Informed and Funded: How Cornelia Connelly Center Used their Edlio Website to Showcase Virtual Fundraising Ideas for Schools

THE CHALLENGE

Disconnected from the Community

Shaquana Lee, Director of Advancement at Cornelia Connelly Center, found that their website wasn’t fostering an inclusive and community-driven message that the school wanted to lead.

“Before we switched to Edlio, the biggest problem that we had was the community didn’t know what we did and what we had to offer,” Lee revealed.

Due to the community being impacted by Covid, Cornelia Connelly wanted to make it clearer how the community could get more involved with the school through donations and events. Their previous platform made it difficult to navigate and direct families to their dedicated pages.

“Many times, members of the community would go to our website and see what we have but always ask where we donate because we didn’t have a dedicated page. Edlio provides a clear and informative site to direct them to,” Lee commented.

THE SOLUTION

A Cost-Effective, Robust Solution

When searching for ways to evolve the website to become more expressive and easier to receive donations, Cornelia Connelly gathered possible options for their new website platform.

“We did research with a few other platforms and for the price point, we found that Edlio was the best for us. We are a small school and our students only pay a small portion of the tuition, though we are soon to go tuition-free,” Lee praises. “It’s really important for us to be cost-effective but clear enough to be easily navigated. Many of the other website platforms are super expensive and for what we get with Edlio, we are able to put our girls at the forefront because their stories speak for themselves.”

THE RESULT

Exceeding Their Fundraising Goal

Cornelia Connelly Center found that they were able to display their message of inclusivity while being able to provide essential information to families and donors that impact the student body.

“CCC is an all-girls school on the Lower East Side. We use Edlio to definitely share our story - the story of our girls—also for fundraising, to update people about events and keep families in the loop, and we use the
website to ensure information is up to date about COVID protocols, student calendar, and uniforms,” Bloss remarks.

The school’s website now allows for a secure and easily accessible form for donors and families. This is also where the school accepts donations for their families, utilities, clothes for students in need, and emergency funds, which benefits the bookkeepers who now have access to the form responses.

“I found it really easy to process the credit charges directly on the page. We can have an infinite number of
forms. If we want to hide a form or highlight information it is all there on the website, and in doing so we
finished six percent over our fundraising goal, with the majority coming through our online giving
opportunities through the website,” Lee explains.

Every school has a story to tell, and with their Edlio website, Cornelia Connelly Center can showcase their
story better than ever. This process is important for the school because they have several partner schools and
organizations that need to be informed of the school’s intentions and involvement in the community.

“The biggest success of the website is that it spreads the word about who we are as a school. People don’t
have to read our mission statement or click around to know what we are about - this speaks wonders about
our new site. Now, when people think of CCC they immediately refer to the sense of community,” Bloss
illustrates. “We are a part of a network of schools and organizations where it is vital to showcase our story on
our website. The school branding is signaled through the web pages.”