Summary
The International Coalition of Girls’ Schools is a non-profit membership association that advocates for PK-12 grade girls’ schools across the globe. ICGS serves independent, public, charter, and religiously affiliated schools through the core pillars of advocacy, networking, research, and professional development. With over 260 Member Schools, 26,000 educators, 115,000 students and 1 million+ alumnae, ICGS needs a website that is easy to manage and can grow with them.
Knucklepuck rebuilt and relaunched the website in 2018, so ICGS knew the level of expertise we would bring to the membership map. The question wasn’t if Knucklepuck would be able to bring this need to life, it was how.
The Challenge
Roughly two years after the initial site launch with Knucklepuck, ICGS was as happy as ever with their functional, new look. As more users were interacting with the site via SEO traffic and other sources, ICGS decided they needed a quick visual to showcase how far-reaching membership is across the world. This new feature needed to serve both their member and prospective member schools, who are looking to drive enrollment, as well as parents who are looking for girls’ schools in their area.
Their previous website had a standard membership directory, however it required redirecting to the AMS, which was not easy to use, slow, and did not integrate naturally with the rest of the site.
The Solution
A custom AMS map integration. Knucklepuck leveraged React, a JavaScript library commonly used in app development to build user interfaces that are lightning-fast. Using a custom-built AMS integration, Knucklepuck pulls in active Member Schools and their details, including the school name, location and metadata. This feature allows the map to automatically update when a new Member School is added, and removes school listings when their membership expires. ICGS can promote Member Schools to keep their membership active as well as drive interest among non-Member Schools who want to “be on the map”.
This seamless, custom AMS integration is equally as useful for parents. If they are interested in a girls’ school for their child, they can use the map as a searchable directory. Parents can take this a step further by clicking the location pin, which opens an info box for a specific school that includes the grade levels, location, and a link to the school’s website.
Knucklepuck also created a combination filter and search tool that allows parents to find schools that meet certain criteria, such as by school name, city, state, country, and grade level(s). As users refine using the search tool, Member School listings automatically populate beneath the map showing the most relevant listings. Users can also zoom in and out to identify schools in certain areas.
The map is also fully responsive, meaning it will perform consistently across all desktop, mobile, and tablet devices.
The old member directory on girlsschools.org
The new map directory on girlsschools.org
The Results
By partnering with Knucklepuck on the interactive map, ICGS was able to enhance their structurally-sound WordPress website with a new, visually compelling directory that meets the evolving needs of the Coalition and their audience.
Olivia Haas, Director of Strategic Communications & Media at ICGS, shares that their audience is reacting very positively to the new feature. “We saw a number of schools contact ICGS after the map was launched saying ‘Why aren’t we on your map?’ Well, you’re not currently a member, but we would love for you to join,” stated Haas. “It created the exact sort of reactions we were hoping for!”
