The right foundation for a great cause

See how we collaborated with Project One Four, David Price's official charity with the Boston Red Sox, to elevate their online presence through digital transformation​.

Setting the Scene.

Project One Four was founded in 2008 by major league pitcher David Price as a charitable organization dedicated to making a difference in the lives of youth. The organization’s efforts focus on supporting community programs and organizations that promote growth in youth through learning life skills in a safe and supportive environment.

Project One Four makes a difference in the communities it supports through undertaking projects of its own, most notably the $1m Miracle Field Project in David’s own hometown of Murfreesboro, TN while also acting as a clearing house for donations to support other worthy philanthropic organizations.

Project One Four raises funds through a mixture of individual giving and charitable auction of items generously donated to David by other players and teams within Major League Baseball. Those items are auctioned and the proceeds go to Project One Four for redistribution. 

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Section 1

What the Client
Asked For.

Project One Four had originally approached Conduit in their journey to replace their Digital Marketing Agency.  The Board at Project One Four was looking to consolidate their digital experience and technical management of their web properties while also looking for ways to better enhance the organization’s visibility and impact through digital.

What the Client Really Needed.

Early in the partnership with Project One Four it became clear that there were several obvious areas for improvement which would help ensure the organization could both increase its visibility, efficiency and scale with a more reliable Martech deployment.

  • Outside of private donations, the team at Project One Four had 250 auction items which were being listed for auction via a third-party platform which catered to non-profits. Traffic was being sent to this third-party website so interested donors could “bid” on these items and either directly/indirectly support the cause. 
  • There was no branding or linkage between the bidding site and the Project One Four site itself.  Continuity of mission and message was critical to maintain. 
  • The organization itself was not taking full advantage of David’s tremendous social media reach when considering how it could capitalize on interest levels and maximize charitable giving.  
  • Processes (technical and otherwise) were not in place to allow the organization’s reach to scale without becoming burdensome to its Board.
  • Technical management of the Project One Four digital presence had become cumbersome and unreliable. There was concern this would worsen if visitor traffic counts rose.
Section 2

Realigning the Project One Four “Brand” and Fundraising Model.

A Holistic Brand Strategy 

In understanding both the current challenges Project One Four faced in conjunction with its massive upside opportunity to do more for people in need, both parties proceeded with a new holistic strategy.

Conduit Innovation proposed a Brand Strategy that featured a multi-pronged value proposition designed to appeal to as many prospective donors as possible though the following:

  • Increase the awareness and credibility factors of Project One Four as a national philanthropic entity through its presentation digitally
  • Provide a pathway for prospective organizations in the cities outside of their current reach TN to engage the charity in a meaningful way thus, elevating the charity's profile in these areas
  • Create a linkage between the mission, it’s results and the items which auctioned whose proceeds support the cause.
  • Create synergies when at all possible between David’s celebrity, philanthropic interests and the people he helps though his efforts.

Conduit and Project One Four would then proceed forward with the focus of treating the organization’s website as a singular point of convergence for all traffic. 

A Website that Matches the Mission

As the final tactical plan was being prepared, both parties agreed to a series of overarching goals.  Anyone hearing about Project One Four; whether though philanthropic reasons or by virtue of the auctions would come to the Project One Four website and immediately understand the following:

  • Who Project One Four is, what they do, it’s mission and its impact to the communities they serve
  • Be able to easily understand what is up for auction, and how to bid on an auction item
  • Be able to learn more about David Price, the athlete and the person
  • Understand the types of projects which are funded though by giving to the charity
  • Understand if your charitable organization may qualify to partner with Project One Four now or in the future
Section 3

Seeing the Strategy Through to Tactical Success.

Laying a Successful Foundation

Once achieving consensus on the high-level goals, efforts began to lay the necessary foundation for success:

  • Project One Four’s business needs were translated into technical requirements and a new Content Management System was selected to provide a scalable, cost effective technical backend for the new Project One for website.
  • The overall strategy and goals were then translated into site design that focused on marrying the Project One Four narrative with elegant usability for visitors.
  • David’s social media presence was integrated to the website with technical and offline processes geared to leverage David’s reach to drive exponential interest levels for auction items in support of the charity.
  • Pages were created for cities David has played in throughout his major league career (Tampa Bay, Toronto, Detroit and Boston), themed with the color palate of the teams who play in that city as an outlet for charities in those areas so they can apply to partner with Project One Four directly. 
  • Framework was also put in place to allow for donors (either via private giving or via auction) to donate and earmark those donations for use in a specific city as a mechanism to truly connect those people giving with those in need.
  • An auction area of the website with the items currently for bid with one click relays to the item listing within the third-party auction website.
  • A content schedule to stage and release items for bid on a weekly basis, with a schedule for David to amplify that reach through his social media accounts with very little administrative overhead to the core staff members at Project One Four.

With this strategy in place, Project One Four is well situated to successfully solicit up to 400% more new donors to ultimately make a difference in the lives of thousands more people in the process.