Drupal 5.0 customization

Message Agency helped Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation build a new site that will take better advantage of their grassroots fundraising strategy. The foundation also needed to graduate from a clunky site comprised of an amalgam of flat pages and some interactive features linked to separate ASP services resident on other servers, other sites for blogs, and yet other sites for donor "In Memory of" pages.

Message Agency arrived at a design that allowed local fundraisers not only to report their efforts online but also to manage invitations and donations for their own stands and events and engage in viral marketing on behalf of the Foundation; we also planned to integrate all of the functionality resident on other sites into one efficient, database-driven website.

The site includes a multitude of interactive features designed to distribute fundraising efforts to individuals across the country by allowing stand and event sponsors to manage their own “Online Stands”—posting photos and blog entries, uploading invitation lists and emailing attendees, and managing RSVPs and donations. In the second phase, the site will also feature a number of interactive forums, including “Alex’s Lemonade Around the World,” where users will post photos of themselves with Alex’s Lemonade collateral, a “Kid’s Clubhouse” intended to teach children about pediatric cancer and inspire their participation in stand sponsorship, and a forum for families and children fighting cancer, where they can interact in a password protected and secure environment to share stories and receive peer support. Other features, such as the Newsroom and an iPod library, allow ALSF to provide multimedia content (streaming video and audio) to educate audiences about pediatric cancer.