Columbia Riverkeeper

Helping a local environmental group effectively engage the community

Columbia Riverkeeper’s mission is to protect and restore the water quality of the Columbia River and all life connected to it. Their previous website lacked intuitive navigation, and no longer reflected the organization’s brand. They desperately needed a site that told a compelling story, allowed visitors to easily find important information, and increase conversion for donation and newsletter subscriptions.

Challenge

Columbia Riverkeeper needed more than just a platform– they needed strategic expertise and ongoing support to help tell their story and craft compelling calls to action.

Solutions

We coupled strategy and design support with a new Bene site, offering much more security and room for growth.

Results

+8% increased time on site
-21% decrease in bounce rate
+45% increase in pageviews

The challenges Columbia Riverkeeper faced were by no means unique to nonprofits, and content strategy and design support doesn’t come with the wiki or FAQs of an out of the box solution. They required the discovery process, strategic direction, and design skills that come with a high budget website redesign, but they needed it for a fraction of the cost.

Our staff worked with Columbia Riverkeeper to define and prioritize their target audiences and their motivations. This audience research allowed us to develop user pathways that would not only keep users coming back to the site, but that would keep them engaged during each session.

“ThinkShout’s BENE platform is a forward-thinking solution designed to make the daunting task of building a website, a fun and enjoyable experience. Thanks to ThinkShout’s team, no matter how complex the design request seems, the BENE platform delivers a thoughtful, well-designed solution.”

~ Liz Terhaar, Communications Director, Columbia Riverkeeper

Next was the application of the Bene base build, followed by the implementation of Columbia Riverkeeper’s design. We also provided template theming for Salsa, (their CRM system and Email Service Provider) to ensure continuity for the end user when they completed petitions or other actions on their site.

After some training sessions to ensure Columbia Riverkeeper’s staff was set up for success in using the tool, we handed over the keys to the team to import and stage their own content in the system. It was an intuitive, clean, and simple process.

Website homepage displayed on a smartphone

Website interior displayed on a smartphone

Since launch, our relationship with Columbia Riverkeeper has evolved into one of our most valued partnerships, with quarterly strategy meetings where we cover upcoming campaigns and fundraising goals, as well as provide an analysis of their site performance to identify future areas for improvement. We’re excited to see where they go as they embark on this new chapter in their digital identity.

+8%

increased time on site

-21%

decrease in bounce rate

+45%

increase in pageviews

Launch Site

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