About
Website: AlumniToolkit.org
The Alumni Toolkit is a product of Future First USA, an organization that makes it easier for high schools to use their alumni for academic support, career readiness, college knowledge programs, and mentors. Their custom CRM, Alumni Toolkit, is a tool that educators can easily use to find and engage recent (or not so recent) graduates.
The Challenge
When Future First USA came to Whole Whale, they were just getting off the ground and designing a program to adapt a model that was successful in the UK. The focus was on how they could make the biggest impact, and how technology could help them get there.
What we did
Over the course of 3 years, Whole Whale worked closely with the executive and programs team to refine their product and strategically build an MVP for teachers across the country.
Impact Mapping
Whole Whale made sure that Future First USA would be able to measure and grow its impact through a list of the most important metrics to track. We used existing benchmarks to make predictions about the value of different marketing initiatives.
Rent-a-CTO and Web Development
Whole Whale acted as Rent-a-CTO for the team, guiding technical decision making and ensuring that they were building a future-proof program. We designed and built a custom CRM (customer relationship management) platform for educators to find and interact with their high school alumni and in turn create meaningful ways for them to engage with their school. We also guided the choice in several web tools, including a user-friendly Squarespace site that can be used for marketing initiatives.
Design
We created a number of new graphic assets for the organization including the logo for Alumni Toolkit. In addition to the site, we created marketing one-pagers, a promotional video, and pitch materials for the team to use for sales to schools. Crafting a strong Future First story has been crucial to moving partnerships forward.
Marketing Strategy
With Whole Whale’s help, Future First USA was able to leverage the Google Adwords Grant to build awareness about their program and drive leads. We built out a six-pronged approach to digital marketing that included partnerships with like-minded organizations, social media, and content marketing strategy.
Capacity Building
Whole Whale identified critical staffing gaps for Future First USA. In response, we crafted job descriptions, managed recruitment, and hired the first part-timer to help with marketing efforts. We also connected the team to developers that they can work with to continue to build out the platform with customer feedback.
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