Trust for Public Land
Redesign and Custom CMS
The Trust for Public Land (TPL) approached Beaconfire with a need for a redesigned public Web site to support TPL's mission of conserving public land through improved content publishing and enhanced tools for public and donor outreach and cultivation. Upon engaging Beaconfire, it became clear there was an opportunity to look strategically at the organization's short-term needs and long-term goals to best determine how to apply Internet technology. Beaconfire worked collaboratively with TPL to develop an Internet Action Plan that, in part, proposed the development of a custom content management solution to broaden TPL's reach and effectiveness while empowering distributed national, regional, and local TPL staff to manage Web content. Beaconfire developed and implemented the solution, which it now maintains in conjunction with TPL. Beaconfire continues to work with TPL to support complementary initiatives and provide ongoing consulting to promote the ongoing success of the Web site.About the Client and History: Founded in 1972, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) helps conserve land for recreation and spiritual nourishment and to improve the health and quality of life of American communities. Through its national and local programs led by legal and real estate specialists in partnership with landowners, government agencies and community groups, TPL pioneers new ways to finance parks and open spaces; helps generate federal, state, and local conservation funding; and promotes the importance of public lands.
Since its founding, TPL has helped protect more than 1.4 million acres in 45 states— from expansive recreation areas to historic homesteads to vest-pocket city parks.
The Solution: TPL's static legacy Web site underrepresented the diversity of the organization in the regions and states, restricted content publishing, and provided no central repository for organizational information. TPL also recognized that the administration of its site was becoming much too complex given its diverse organizational needs, and it did not allow for growth and knowledge capture well into the future.
Before undertaking the site development effort, Beaconfire worked with TPL to define an Internet Action Plan. Beaconfire's strategy consultants worked with TPL to identify the opportunities presented to the organization by the Internet for both its public site and other related needs (e.g. marketing, knowledge sharing, and organizational collaboration.) The effort was undertaken to ensure TPL's new Web site served its immediate needs as well as serving as a foundation for its longer-term Internet related goals. Within the context of its overall organizational priorities, Beaconfire worked with TPL to structure a strategic plan for reaching and engaging its target audiences through a combination of communication messages, content, marketing, fundraising, and community building opportunities. Beaconfire also provided guidance on the potential impacts for the new strategy on resources and other organizational activities to provide a foundation for future growth.
To implement the plan, Beaconfire developed a customized content management solution based on Cold Fusion and Allaire's Spectra to drive the new TPL public Web presence. The solution provides TPL with dynamic content via a database-driven platform. The custom solution also provides a non-technical administrative interface to permit decentralized, enterprise-wide publishing.
The solution's "My Workspace" feature allows TPL users to manage their documents, knowledge areas, and content approval from a single worksheet. The knowledge areas' folder-based n-tier taxonomy provides for categorization of knowledge assets, and the integrated document submission and approval process—or content workflow—allows distributed contribution to TPL's knowledge repository, with content managers responsible for approval, archival, and denial of publication.
The integration of Allaire's Spectra product allowed for quick registration and integration of design templates and features, and its “WYSIWYG” editor provides non-technical TPL users the ability to format content. Spectra also enables the creation of an XML repository, promoting the reusability of data across multiple platforms, including Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), for extranets/intranets, or for content syndication and extraction.
The solution's user- and group-based security feature provides for secure publication of content to specific audiences, and all administration of users, groups, knowledge taxonomy, publication and application security is Web-based.
Beaconfire created custom templates and graphics for the site, and developed style sheets for text formatting. The custom templates allow the inclusion of specific business logic for the display of information throughout the site.
To complement the development work, Beaconfire developed TPL's launch marketing plan to include both online and offline outreach efforts. Beaconfire's interactive marketing consultants collaborated with TPL's public affairs and communications departments to execute the plan, which included search engine registration, targeted outreach to media and affinity sites.
Results: TPL uses the re-launched Web site to emphasize its organizational diversity and vitality through dynamic content changes, as well as highlight its local efforts via state-level customization. Custom templates allow for the use of interactive approaches to engage users in the organization's online experience, strengthening their commitment to the organization and stimulating greater levels of action through fundraising, local volunteerism, and member recruitment The site has also been leveraged for internal knowledge management purposes to improve the knowledge sharing capabilities of the organization's geographically-distributed staff.
The Site: www.tpl.org
