A Client Story with Amy Tucci, President and CEO

Hospice Foundation of America

“We are a small nonprofit with tremendous reach. k2d was able to communicate this through our website design to show our audiences the power of our reach.”

Nobody wants to think about end-of-life situations until they’re already happening. By then, it’s too late to mentally and emotionally prepare, and friends, family, and caregivers are often caught off guard. Facing some of the most difficult decisions in their lives, these individuals need fast access to helpful information. But sadly, this information is neither abundant or easy to find.

Hospice Foundation of America intends to change that…

Hospice Foundation of America (HFA) is a national non-profit organization with one powerful mission — to improve end-of-life care by educating the general public and healthcare professionals about hospice, end-of-life issues, advanced care planning, grief, and bereavement.

Project Purpose

The foundation serves a diverse “dual” audience; professionals seeking continuing education programs, literature, etc., and individuals who are in crisis or facing difficult decisions about a loved one. These two audiences partake in considerably different conversations and require specialized support.

Additionally, HFA’s old website was hosted by an unreliable third-party provider and lacked an effective content layout and navigation that worked for both audiences. They also used a third party to handle online purchases through their shopping cart, which took visitors away from their website during the purchasing process.

“When we had our initial discussions with k2d, I was really impressed. Kiersten and Kurt just got it right away. They understood that we had multiple audiences and they were an unbelievably quick study on the challenges that we face.”

Features

“k2d took our ideas and made them come to life on our website.”

Website Redesign
Our team worked quickly to launch a reliable website that HFA could use as “home base” while thorough redesign phases unfolded. Visually, HFA wanted a website that was attractive, modern looking and state-of-the-art. They also needed a visual component that would draw in more visitors. k2d created an eye-catching, rotating display for photographs and artwork on the website to bring attention to HFA activities (e.g. community education programs). We also helped HFA think through their principal navigations and incorporated a responsive framework to ensure that the site would display beautifully no matter the web browser or screen size. Other features include:

BoIA, Section 508 and WCAG compliance
Content Management System Integration
Single sign-on
Permission-based user accounts
Membership services
Registration
Subscription services
Ask an Expert portal

E-Commerce Support
For years, HFA’s e-commerce was hosted by a separate company, which meant their largest source of traffic was routinely ushered to a different website to complete transactions. To provide HFA with greater ownership over the buyer experience, k2d integrated the foundation’s shopping cart within the new website. We also helped the Foundation think through the logistics of how best to organize their products for purchase, so the buyer experience was consumer- friendly and fast.

Hosting
HFA’s old website hosting provider experienced downtime on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day! k2d took over hosting for HFA and provides a hosting environment that is protected by the most advanced security available. We also guarantee a 99.9% up rate.

Results

“We’ve seen a huge increase in some areas of traffic on our website.”

k2d created a web experience that equally supports HFA’s dual audiences. The site is friendly enough that anyone in a time of crisis can search for answers without being intimidated by the website’s content or navigations. Likewise, professionals can just as easily find the education programs and resources they need. HFA also has greater control over how they manage customers and visitors.

“k2d helped us get to the next level as an organization; they have been our partner. Our audience is national, and there’s something about working with an out-of-state provider; specifically a company that is centrally located, that uniquely supported the diversity of our online community.”

HFA’s partnership with k2d is ongoing. The foundation is currently working on bringing another smaller website into their newly designed solution to allow professionals who attend HFA’s continuing education programs to acquire certificates. They also plan to continue working with k2d on their navigation system and user experience.

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