The Jane Goodall Institute Website
Online Fundraising and Activism, an Open Source Solution

The Jane Goodall Institute, a non-profit environmental organization founded by the world renown primatologist, Jane Goodall has been working since the 70s to:

• Improve global understanding and treatment of great apes through research, public education and advocacy
• Contribute to the preservation of great apes and their habitats by combining conservation with education and promotion of sustainable livelihoods in local communities
• Create a worldwide network of young people who have learned to care deeply for their human community, for all animals and for the environment, and who will take responsible action to care for them

Challenge:

The organization's Internet strategy had to address challenges related to promoting the broad scope of work addressed by Founder Jane Goodall, as well as that of of the organization as a whole, while fulfilling the organizations fundraising needs. Various systems had been set up to collect information and raise funds online, but their implementation had been fragmented and a lot of work went into maintaining these disparate systems.

Our challenge was to develop and implement a mission-based communications strategy for harnessing the Internet for fundraising, marketing and communicating it’s mission, while integrating its online fundraising and advocacy with the organizations constituent relationship management, and accounting software to manage donors and donations, track visitors interests, and develop rich system analytics.

Solution:

Bryce Tugwell worked with The Jane Goodall Institute on every step of the two year project, developing an in-depth strategy and implementation assessment presenting recommendations to help guide the redevelopment of the JGI website based on senior management priorities. After considering JGI's goals, the economic environment, and reviewing a host of possible solutions, Bryce worked with JGI, to design and implement free, open-source solution using the Drupal and CiviCRM platforms to drastically reduced costs while bringing JGI a full set of powerful online fundraising, email communication and advocacy tools. To handle the scope of the project, the team tapped the Drupal and CiviCRM expertise of Trellon to guarantee a successful project launch.

Successes

The new JGI website, and coordinated campaigns have led to a dramatic increase in site visitors and online generated revenue. Three months after launch, site activity was up by more than 35%, and online donations up more than twice what has been seen historically. CiviCRM has allowed JGI to manage its members base directly, allowing JGI to carefully target it's communications with donors in a strategic way, and integrating Google Analytics, and Google Adwords has allowed JGI to track its campaign successes and failures allowing the organization to mare carefully craft future communications based on historic success.

Site development versus competing solutions cut the development costs dramatically saving JGI more than 65% cost against every major completing solution on the market, and significantly more that 65% in one case. The new site, now hosted with Ironscale under an in-kind donation, runs in-effect cost free, saving JGI tens of thousands of dollars every year against the major competitors like Convio, Blackbaud, and ASI's IMIS Suite - all of whom where extensively explored and priced out in the review process for the project.

Additionally the Drupal content management software has provided JGI with a site which can me managed by it's staff, without the need for the constant work of a developer, saving JGI still more in the cost of maintaining a web developer on staff.

From the developer

“The JGI website is in my opinion one of my proudest achievements. The Drupal / CiviCRM platform they selected based on my recommendation's will save the organization at least $200,000 in hosting and service charges over then next 5 years, and saved them at least $100,000 in site development costs up front, while offering them a comparable tool set, a beautiful site design, and a rapid deployment when compared to the custom solutions we explored. This kind of savings is invaluable to an organization like JGI where every penny is a precious resource. I am extremely happy to have been able to benefit JGI's bottom line in this way, and help Jane continue the important work they do every day. I wish every job could make this kind of impact. ” – Bryce Tugwell