FUNDERS COMMITTEE FOR CIVIC PARTICIPATION

1. FUNDERS COMMITTEE FOR CIVIC PARTICIPATION Website Analysis and Recommendations March 14, 2012 Team Members: ShwetaAora, Kira Bacon, Aisha Bowers, Stacia Kirby, Diana McSweeney, Jon Palmer

2. FCCP Overview “Bringing together grant-makers committed to enhancing democratic participation in all aspects of civic life.”

3. Mission • Promote civic participation as a key to making democracy work • Priority issues: • Voter engagement • Election administration • Ballot initiatives • Census • Election reform and redistricting

4. Primary Goal • Build a vibrant, effective national network of funders/grant-makers committed to ensuring that democracy works by providing them with a: • community in which to build connections • stage for showing innovations • forum for strategic dialogue and collaboration • resource for civic participation research, tools and news

5. Member Profile • Leaders in the philanthropic community working to further FCCP’s vision • Member Profile • 66 philanthropic organizations/foundations with missions that are local, national or global in scale • Majority of members are small- to mid-sized, but include heavy-hitters like the Ford Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, Rockefeller Family Fund and W.K. Kellogg Foundation • Annual grant-making budgets run from $200K-$20MM

6. Website Overview • Strengths • Clean, uncluttered visuals and graphics • Prominent display of mission statement • Weaknesses • Disconnect between FCCP’s goal of engagement and collaboration and lack of opportunities for members to connect through the website • Content is dated and stale • Site does not enable member collaboration • Several key entry points have broken links

7. Google Analytics Basic Traffic Overview • Site live to public in August 2011 • Unique visitors to date: 5,014 • Total visits: 7,266 with 21,447 page views • Average time on site: 02:50 • Average pages per visit: 4.3 • Bounce rate: 54.4% • New visits: 67.6% • Visits from U.S.: 94.3%

8. Google Analytics Traffic Sources Overview • Search traffic: 66.7% • Referral traffic: 10.9% • Direct traffic: 22.6% • Search engine: 90.9% Google • Primary referral: funders.digitalaid.net (17.4%) • #1 landing page is a broken link! (403.html error page)

9. Google AnalyticsNew vs. Returning Visitor Analysis • New visitor • Visits: 67.6% • Pages/visit: 2.4 • Average time on site: 01.43 • Bounce rate: 59.1% • Returning visitor • Visits: 32.4% • Pages/visit: 4.1 • Average time on site: 05.08 • Bounce rate: 44.5%

10. Google AnalyticsFindings • Low total traffic and low repeat visits • Short time on site – less than two minutes • Very low referral traffic • High percentage (28%) of new visitors landing on broken links

11. Google AnalyticsFindings Flowchart w/ Announcements & 403.html error pages Broken Announcements page (http://www.funderscommittee.org/announcements)

12. Google AnalyticsFindings Good Announcements page (http://www.funderscommittee.org/in_the_news/announcements) Broken Announcements page (http://www.funderscommittee.org/announcements) Broken

13. Google Analytics Recommendations • Fix broken links to reduce early exit from site • Provide a direct link to the Announcements page from the home page and possibly other pages on the site • Create "goals" in google analytics to track conversions (" thank you for registering”) • Increase variety and breadth of keywords

14. Website Recommendations • Expand information on homepage to engage new visitors and encourage increased interaction with site • Provide a forum on the site to enable and encourage member engagement and collaboration • Implement a social media strategy to increase word of mouth

15. Website Recommendations • Homepage search function is not being used: consider eliminating or redesigning • Reduce the size of rotating images on homepage to increase available real estate for other information • Leverage available platforms (FB, Twitter, LinkedIn) to foster increased participation, connections and communication among members

16. Social Media StrategyRecommendations • A strong social media program is critical to meeting the organization’s stated goal • Key objectives • Expand membership • Increase membership participation and engagement • Heighten awareness of FCCP • Augment website visitors

17. Social Media StrategyRecommendations • Listen: discover and understand what people are saying about FCCP on the Web • Talk: Spread message about FCCP’s passion to promote civic participation • Amplify: Find key influencers within membership to spread FCCP’s message

18. Social Media ToolsRecommendations • LinkedIn – set up as a professional group to include members, key organizations and media outlets • Facebook – FCCP must come up with an alternative acronym • Twitter – Much of the current content on the FCCP site could be easily Tweeted to raise awareness of causes FCCP supports • All social media platforms should be easily accessed via website and members should be encouraged to subscribe

19. Conclusions • Implement website strategies and tools to increase member engagement and collaboration • Use social media to expand membership, increase membership participation and engagement, heighten awareness of FCCP and augment website visitors • Ensure that website content is current and relevant