Strategic Online Communications for Nonprofits

Posts Tagged ‘bilingual content’

Our founders constitute Upleaf’s current management team.   A host of specialized consultants support the management team as necessary to implement the full array of services we provide.

Osvaldo Gómez, MBA (Online Strategy, Web Design, Marketing)

Osvaldo Gómez is originally from the Dominican Republic, where he worked for over 10 years as marketing manager for two of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical and consumer goods distributors.  Charged with a portfolio that included many Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Elizabeth Arden brands, Gómez managed a division of over 100 people and increased sales by 320%.  After relocating to the United States, he began launching socially-conscious Internet-based businesses and strengthened his skills in web design and web-based marketing.  Gómez designs and customizes a host of web-based applications.  He enriches his work with the technical expertise and practical know-how of a marketing executive who expects high-quality, immediate results.  Gómez holds an MBA in Strategic Business Administration and Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) in the Dominican Republic.  He is fluent in Spanish and English with strong language skills in French.

Mr. Gómez can be reached at ogomez@upleaf.com

Elizabeth Beachy, MHS (Strategic Communications and Fundraising)

Elizabeth Beachy has worked for 12 years in the non-profit sector.  Prior to founding Upleaf she worked as a communications and development consultant for several international non-profit organizations, including Family Health International (FHI) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).  Before starting her work as a consultant Beachy implemented social marketing projects for seven years with Population Services International (PSI), in Haiti, Honduras, Cuba, the Eastern Caribbean and ultimately in the Dominican Republic where she served as PSI’s Country Director for four years.  Beachy specializes in strategic communication (reaching target populations with compelling behavior change messages) which she aptly applies to Upleaf projects.  She is an accomplished fundraiser, having helped raise a total of over $135 million for the various organizations she has worked with.  Beachy holds a Master’s of Health Sciences degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, with a specialization in Health Communication.  Her undergraduate liberal arts degree in Psychology/Sociology/Anthropology is from Kalamazoo College.  Ms. Beachy is fluent in English, Spanish and French, with strong language skills in both Portuguese and Haitian Creole.

Ms. Beachy can be reached at ebeachy@upleaf.com

About Upleaf

Our Mission and Values

The Challenge

In September of 2008, Acceso Hispano (a U.S.-based initiative of the Self Reliance Foundation) asked Upleaf to develop their online strategy to reach U.S. Latinos and stakeholders with key information.  For over 15 years, Acceso Hispano had been operating a national, bilingual toll-free telephone helpline to link Latinos to the services they needed in their communities.  Now Acceso Hispano wanted to expand its outreach to the community, and make many of its information services available online.  Among the priorities the team wanted to address were:

1. Communicate with stakeholders regarding issues affecting the U.S. Hispanic population;
2. Provide practical information and referrals to Spanish-language dominant Hispanics living in the U.S. regarding the issues that most affect them, including making a database of 17,500 service providers available online for the public to search;
3. Develop a network of community-based Spanish-speaking promoters across the country, to strengthen Acceso Hispano’s community outreach events and projects;
4. Reach out to community-based service providers across the country to participate in culturally-sensitive services and events for the Hispanic population AND include their organization in Acceso Hispano’s new online directory;
5. Systemize communication to donors, partners and other stakeholders.
6. Minimize maintenance costs and ongoing technical support expenses.

The Solution

1. A bilingual website with 4 fully featured sections tailored to each of the target audiences
2. A searchable, self-service enabled online directory of Hispanic-serving providers
3. A customized, comprehensive constituent relationship management tool
4. A set of integrations to automate flow of information between the three systems.

1. The Website

In December of 2008 (three months later), Upleaf completed and launched a comprehensive online platform comprising 4 different fully featured sub-domains for Acceso Hispano using an open-source WordPress content management solution.  The Upleaf team designed the website and wrote all of the content for the site’s fixed pages, and developed all of the dynamic content required to launch the website.

The new Acceso Hispano website includes four different sections designed for each of Acceso Hispano’s distinct target populations; interactive features to promote dialogue and exchange; integrated communication features to facilitate streamlined communication; online donation capability; powerful search functions; and an Admin Dashboard to help Acceso Hispano manage the full platform.

2. The Community Service Directory

Upleaf completed the transition of Acceso Hispano’s offline database of 17,500 community-based service providers to a searchable online directory, made available to the public in June 2009.  Site visitors can now search for services close to their zip code by keyword, and service providers can easily add their listings to the directory using a self-service feature that saves staff time.  The online directory was developed using Geodesic Solutions software, customized & hosted by Upleaf to meet Acceso Hispano’s needs.

3. The Constituent Relationship Management System

Upleaf created a CRM system to help Acceso Hispano manage its 130,000 contacts including callers to its toll-free hotline; service providers; partners; media contacts; and donors.  All records were transferred to the system, categorized and organized to track interactions with each contact and facilitate mass email communications with each sub-group.  Automated mechanisms were also established to help manage communications including auto-replies, task management, email templates, benchmarks for data quality, and monitoring and reporting.  Upleaf used the Salesforce CRM Nonprofit Edition (donated by the Salesforce Foundation and worth US$15,000 per year) as the platform for the CRM system and integrated an also donated 10,000-free-emails-a-month app from Vertical Response to manage mass email communications.

4. The Integration

Upleaf developed a set of automated processes that turn the CRM tool into the hub from where all interactions are performed:

• A new service case is automatically generated in the CRM tool whenever site visitors or service providers fill out an online contact form or send an email, enabling staff to respond quickly and track all inquiries and interactions.
• Whenever new service providers add or update a listing in the Online Community Service Directory, both the individual and the organization are automatically added/updated in the CRM database.

Visit AccesoHispano.org

Our past work has entailed:

• Designing and developing content for dynamic, user-friendly client websites
• Developing comprehensive online communication strategies
• Streamlining client capacity to communicate regularly with constituents through:
  • E-newsletters
  • Dynamic website content
  • Integrated SMS text messaging
  • Customized constituent management systems
• Establishing compelling and user-friendly donation pages
• Implementing comprehensive Search Engine Optimization strategies
• Converting a national database of service providers to a searchable, user-updated, online format
• Establishing automated analytics reports to help clients measure and benchmark user traffic
• Bilingual content development
• Integrating multiple sites aimed at different target audiences

For examples of our past work, please view our case studies.

How We Work

Client Assessment