William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Dramatically improve the Hewlett Foundation’s intranet effectiveness.

THE CLIENT'S CHALLENGE

“Never stifle a generous impulse,” was a favorite saying of entrepreneur William R. Hewlett, one of the founders of Hewlett-Packard. However, contrary to that philosophy, the existing intranet that served the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation was an impediment to those who needed to use it – 14 distinct groups of users in all – which in turn hampered philanthropic gift acquisition. The site’s architecture was cumbersome and its visual design confusing, making it difficult for users to access the resources they needed, whether they were staff or a department manager responsible for strategic planning and fundraising. Over time users stopped visiting the site, curtailing the free flow of information that foundation managers required to be effective.

The Foundation hired Marker Seven to create a new, more efficient, easier-to-use site to engage its diverse audiences. The ultimate redesign required more than just a complete overhaul of the fundamental information architecture, visual design and user experience. Marker Seven also had to integrate the new front end with a highly complex and sophisticated Microsoft Office Share Point platform. Furthermore, the site needed to have do-it-yourself design and publishing capabilities to enable the Foundation’s Communications Department to manage updates.

MARKER SEVEN'S SOLUTION

Streamline the flow of information, improve access to work tools.

Marker Seven first analyzed the intranet’s various users, including grant seekers, grantees, policy makers, elected officials and their staffs, journalists, researchers, academics, experts, other foundations, think tanks, research centers, donors, bloggers and individual grant makers interested in philanthropy.

Marker Seven then identified existing trouble spots that interfered with the information flow and user experience in order to create a more efficient taxonomy and information architecture. The firm created a new, more engaging visual design and integrated the intranet’s front end with the Share Point platform.

The new Foundation intranet today efficiently manages 42 distinct functional areas using just eight Intranet templates. The site:

• Enables users to rapidly get to the information and resources they need.

• Provides users with a personal homepage dashboard so they can quickly and easily access the resources they need: forms, applications, grants, employee directory, and more.

• Separates the information and resources that each department and program needs and streamlines the flow of information shared across the organization.

• Simplifies navigation.

THE RESULTS

With bottle-necks broken, collaboration, efficiency and effectiveness soared.

Users love the new site with its clean and simple presentation of rich content. It now is simple to query the database to get information about approved grants. The intranet also makes it easy for the non-technical Communications Department staff to maintain and update content.

About The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Intranet

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been making grants since 1967 to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. Established by Hewlett-Packard founder, William R. Hewlett, his wife, Flora Lamson Hewlett, and their eldest son, Walter B. Hewlett — it is one of the nation’s largest, with assets of more than $9 billion.

The Foundation concentrates its resources on activities in education, environment, global development, performing arts and population. In addition, it has programs that make grants to advance the field of philanthropy and to support disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2009, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation awarded over $239 million in grants.

For more information, please visit www.hewlett.org