Improving the YMCA Member and Administration Experience
RESULTS
100%+
increase in users
160%
increase in visits to class schedules
We partnered with the YMCA of Greater Richmond to overhaul their digital presence resulting in significantly increased user engagement and streamlined administrative processes.
Focus
Challenge
The YMCA of Greater Richmond, serving the community for over 150 years across 17 locations, faced challenges with an outdated website burdened by technical debt. The site was difficult to manage, lacked mobile responsiveness, and had a convoluted structure that hindered users from easily accessing location-specific content and program information.
Solution
To address these issues, we transitioned the YMCA’s website to the Drupal-based Open Y platform, tailored specifically for YMCA organizations. This move allowed for a cost-effective yet customized solution. We developed a unique theme to distinguish the Richmond Y’s site, enhanced mobile responsiveness, and reorganized content for improved navigation. Additionally, we empowered YMCA staff with user-friendly tools to easily update content, including news, programs, and class schedules.
A Dated Website Too Costly to Manage
Along with being out-of-date, the Richmond Y’s site had accumulated a wealth of technical debt that made improvements both costly and complex. Much of the site’s content was also location-specific, which further complicated a user’s ability to access the right content. The site’s UX, navigation, and information architecture were simply unusable—and the mobile experience was worse.
While COLAB had worked with the Richmond Y for five years to maintain their WordPress site, the organization was due for a bigger change. We knew we could help.
Cost-Effective, Custom Functionality With Drupal’s Open Y
After years of developing individual features for the Richmond Y’s legacy site, we migrated the organization to Drupal on Pantheon. The shift allowed us to take a step back and rebuild the content in a way that made sense. With Drupal, we were also able to tap into a third-party open source framework that was specifically tailored to YMCA sites.
Called Open Y, the open source project allowed us to provide the Richmond Y with the custom-built site they needed without the custom price tag. With the Open Y system in place, we saved development time by working from an established foundation that’s become the standard in their industry. From there, we developed our own theme to create a website that stood out among other YMCA websites while providing a positive, responsive experience on mobile devices. Pantheon’s platform allows for rapid development and iteration of the new site, providing governance and control without stifling the flexibility to move quickly. Further, administrators are now able to easily update content for news, programs, updates, classes, and more.
Over 100% More Users with More Than 160% Increase in Visits to Class Schedules
Since launching in June 2021, the new website for the YMCA of Richmond offers the community easy-to-find access to classes and resources that ensure healthier lives. Program registrations have also increased as the community now has easier access to the resources they need. Pages-per-session numbers are down as a result of users finding what they need faster through clearer navigation.
Drupal’s unparalleled access to innovation ensures faster time to value, and Pantheon’s platform brings the full value of open source CMS by adding additional layers of security, performance, and advanced developer workflows and tools.
COLAB has helped us through two complete redesigns of our site over nearly a decade and has been creative with what they present and quick to implement changes when we need them.
Clay Mottley
Content Media Director
The YMCA of Richmond is committed to giving back to the community. And, as the open-source capabilities of Open Y allows us to share our custom to further the project’s capabilities for all YMCAs, the organization’s goal of giving back will go that much further.
With the added flexibility offered by modern open source technology, the Richmond Y has a website that can serve its community for years to come.
Let us help.
If you have a project in mind or would like to know how we can help, please reach out. We’d love to hear from you.
