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Case Study: W.M. Keck Foundation
Nonprofit / GovernmentSituation As one of the nation's largest philanthropic organizations, the W.M. Keck Foundation has been investing in breakthrough scientific inquiry for more than five decades. With a mission of funding work that holds the promise of "far-reaching benefits to humanity," the Foundation supports those pursuits that evolve conventional wisdom into an exploration of new and daring ideas. Theirs is the long view, and they are secure in the knowledge that sound decisions made today may take 10-15 years to make their mark. They also know they provide the seeds, the unheralded first steps, that one day will become the celebrated giant leaps in science, engineering and medical research. Objective One of their challenges was the valuable staff time and organizational resources that were expended fielding routine queries and reviewing grant applications. Given their critically important mandate, the Foundation knew it had to fundamentally do things differently. The academic and philanthropic worlds in which it operates had become increasingly interactive and were moving online at breakneck speed. They could see the opportunities for improved communication, more efficiencies and greater effectiveness that awaited them in making not only a technology transition in terms of infrastructure, but also a paradigm shift as an organization. To help them with their own evolution from "conventional" to "new and daring," the W.M. Keck Foundation turned to Zeesman Communications. Challenges Change Isn't Easy Even for an organization whose stock and trade is accelerating change, transforming itself isn't always easy. An ingrained organizational culture, long-established ways of doing things and lengthy staff tenures all had to be considered in developing a scope of work and outlining a plan of action that would take the W.M. Keck Foundation from where it was to where it needed to be ... in a way and at a pace that would cause a minimum amount of upheaval. Everything Has to be Rational Steeped in a culture of science and reason, the Foundation always needed to know "why." That meant that every proposed solution had to be connected to the organization's long-term objectives. In addition, it meant those same solutions also had to be grounded in rationale that made sense, both aesthetically and strategically. Approach Be Inclusive Zeesman recognized that the future of an organization as influential as the W.M. Keck Foundation had to be charted by taking advantage of the wide range of insights represented by the Foundation's diverse stakeholders. From program managers and grant reviewers to researchers deemed "Young Scholars," everyone's unique experience provided another important and enlightening perspective. Plan and Build for Tomorrow In keeping with its own grant-making philosophy, the Foundation didn't expect everything to happen right away. What they did expect, however, was a long-term website and online communications strategy that created a foundation and framework for the future. It had to provide both a plan that was manageable enough that it could be executed in stages now, and an approach that was big enough for the organization to "grow into" over time. Execution Extending the W.M. Keck Foundation's brand to the Internet began with designing the organization's new website. Based on the feedback received during pre-design research, the objectives for the new site were to: 1) position the organization's mission as the focal point, 2) demonstrate the impact of the Foundation's grant-making, and 3) improve the grant submission and review process. Since most of the target audience was not used to the Foundation having a web presence, Zeesman designed a direct mail campaign to build awareness for the new site. As information has been added, email updates and postcards have been sent to the organization's database. In addition, Zeesman created a highly targeted and customized direct mail campaign to bolster discussion board participation among "Young Scholars." We are currently further enhancing back-end programming in order to simplify the grant reviewing process, and are building out the site's "Impact" section to better showcase the success stories. Most recently, the Foundation has embarked on an online initiative that will establish a new way of communicating and relating to its valuable base of constituents. The first phase of that initiative is called "Transition" and it is focused on two things: getting recipients of information to agree to email communication moving forward and getting permission to survey them periodically in the future. Zeesman designed a program that consisted of integrated direct mail and Email Relationship Marketing (ERM) campaigns, with the intention of moving as many individuals as possible to the more cost-effective ERM system where interactivity could be optimized. Results The latest website statistics show that the Foundation's efforts are paying off. Visits have increased nearly 20% and page views have jumped a full 27%. Visitors are also spending more time on the site, with length of visits jumping more than 69%. All of this - as well as the staff's anecdotal evidence of fewer calls and fewer submissions of inappropriate grant requests - points to the fact that the website is working as an easy-to-navigate information resource. As for the "Transition" initiative, it was successful on every front. First it served as a comprehensive opportunity to touch all of the organization's constituents and update their current contact information. Contacts for whom the Foundation did not have email addresses received a printed direct mail piece. The direct mail response of 5% for this campaign significantly surpassed the industry average of 1-3%. However, most exciting were the results of the ERM e-blasts - a whopping 58% response rate. And of the total number of respondents, 94% agreed to participate in the Foundation's survey panel. The changes implemented over the last few years have simplified the Foundation's procedures, shifted routine inquiries to the website, cut the amount of paper used and reduced grant review time. Ultimately, that means a more productive staff, better grant-making and, in the long run, more impact. For further information, contact Bonnie Nijst at bonnie@zeesman.com or 323.951.9800.  Launch Website   |
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