trying to fund. Overall, this site was surprisingly and impressively easy to navigate for an organization so large and complex. (Screenshots of relevant pages below)
Donor: European Commission
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm#
First Page size test: 300 KB
Time spent seeking grant info: Less than 1 minute
Clicks to granting info: 1
Clicks to actual grant application: 5
Low bandwidth version: No
Application (PDF, doc, or online): Word doc application, PDF guidelines
Available languages: The major European languages
Grants page size test: 128 KB
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