Democratic Leadership Council and Progressive Policy Institute
www.ndol.org
www.ppionline.org
The
Democratic Leadership Council and Progressive Policy Institute engaged Beaconfire
to create two separate but tightly coupled sites that would serve as a hub for
the DLC's efforts to grow and expand the New Democrat movement at the federal,
state and local levels, and showcase PPI's work to advance innovative "Third
Way" policy proposals.
DLC
and PPI had an aging HTML site that no longer accommodated the organizations'
burgeoning content production needs, which, between the two organizations, included
policy reports, daily commentary, and a magazine, among other products. The
solution was to build two separate sites with a fresh look and a sophisticated,
shared back-end content management system. The system also featured a targeted
email utility for sending issue-specific e-Newsletters, a mobile content channel
for the "New Dem Daily" message piece, a searchable directory of New Democrats,
and integrated fundraising tools.
About the Client and History:The Democratic Leadership Council's (DLC) mission is to promote public debate within the Democratic Party and the public at large about national and international policy and political issues. Specifically, as the founding organization of the New Democrat movement, the DLC's goal is to modernize the progressive tradition in American politics by advancing a set of innovative "Third Way" ideas for governing through its national network of elected officials and community leaders. The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is the DLC's affiliated, non-partisan think tank that defines and promotes "Third Way" ideas.
Prior to its partnership with Beaconfire, the DLC's legacy HTML Web site was becoming outdated and unmanageable, with thousands of non-standard pages, decaying information architecture, and no site search functionality. In addition, DLC and PPI staff members had no distributed content maintenance capability with which to update the site, and the site was not "wired" with the features and functions for online transactions, integrated fundraising appeals, or community building.
The DLC engaged Beaconfire to help shape the New Democrat brand in the online space, with the goal of reaching Democrats at all levels.
The DLC envisioned an Internet presence that could:
- Promote the ideas and the people leading the New Democrat movement
- Provide services and ideas to elected Democratic officials, candidates, and potential candidates
- Grow and strengthen relationships with their target audiences
- Establish a separate online home for the Progressive Policy Institute
The Solution:In shaping a new online brand image for the DLC and PPI, Beaconfire's major contributions came in the following areas:
- Site architecture:To more clearly reflect the status, mission and goals of both the DLC and PPI, Beaconfire created two distinct sites -- New Democrats Online (ndol.org) and PPI Online (ppionline.org). Both sites contained overlapping content and features that enabled users to cross-reference items and issues of interest via secondary knowledge areas. Other highlights included a distributed content management and content workflow system with tiered access; a sophisticated email utility for sending messages based on specific issue areas; and a searchable directory of New Democrats. In addition, content distribution channels, including a handheld edition of the "New Dem Daily," were implemented to meet the needs of the site's audiences.
- Fundraising:Beaconfire helped the DLC dynamically generate fundraising appeals according to specific political issues.
- Creative site design and usability:Beaconfire built in a special site utility that allowed the DLC and PPI to set up a "barter system" for ad banner space with other sites. Also, community discussion forums helped facilitate idea development and direct connection to DLC and PPI thought leaders.
Results: Beaconfire delivered two fully functional sites on time and on budget; both sites launched in June 2000. The sites' distributed site administration has reduced the DLC's costs, while the flexible site architecture and content treatments (including Cascading Style Sheets) will facilitate all future content and functional enhancements.