New York Based Non-Profit
Summary
I started at the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids in July 2013 in the role of Web Project Manager. Originally known as The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, they are a New York City-based non-profit organization which runs campaigns to prevent teenage drug and alcohol abuse in the United States. Most people know them through the “This is Your Brain on Drugs” TV commercial.
Starting Work and Long-range Goals
I was taking over a pre-existing role; the current project manager was leaving was in the position for about a year and was moving to California. Before that it was held by my boss, who was promoted to Director of Digital Services about a year earlier.
Initial, Smaller Projects
One of my first projects was managing a design update to the Playhealthy website. This was a site run on Expression Engine. It was maintained by an outside vendor, Minds on Design Lab.
The site was funded by Major League Baseball and was created to promote high school sports free of performance enhancing drugs.
The next project (actually it overlapped with the Playhealthy project) was to make some updates to the Hopeshare site (also on Expression Engine). Hopeshare was a site where people could share their stories of breaking free of drug addiction.
Along with the project work, there were the usual site fixes and updates, along with special requests from the different divisions of the organization.
Beginning the Main Site Transition Project
Toward the end of 2013, I started to focus on the redesign and relaunch of the main site, drugfree.org. I started researching potential vendors, conducting site review meetings with the different groups in the organization (Communications, National Media, Field Operations, Public Affairs, Development, Finance & Administration, Advocacy & Government, Program Management, Customer Support, and Research).
I documented information on what their needs would be, what they would want out of a new site, and conducted followup meetings with the individual groups to clarify and get additional ideas and needs.
I consolidated the documentation from these individual meetings and used it to create an RFP. We sent out the finalized document to the list of possible vendors. Each vendor pitched proposals in separate meetings. I interviewed references and developed a point system in a matrix that focused on the different qualities we were looking for in a vendor.
Finding and Working with a Vendor
Toward the end of the year of the year, we contracted The Wonder Factory to redesign the site. Beyond having the coolest offices I’ve ever been in, they were great to work with and kept to the schedule.
Main Role and Responsibilities
With new features being added to the site there wasn’t a typical day. That being said, I did have daily responsibilities in addition to project work.
- Review backlog
- Run daily stand-up meetings
- Produce weekly reports for VP of Digital
- Support marketing campaigns, blogs , e-mail communications and social media
- Manage multiple web projects of varying scope and complexity: web sites, online communities, online events -Gala, All-Star Tasting
- Google analytics – produce monthly reports , run custom reports, create dashboards, set up timely reports to automatically go out in an email to stakeholders.
- Google Tag Manager- create new and modify existing tags
Websites I was Involved with
drugfree.org (the main site)
Playhealthy (affiliate site with Major League Baseball)
Hopeshare Stories of Hope and Recovery (now https://hope.drugfree.org)
Continuing Care (site to help parents help their kids in recovery after treatment)
Juvenile Justice (program with New York State)
Memorial Site (remembering those lost to drugs)
Search and Rescue (site for health care professionals)
The Medicine Abuse Project (now https://drugfree.org/medicine-abuse-project/)
Alcohol Screening (allows individuals to assess their own alcohol drinking patterns)
On Leaving the Partnership
In March 2018 there layoffs in anticipation of a merger with the Center on Addiction. It was only a handful of people, but in such a small place it was probably a 15% staff reduction, which included me and my supervisor, the VP of Digital Operations and others. Although unpleasant, it wasn’t surprising, since most non-profit organization had been feeling the pinch for several years. In fact, not long after I started there was a downsizing, so I can’t say I was totally blind-sided.
Takeaways
My four years contributed to my overall experience in several ways:
- Gained experience with WordPress and Expression Engine
- Project management experience
- Worked with local vendors
- Managed assistants
- Worked with stakeholders
- A deeper understanding of the non-profit world and its connections to government, media, and the business.