The Washington Center

Website Design, Development & Digital Marketing for an Education Non Profit

The Washington Center (TWC) is the largest independent, nonprofit academic internship program in the country. It brings together exceptional and dedicated college students and civic, governmental and business leaders, hundreds of colleges and universities, scores of public and private host organizations (or internship sites), and over 40,000 alumni. Founded 35 years ago, TWC is a unique educational center based on a fully integrated mix of professional experience, academic coursework and real-life challenges.

Carousel30 has successfully rebranded TWC's digital assets and earned a reputable award for our work on the website. It has positively affected its presence on Facebook and Twitter due to the substantial increase of followers, friends, interaction and posts including not only updates, but also pictures and videos that reflect involvement.

Objective
Carousel30 partnered with The Washington Center to develop its digital brand after a rebranding effort of the organization and a restructuring of their online presences. The organization brought a common challenge to Carousel30 with a unique twist–a fragmented brand and technology, with many pages to migrate and import. Further, TWC lacked a social media strategy and needed general help with their online presence. Choosing a CRM system to meet the needs of the organization was a challenge in itself.

Steps Taken
Carousel30 helped form a comprehensive digital strategy that included a social media, advertising and public relations strategy, overall brand management, and delivered an extensible platform. Our team implemented a custom Drupal Content Management System with advanced workflow capabilities and cutting edge search technology. We migrated all of the content from the previous site, and took on new content as well. We met the CRM challenge by selecting Salesforce with heavy customization and integration. We work with a dedicated CRM partner of our client's choosing to complete the task. The TWC team saw this as an entirely seamless process.

Carousel30 has been executing the communications plan on a daily basis since December 2010.

Results
Since the website launched in September 2010, TWC’s website has experienced a consistent growth in website traffic. It averages about a 20% increase in visitors each month. The site’s bounce rate has decreased and the viewers time on site has increased.  

Carousel30 increased The Washington Center’s Facebook followers by 20.3% in the first quarter of 2011 and increased Twitter followers by 48.9%. There was a 376.6% increase in fan participation, which surpassed the goal of 20%. There was also a 1,706.7% increase in post views, which surpassed our goal of 30%. Overall there has been an increase in posts, videos, photos and member interaction.

Awards

• 2011 Gold ADDY in the Consumer Website Category
• 2011 W3 Silver Award in the Education Category from the International Academy of Visual Arts
• 2011 Silver Davey Award

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