Aspen Institute
www.aspeninstitute.org
The Aspen Institute, founded in 1950, is an international nonprofit dedicated to fostering enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue. Through seminars, policy programs, conferences and leadership development initiatives, the Institute and its international partners seek to promote nonpartisan inquiry and an appreciation for timeless values. The Institute is headquartered in Washington, DC, and has campuses in Aspen, Colorado, and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
The Challenge: 
The Aspen Institute desired a new design for its content-rich Web site. The organization had also outgrown its Content Management System (CMS) and wanted to find a CMS tool that was better suited to its needs. Beaconfire was enlisted to evaluate Aspen’s technology needs and complete a discovery and design process to take Aspen’s Web site to the next level.
The Solution:
Beaconfire staff assisted The Aspen Institute in defining specific and measurable goals for the Web site, identifying key audiences, developing detailed lists of functionality, and outlining the requirements of a CMS to support a redesigned site. After evaluating Aspen’s current CMS to discover the extent to which it met Aspen’s functional needs, Beaconfire determined that the Institute had outgrown its current CMS. Beaconfire recommended a short list of potential vendors; Aspen conducted evaluations and selected Kintera, an Application Service Provider (ASP) that focuses exclusively on nonprofit organizations.
While Aspen was finalizing its technology vendor selection, Beaconfire next led the design stage for Aspen, helping its staff to develop a user-centric navigation and capture the creative vision, including colors and the site’s overall look and feel. Once the project team finalized and approved the new information architecture and creative designs, project implementation was transitioned to Kintera, which saw the project through to completion, helping Aspen launch the new site in late July 2005.
Visit the new site at www.aspeninstitute.org.