Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Pittsburgh (JF&CS) was recently selected by the Association of Jewish Family & Children’s Agencies (AJFCA) as the recipient of the coveted annual Kovod Award for excellence in agency websites. The JF&CS winning entry, www.jfcspgh.org, is the newly developed website launched in June 2010.
JF&CS is very pleased to have our work recognized by the AJFCA, a membership organization of more than 145 Jewish family and children’s agencies and specialized Jewish human service agencies throughout the United States and Canada.
Aryeh Sherman poses with KOVOD award next to JF&CS Board Member Wendy Mars who was recognized for having received JF&CS Pittsburgh’s 2011 Dr. Howard A. Mermelstein Leadership Award. AJFCA President & CEO Lee Sherman is to Wendy’s left.
The site has been a wonderful addition to our marketing efforts resulting in well over a 100% increase in the number of visits to our site, significantly increasing referrals to JF&CS services. One example was a referral to JF&CS’s SOS Pittsburgh emergency assistance program that resulted in helping a family whose child was hospitalized with a serious illness. Without JF&CS’s website the social worker at the hospital would not have been able to find much-needed help.
Last year, Laurie Gottlieb, JF&CS Director of Marketing & Annual Fundraising, set out to do a complete redesign/rewrite in order to provide visitors to our website an easy-to-navigate site that enabled them to quickly find the right content at the right time.
With the help of Elliance, a Pittsburgh marketing and web design company, Laurie succeeded in making it easy for visitors to quickly and easily find resources, learn more about a program or staff, make a donation or contact JF&CS directly, as well as creating a dynamic that brings people back time and again.
Kovod Award winners were determined by an independent panel of judges who evaluate submissions from agencies across North America. JF&CS was given the award based on the quality presentation of our purpose, personnel, programs and other pertinent information over the Internet. Website design, navigation, content and overall effectiveness were reviewed to determine the most appealing, current and user-friendly site.
Awards were presented at May’s AJFCA Annual Conference in Calgary, Canada. Visit www.jfcspgh.org to check out our site.