Case Study: Fresh Start Scholarship Foundation

An amazing foundation helping women achieve a higher education gets a fresh start on its identity and web presence.

The Fresh Start Scholarship Foundation, Inc. based in Wilmington, DE is the charitable arm of Wilmington Women in Business, Inc. (WWB). Fresh Start awards college scholarships to women returning to college based on need, academic record and potential for success. The foundation also provides mentoring support to its scholars through professional women in the community.

To celebrate the Fresh Start Scholarship Foundation’s 20th year helping women complete their college education, the organization wanted a brand new identity and web presence that would better connect with its scholars, volunteers and donors.
Our scope for this project included: branding, user experience, web design, and web development.

The original logo focused on the graduation cap and diploma, both very powerful representations of graduating. In listening to and reading the stories of Fresh Start graduates though, it became clear that graduates were more excited about the opportunities and new beginnings beyond graduating. The new logo focuses on the graduation cap, representing the immediate goal of the scholar, but tilts the cap to point upwards and forwards, representing the opportunities and career-building experiences yet to come.

To coincide with the organization’s brand new logo, a new website highlighting the new identity was in order.  The new site had to be:

• Responsive. The site had to be easy to use and easy to read across all kinds of screen sizes and devices.
• Easy to navigate.  Visitors had to be able to quickly find the information they wanted.
• Easy to update. Board members needed to feel empowered to add content and make changes to the site.
• Compelling.  The site needed to attract applicants, donors, and volunteers.

The Symbiosys team worked with the Fresh Start board in figuring out the most important tasks a visitor would want to do when they came to the site.  These key tasks were:

• Learning about the organization.
• Applying for a scholarship.
• Applying to be a volunteer.
• Making a donation.

We clearly highlighted these actions in the navigation.  In terms of learning about the organization, we designed the homepage to tell the story of Fresh Start, using that space to display Fresh Start’s mission, highlight current graduates, and show upcoming events.  Together these elements told the story of an organization that was constantly changing lives and dialed in to the community it has been serving since 1996.

In terms of the technology driving the site, we chose the WordPress content management platform for its high level of support and flexibility in customization. We are also hosting the new site on a dedicated server and securing the site behind the CloudFlare CDN.  Reporting via Google Analytics and plug-ins for the WordPress dashboard allow board members to keep track of lead generation, current applicants, and web page SEO.

“We are so excited to launch our new logo and website in time for our 20th anniversary. Working with Belsham was fantastic—they brought us innovative ideas that captured the essence of Fresh Start, and then executed flawlessly. We couldn’t be happier with our new look and the Belsham Technologies partnership.”

Ann D., Former Vice President of Marketing for Fresh Start

The Belsham Technologies team was very excited to work with the organization’s amazing team of dedicated women in giving their identity and web presence a fresh start.