Overview

Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco  is an independently-funded local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International serving communities in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties. At Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco our mission is to provide local families with a springboard to secure, stable futures through affordable homeownership, financial literacy and neighborhood revitalization.

In addition to building homes, Habitat Greater San Francisco offers financial literacy workshops that provide potential homebuyers with credit counseling as well as debt and money management education. Another core program, Neighborhood Revitalization, aims to extend the work of Habitat for Humanity into the neighborhoods where they build – beautifying parks and gardens, renovating community assets like schools and community centers and delivering critical home repairs to improve the health, safety and well-being of residents.

Habitat Greater San Francisco also owns and operates a ReStore, a volunteer-supported, discount home improvement store in San Carlos.  Proceeds from all ReStore sales fund Habitat Greater San Francisco’s homebuilding and neighborhood revitalization efforts. The collection of used items also has helped divert thousands of tons of waste from landfills.

Problem: mulitple platforms, multiple headaches

Although the Habitat Greater San Francisco website had been redesigned in 2012 — a major revamp that replaced a Dreamweaver-built site — it still had numerous challenges that kept it from being effective for visitors, donors, volunteers, and staff.

The site wasn't mobile-friendly, there was no way to do A/B testing, and it was only one of several platforms being used by the organization. Different tools were utilized for volunteer management, email marketing, website content, social media management, and customer relationship management. To toggle from one function to another, a staff member would have to log out of one platform and log in to another, often multiple times per day. Productivity definitely took a hit, notes Samantha Salas, Digital Marketing and Web Content Manager at Habitat Greater San Francisco.

"We needed something that could bring all these elements together, to simplify access and streamline our operations," she says. "I knew that if we could achieve that, we could start getting to the next level when it came to workflows and communication."

Another factor was the ReStore, she added. Although connected to Habitat, the store required its own microsite, rather than a page on the Habitat site. Without an autonomous online presence, the retail operation was struggling to do more brand marketing, and to update its content with SEO in mind.

Solution: SmartBug Media Fuels Habitat with Hubspot and Website Redesign

To deliver a comprehensive solution that worked across all facets of the organization, Habitat Greater San Francisco brought in SmartBug Media, and it didn't take long before the nonprofit was checking items off its wishlist.

Implementing the HubSpot COS (Content Optimization System), and providing both site and microsite design, SmartBug focused on providing Habitat with a solid foundation for its digital operations:

• Unified, more functional customer management system for communicating with donors, volunteers and advocates.
• Mobile-friendly pages that are easy to navigate and encourage donations and volunteer sign-ups.
• Website design that "got the brand" immediately, with minimal revisions.
• Effective launch of ReStore microsite that fulfilled the retailer's requirements for both autonomy and connection with Habitat Greater San Francisco.

Salas added that many people at SmartBug have served on nonprofit boards, which made Habitat even more confident in the vendor choice. "We felt that it was good to have someone familiar with nonprofits and how they work, and to know that SmartBug employees are involved with nonprofits on a personal basis," she says.