YMCA

Building stronger communities online

Challenge

Operating in Victoria for over 150 years, YMCA Victoria is a community based not-for profit organisation. They work in partnership with local communities to ensure people are engaged in a healthy, happy lifestyle.  The YMCA supports over 70 websites, many of which require maintenance and support. After developing a comprehensive 5-year strategic plan, YMCA needed an online vision and roadmap that would ensure that their online activity supported this plan. Being in the not-for-profit / charity space success also meant achieving this as efficiently as possible.

Approach

Firstly Chisholm & Harper worked with YMCA to articulate what they wanted to achieve and who they wanted to achieve it with. With a diverse range of  audiences and an objective ‘of access for all’, distilling this down was a genuine challenge. Once personas were developed, they could be used to further illuminate the business strategy and the vast range of possible online initiatives could be prioritised. Chisholm & Harper tied this together with a 3-year roadmap that spelled-out what needed to be done, in what order, at what price.

Solution

For YMCA the outcome of this work was not only a way forward for their websites. The project enabled the entire organisation to understand and support the online channel.

Effectively, this meant harnessing everyone’s energy in order to deliver results. A clear plan and the resources in place to support it meant that the YMCA had a clear way to move forward.

Combining this with a revitalised focus on their website users ensured their online efforts could become real contributors to the organisation’s success.