Green America is a non-profit 501(c)(3) based in Washington, DC that is 30+ years old and operates with a $3.5 mm budget and ~40 people working with the team. The work is all organized around a "Lens" such as Food, Climate, Labor, Finance, with programs inside each Lens, with campaigns associated with each Program, and with actions (and victories) associated with each campaign.

The organization's mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.

Why does Green America do the work?
Green America is working for a world where all people have enough, where all communities are healthy and safe, and where the bounty of the earth is preserved for generations to come. To achieve this vision, greening the economy is key!

Green America is unique because of:
• A focus on economic strategies—economic action to solve social and environmental problems.
• A focus on empowering people to take personal and collective action
• Work on issues of social justice and environmental responsibility. The organization sees these issues as completely linked in the quest for a sustainable world, and it’s what is meant when the organization says "green."
• Work to stop abusive practices and to create healthy, just, and sustainable practices.

GreenAmericalogo

The website was built originally in ColdFusion in 2005.

From June 2016-June 2017, the team prioritized content from the original site and moved it into Drupal 8, and used an integration process to import datasets from a number of "sister" sites such as the Green Business Network, directory listings, Wordpress blogs, a Joomla site, and published print magazines, so that content is now housed and managed under one content management system.

A new theme off Bootstrap was implemented, and made mobile-friendly.

Approximately 5000 "nodes" (separate pieces of content such as pages, articles, and blog posts) were imported.

Smart Mockup
Why Drupal was chosen: 

Drupal was chosen for

  • the flexibility of content types (22 content types required) that each had different fields and references
  • the need to work with 12 different levels of users and relevant permissions
  • the availability of pre-built modules that worked "out-of-the-box" for organizational needs
  • multiple entity references required (many pieces of content related to each other)
Describe the project (goals, requirements and outcome): 

Goals

The goal of the project was to create one easy-to-manage "place" to handle all published content, and create a mobile-friendly, beautiful version that would function as the main digital engagement property for the organization.

Requirements

We were required to consolidate multiple external properties including standalone and hosted Wordpress, Joomla, SQL databases, and other ColdFusion content, and also provide a presence for print properties. We also needed to integrate with third-party tools including Charity Engine, Raiser's Edge, Timberlake, and Salsa. We needed to create the new site for under $150k.

Outcome

SmartmockupThe redesign provides a clean, easy-to-use site that allows all internal staff and stakeholders to access, edit, and update information, all manageable through the CMS, on a mobile-friendly theme.

Timeline

June 2016 - Hired digital director
July 2016 - RFP process: requests sent around to design firms
August 1, 2016 - RFP deadline
August 8 - First round of review with staff (8 semifinalists)
August 15 - Second round of review with staff (4 finalists)
August 20 - References checked, and all finalists have had 20-minute interviews
August 23 - Project Review Board met to decide on final recommendation
August 24 - Present to Executive Director
August 31 - Preliminary contracts drafted
September 10 - Kickoff meeting
September 27 - On-site Deep Dive (Content Discovery, User Personas, Architecture)
October 13 - Wireframes #1 delivered
October 27 - Wireframes #2 delivered
November 15 - Homepage Version 1 delivered
December 5 - Homepage Version 2 delivered
December 12 - Consult with greater "Project Review Board"
December 15 - Feedback Due to designer
December 30 - Homepage Final Version delivered
February 15, 2017 - Initial themed wireframe in place
March 15 - Trainings to Staff
April 15 - Pre-rollout scrums
May 11 - Initial Team Rollout
Week of May 15 - pre-launch to internal team / bug hunt / integration with Charity Engine
June 15 - launch
Post-launch - move into Phase 2 of work

User Roles

Anonymous = visitors
Authenticated = anyone with a username and pass
Business member / Certified Business member = members who are from the Green Business Network
Staff/intern = staff and interns
Directory manager = handles “directory” items such as lists of organizations
Green Business Network manager = handles GBN pages and users
Content Creator = Can submit content
Publications Editor = manages the Magazine and other magazines
Content Editor = Can submit and EDIT content
Site Builder = general site content manager
Administrator = full management of site
Superadministrator = full access

Hosting

Hosting was on a Pantheon instance using dashboard.pantheon.io

Content Types

Basic page: Use basic pages for your static content, such as an 'About us' page.

Lens: A "Lens" is the way that Green America organizes its overall goals and streams of work.

Campaign: Green America's campaigns are the heart of our activism and advocacy work, where we mobilize constituents, members, and individuals to work towards specific desired outcomes.

Program: Green America engages in long-term programs (3-5 year time horizon) that are part of an overall LENS of work.

