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 Community Foundations of America (CFA) helps individual community foundations thrive in the ever changing charitable-giving environment by pooling resources and expertise—making philanthropy easier and more flexible.
As local community foundations continue to connect donors with charities, Web-based communications have become increasingly important.
(To read the case study of our experience helping CFA continue on, or use this link to download the PDF version.)
Community foundations are the fastest-growing sector of philanthropy—holding more than $30 billion in assets and annual grant making of nearly $1.9 billion. It is projected that over the next several years, up to 130 trillion dollars of intergenerational wealth transfer will take place in the United States. As a result, community foundations are playing an even more important role in helping donors explore options and connect with causes that are important to them.
The Community Foundation of America (CFA) helps individual community foundations thrive in the ever changing charitable-giving environment by pooling resources and expertise—making philanthropy easier and more flexible. As local community foundations continue to connect donors with charities, Web-based communications have become increasingly important.
While most community foundations share the common need for Web-based communications, finding and implementing solutions are often beyond their financial and technical means. CFA had a vision to provide community foundations with the ability to communicate fresh content through dynamic and easy-to-manage Web sites. With nearly 600 non-profit community foundations across the country, part of the challenge was finding a technology platform that leveraged economies of scale, and yet allowed each foundation to communicate their own, local, content while also displaying their individual brand image.
"We wanted to provide our member organizations with the tools and environment to excel in Web communications. We had a vision of providing a high-value web technology platform with a lot of functionality that would work with a non-profit budget", said Carla E. Dearing, President and CEO of CFA.
CFA conducted a comprehensive search for the appropriate vendor. "I was looking for someone to create a scalable Web site model. We wanted a private company who had skin in the game and would be here to deliver for years to come. We chose Neulogic's NeuanceTM solution based on their technology, communications expertise, professional service and their dedication to our mission", noted Dearing.
Partnering with Neulogic, CFA talked with community foundation leaders to identify the requirements for a Web site platform that would be flexible and allow communication professionals to manage content without the need for technicians or programmers.
Based on its Neuance offering, Neulogic delivered a suite of solutions for CFA to help member organizations extend their marketing strategies to the Internet by quickly and efficiently developing a high-quality Web site that was easy to update and maintain. The suite, offered by CFA under the name VisionMgrTM, allows for links to rich and continually updated philanthropic information. The result is a system that allows CFA to provide varying levels of web site customization for small, mid-sized and large foundations.
"Neulogic, with its emphasis on Internet-based publishing and communications, has become a partner with CFA in the truest sense of the word, working with us to create and develop Web-based solutions for community foundations, and helping us to fulfill our mission 'to provide community foundations the tools and environment to excel'," stated Dearing.
Within a short period of time, the new Web site model was tested with several member organizations. Neulogic had created a custom interface design, information architecture and interaction design along with pre-established modules, allowing communicators to easily create and manage their Web sites.
With the Neulogic solution, member organizations no longer have a need for webmasters. Virtually anyone on a communications team can quickly and easily add and edit web content. The Web site becomes a core communications engine, allowing everyone who communicates with an organization's audience the ability to work through the site. The Neulogic solution permits members to create their own levels of authorization and workflow, allowing each functional group or organization to provide content while controlling final publishing through a communications team. This system has opened up incredible opportunities to expand communication and interact with audiences on a whole new level.
The Greater Cincinnati Foundation (www.greatercincinnatifdn.org), and The Cleveland Foundation (www.clevelandfoundation.org) were the first to test the new Web site solution. The advantages translated directly into money and time saved when implementing and managing new sites. "VisionMgr has significantly helped us lower staffing costs. We had budgeted for a web person, and with VisionMgr, I didn't need to hire that person. It's easy for our existing staff to change and add fresh content", said Rick Batyko, Vice President of Communications, The Cleveland Foundation.
“We’ve increased our web traffic nearly four-fold and increased our inbound web contact forms from just 22 to 170 a month. I attribute this primarily to Neulogic's design and layout of the new site; they knew how to match the design to our users requirements," noted Batyko.
CFA has realized numerous economies of scale with the new Web site solution including the ability to distribute their newsletter electronically, linking content to the site and increasing distribution by ten-fold at no additional cost.
CFA now offers the web solution to their member foundations across the United States. Sites already in operation include foundations in Illinois, Virginia, and Connecticut and Ohio.
"In a nutshell, Neulogic delivered a methodology and high level of quality that is rarely achieved in the non-profit world. It's a super value at a reasonable cost. The bottom line is that this platform gets our members in the Web site game. Neulogic significantly exceeded our expectations with their web solution", said Dearing.
For more information on Neulogic or Neuance, contact:
Marsh Williams at: 614.819.0150 ext. 161
mwilliams@neulogic.com
www.neulogic.com
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