The Hecksher Foundation for Children

The Heckscher Foundation was founded in 1921 to promote the welfare of children in New York and elsewhere throughout the United States. Today, it provides grants to youth-serving organizations in the fields of education, family services, child welfare, health, arts and recreation.

We created the foundation's first Web site. From the marketing end, the challenge was to show the long history of great work that they enable while at the same time presenting specific guidelines for grant seekers. We also wanted to frame the site in a way that showed their work with children, without being childish or trite.

We helped the foundation migrate its grant application and approval process from paper to online. We researched the various software solutions available and recommended a package that was 100% compatible with their existing accounting software.

We then installed the software, defined the various processes and integrated it with their public Web site. In addition, we acted as the liaison between the client and the grant application software vendor for specific features customization needs and process definitions required for the project. This integration and many other features were accomplished using our EsKort Application Server Platform.The result was an easy to update site that securely passes core grant application information between the Web and various databases.

Design credit: Michael Aron

Convey child-friendly/child-oriented without being trite.

The Hecksher foundation had a vast physical archive of both old and new photographs of children they'd served over their long history. We wove these into the layout and dynamically rotated them on each page refresh. This provided variety and freshness but more importantly put a real and compelling face on the site. The mission to help children is on highlighted on every page, which speaks to the very reason for the foundation's existence.

Define a back office grant application process and then integrate with that application.

Until the point we started working with Hecksher, the foundation had processed more than 300 grant applications a year on paper. We helped them move to a paperless system by researching the various grant application packages available and providing recommendations as well as method and rationale for those recommendations. Compatibility with their existing system was of high value and we settled on software that was 100% compatible with their current accounting software. We then interviewed around 20 organizations using the software to garner feedback (both positive and negative) to verify our initial premises prior to procurement and installation.

Once we found a solution, we installed the software, defined the various processes, and integrated it with their public Web site. In addition, we acted as the liaison between the client and the grant application software vendor for specific features customization needs and process definitions required for the project. The result was a successful online application and approval process.

No staff to update the site.

We provided contracted services to perform day-to-day updates. Most requests are turned around within minutes or hours. With EsKort's built in versioning system, the foundation can review changes prior to going live. Outsourcing site maintenance has allowed them to remain focused on their core mission while still having a highly effective Web site.

• Integrated grant application and approval process.
  
  
• Randomly rotating historical photographs framing the great work they do with children.
  
  
• Interactive historical timeline.
  
  
• Content within each section takes on the color scheme for that section.
  
  
• Dynamically generated navigation and page layout.
  
  
• Search engine optimized.