Action: Actions are specific actions taken by Green America constituents (link to Salsa platform)

Victories: Victories are successes that Green America has completed


Blog/News: Green America blog posts or news items. Note there are currently two blogs, and blog posts can be cross-posted using Taxonomy Categories.

Piece: Use pieces for content related to the Lens, such as as an informational scorecard, report, or other content that posts directly to the Lens.

Press Release: Green America press releases

Media Mentions: Green America in the news

Media Sources: Original sources for media mentions


Green American Magazine: A single print magazine issue

GAM Article: Article from the Green American Magazine

Green Living Piece: Green Living "evergreen" informational pieces


Green Business Network Listing: Business Listing includes logo, name of business, description, categorization, address & map

Green Business Network Standard: Standards are how the Green Business Network assigns certification to network members

Member Story: Used to highlight member stories.

Coupon Code: Coupon codes are submitted by Green Business Network members to be attached to their GBN listing.

Advertising: Banner and sidebar ads uploaded by business members


People: Green America people are staff who work for the organization. One Person may have multiple Positions associated with them.

Positions: One Person may occupy multiple Positions. A position is a title or organizational role, such as "Executive Co-Director for Business, Investing & Policy." Also used as job listings, if the position is "open".


Subsite Page: Subsite content are Green America daughter or sister sites that are meant to be collected into one "subsite", such as Break Up with your MegaBank, or Green Business Network. Use templates (taxonomy category) to control separate categories of subsites.

Secondary Call to Action: Secondary calls to action are used by subsites and other sections of the website.


Directory Listing: Directory items with a name, address, website, and map link (i.e., used for a map of ways to "Break up with your MegaBank")


Frontpage Slideshow: Frontpage Slideshow items

Highlight: Highlight Item for Frontpage


Content Link: May be used where there is a need for an off-website link

Donation Link: Used for different donation links throughout the site

Image: Images to use throughout the site, such as PNG, JPG, and GIF files.

File: Upload a file such as a PDF, Doc, XLS, CSV, or other type of file, such as a report that is to be linked from other pages.

Product: Use products to represent items for sale on the website, including all the unique information that can be attributed to a specific model number (Ubercart)

Webform: A basic page with a webform attached.

User Roles

  • Anonymous = visitors
  • Authenticated = anyone with a username and pass
  • Business member / Certified Business member = members who are from the Green Business Network
  • Staff/intern = staff and interns
  • Directory manager = handles “directory” items such as lists of organizations
  • Green Business Network manager = handles GBN pages and users
  • Content Creator = Can submit content
  • Publications Editor = manages the Magazine and other magazines
  • Content Editor = Can submit and EDIT content
  • Site Builder = general site content manager
  • Administrator = full management of site
  • Superadministrator = full access

Technical specifications

Drupal version: 
Drupal 8.x
Why these modules/theme/distribution were chosen: 

This is a site with multiple levels of users attempting to do multiple tasks, such as:

SmartmockupContent creators submitting blog posts and articles
Content editors editing nodes
Print manager uploading pieces from the print magazine
Business members adding and editing their business listings including map locations
Site builders managing URL Redirects

We needed to have a simple interface to allow all different levels of users to access their information.

This is a full list of all modules used

address
admin_toolbar
better_exposed_filters
block_class
bootstrap_layouts
bootstrap_library
colorbox
config_update
country
crop
ctools
customerror
devel
ds
editor_file
entityqueue
faq
features
feeds
field_group
filter_perms
flag
fontawesome
gathercontent
geocode_lookup
geolocation
google_analytics
image_widget_crop
imce
inline_entity_form
layout_plugin
libraries
masquerade
metatag
node_limit
nodeownership
owl-carousel
panelizer
patch.txt
pathauto
redirect
respondjs
roleassign
scheduler
search_api
search_api_pantheon
search_api_solr
sharethis
simple_sitemap
simplify
sitemap
smtp
social_login
social_media_links
super_login
superfish
tagclouds
token
ubercart
views_slideshow
webform
weight

Community contributions: 

Full user personas, wireframes, downloadable theme, modules list, and list of user roles is here: http://bit.ly/GA2017casestudy

Team members: 
Project team: 

WDG- design
MAAN Softwares Inc. - themeing and development

Core Website Team
Alec Badalov, Online Communications Associate
Dana Christianson, Memberships Marketing Director
Monica S. Flores, Director of Digital Products
Eleanor Greene, Associate Editor and Digital Content Manager
Shireen Karimi, Online Communications Manager
Todd Larsen, Executive Co-Director for Consumer & Corporate Engagement

Homepage Green America
Labor Lens
Action links
Related news
Donate section
Sectors: 
Non-profit