[Sigia-l] Seeking Best Practices: order for chaos

[Ockler, Sarah]

For some organizations, this process has to begin within the
organization itself - not just the Web site.  Take a look at
www.kidney.org (National Kidney Foundation - a former employer).  In
addition to educational support for kidney disease patients and medical
professionals, the organization offers similar services for living
kidney donors, families whose loved ones donated any organs or tissues
(not just kidneys) upon death (bereavement services), transplant
recipients of all organs and tissues, and related professionals in each
area.  

Formerly, each of these services was operated as a separate entity in
terms of Web, newsletters and other communications (donorfamily.org,
livingdonors.org etc.). Each had their own logo, taglines, graphics,
look and feel, etc. This was a strategic choice in hopes of avoiding
confusion ("my loved one donated lungs and heart; why am I getting
information from the kidney people?").  However, confusion erupted with
issues such as a single membership/fundraising list for all groups,
difficulty raising funds as stand-alone groups, difficulty getting the
message across that all groups are interconnected and related;
difficulty maintaining sites for separate entities on one tech. platform
and budget.

The NKF recently rebranded their entire organization to bring all of the
sub-groups together under one logo and look & feel.  Kidney.org followed
suit.  The site appears to be a basic package that they purchased
externally, so there are still many issues with the navigation and
content, but overall, they did a nice job of bringing together the
groups under one banner.  The next step IMHO is to really get the site
organized and cleaned up so that it's a great experience for all, not
just the corporate goals.

Sarah

_______________________________________________
Sarah L. Ockler 
Web Content Producer
Great-West Healthcare
8505 East Orchard Road
Englewood, CO  80111
v: 303.737.1308 :: f: 303.737.0008  
www.greatwesthealthcare.com