Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada Public Website and Member's Extranet
"I Envision… a public and members-only website that will strengthen the Boys and Girls Clubs and enhance the capacity of our members and volunteers to be leaders in their communities.”
The Client
Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada (BGCC) is a leading provider of quality programs to children and youth that support the healthy physical, educational and social development of more than 200,000 young people and their families in Canada each year. BGCC is an association of over 100 clubs located in 700 communities across Canada. Clubs are in neighbourhoods where they are most needed – in large city centres, remote rural communities and on First Nations Reserves. Trained, dedicated staff and volunteers provide children and youth with programs in physical recreation, technology, the arts, personal development and more. Many clubs also provide meals, family support programs, emergency shelter and other support to children and youth at risk.
The Challenge
As part of their marketing strategy, BGCC was looking to redevelop and revitalize both their public website and private members-only extranet. The new Internet site was envisioned as a professional, dynamic, interactive web marketing tool that would demonstrate the value of BGCC as a primary provider of services to children, build public trust and drive support for BGCC through participation and donations. The site would be highly relevant as a source of emotional engagement and information on the movement to current and prospective donors, to communities seeking to start a club and to parents looking to understand club programs and resources. In the end, it was hoped that the site would enable BGCC to reach more kids in more communities.
In addition to the public portal, BGCC wanted to create a members-only site that would strengthen the BGCC movement by ensuring consistent quality of services across the BGCC network, providing relevant resources and training to key staff/volunteers and facilitating the sharing of knowledge, information and resources among BGCC membership nationwide.
The Solution
Looking for a single platform for a bilingual web publishing portal and a collaboration portal with the additional security of an extranet, Microsoft SharePoint was an obvious choice. Its ability to integrate with CRM databases, used for all records, data management and storage at BGCC, was crucial. Enhanced web analytics to track site usage and measure campaign success are a priority, and SharePoint enables rich analytics and visualizations out of the box. SharePoint 2010 was chosen because of the platform’s flexibility in providing a fully functional public internet site. Envision IT developed various custom web parts with online forms for donations, newsletters and alumni sign-up. These are fully integrated with the organization’s CRM database and third-party billing system, while workflows automatically spin off acknowledgement emails. Surveys, blogs, wikis and incorporation of social media were all important requirements of the platform – features that are fully supported in SharePoint 2010. Well-structured navigation and enhanced search and tools, such as the Envision IT Image Rotator, all contribute to a vastly improved user experience.
The addition of the Envision It Extranet User Manager extends SharePoint functionality by providing BGCC with the necessary tools to create accounts for members, staff and volunteers outside their domain. It then allows users to collaborate selectively inside a secure SharePoint environment. The tool provides password management and lost password retrieval, a landing page for directing external users into their sites, display & management of users’ site access, and web-based account creation and management. The site makes use of audience targeting so that logged-in users find the resources they need based on their permissions.
The Results
- Greater public awareness from a projected increase in site visits to the new BGCC homepage and increased click-throughs
- Marketing campaigns, site usage and donations that can be tracked and measured
- Increased online donations and prospective donors through the site
- More kids served annually, and more communities encouraged to start clubs
- Public trust built with surveys to track website user satisfaction and encouraged submission of featured stories
- Online platform for optimizing communication, information sharing and innovation across the BGCC movement
- Provision of support, expertise, quality resources and online training, particularly to new club staff
- Club staff and volunteers across the country kept connected to the movement
- Portal that facilitates networking and sharing of knowledge, success stories, innovation and expertise through community discussion forums, online/offline events and document sharing