Did you know the Bronx Zoo is run by one of the oldest conservation organizations in the United States?

And so is the NY Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo, Central Park Zoo and the Queens Zoo.  Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society, saves wildlife and wild lands. They do so through careful science, international conservation, education, and the management of the world’s largest system of urban wildlife parks.  Beaconfire was pleased to work with WCS to develop their redesigned website (www.wcs.org) on the same instance of Sitecore CMS we used for their 5 park websites.  This allows the organization to share content across their entire family of sites, lessening the administrative upkeep of content for their busy staff.   

 The redesigned WCS site highlights and showcases the fine conservation work they do and addresses their goal of focusing the site on fundraising and relationship-building with users. Browse their (XML driven) interactive Flash map to learn more about ongoing projects throughout the world.  Check it often because the map is growing!  Due to the geocoding in place behind the map, WCS simply needs to add a new map item and it is displayed within the map dynamically.  Learn about how they evaluate the needs of wildlife populations, the ecological integrity of habitats, and the impacts of human activities.  Browse their growing library of multimedia to hear about their efforts straight from their experts – and don’t miss the section focused on the conservations challenges we face.  To meet their relationship building goals the site highlights hero flash promotions and features contextual placement of donation opportunities and signup prompts.   Because of how the information is categorized on the back end, they are able to relate projects and programs with ease, allowing the end user to see the full picture of how impactful the work of WCS really is. 

 One warning, it’s very easy to lose track of time as you browse the WCS site – you may want to set it as a bookmark and come back often.