Anne Dougherty

Director of Communications and Administration, Communications Manager: Center of Concern

The Center of Concern had been without a Communications Manager for the several months prior to when I took the position. Because of the size of the organization and the extent of travel undertaken by program staff, my first task was to work with stakeholders to establish a regular editorial schedule for both web site updates and member communications.

Director of Communications and Administration, Communications Manager: Center of Concern

Project: Donation form

My second major task was to get the Center set up to take donations online. Because of the organization's member profile it was imparative that the donation form be as simple as possible to understand. But because the Center also takes organizational donations and memberships, the form had to accommodate those donors as well.

Director of Communications and Administration, Communications Manager: Center of Concern

Project: Site Redesign and Migration

One of the problems the Center's projects faced stemmed directly from the web site's design: each project was locked into a basically static homepage that required site visitors to dig for the most current news. An additional problem stemmed from the prominent use of photos of people in the developing world to illustrate the Center's work on developing world policy. As a result of this, the organization received numerous requests to provide funding which was a clear indicator that the site's look and feel was sending the wrong message to site visitors. In the spring of 2005 after receiving word that our vendor would no longer support the content management system we were using, I embarked on a site redesign and migration project.

Director of Communications and Administration, Communications Manager: Center of Concern

The result was a more news oriented site with a look and feel that reflected the Center's work as a policy think tank. This design also reimagined the Center's globe logo.

During this project our vendor partner was subsumed by a larger, more government focused development firm. After my departure from the Center it became clear that this larger firm would no longer support the Center's software. They relaunched a new site using Drupal in late 2008.