BCS Interactive

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of 540WMain, a nonprofit organization.

What challenges were you trying to address with BCS Interactive?

We needed help with web development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

BCS Interactive updated and revamped our existing WordPress website features. It’s an informational platform where users can also make donations to our organization, submit inquiries, and read our blog. In addition, they trained us on how to use the site and are currently providing maintenance to the platform.

What was the team composition? 

We worked with three BCS Interactive team members, including Lou (CEO) and two developers.

How did you come to work with BCS Interactive?

I met their owner through a previous engagement.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent around $10,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We were satisfied with the overall experience of working with them.

How did BCS Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was excellent in terms of delivering on time and communicating with us. Regarding tools, we used email, Zoom, and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication and project management skills were the best parts of their work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I didn’t think there was anything they could improve on.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of a nonprofit that supports programs and initiatives that develop solutions to end child sexual abuse and exploitation. 

What challenge were you trying to address with BCS Interactive?

We hired BCS to help us create a grant program proposal portal on our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the beginning, we worked with them to talk about our goals. Then, we met bi-weekly for them to show us updates and edits. We provided them with general outlines of our needs. In the process, they also helped us think about things we hadn’t thought about before. That included discussing how we accepted proposals before. Moreover, we wanted to do a quick scan of organizations that were outside our mission. That way, we wouldn’t waste time reviewing long-term proposals that didn’t fit our wheelhouse.

From there, we had a run-through where we pretended to be grantees to know which part of the portal might be difficult or might not make sense for end users. In other words, the team customized the portal based on their nonprofit experience and expertise. Once the portal was complete, they gave our entire team full training and provided a manual around using it. 

At present, they still work with us on call to answer any follow-up questions we might have, especially since we have a new program director. At the end of the year, we’ll check in with BCS again to see what works for the portal and what doesn’t. We’ll have a better idea of what else the portal needs by the end of the program proposal period, which is in October 2021. 

In terms of the portal’s functionality, innovative grassroots programs in the US can go to our website and show that they’re a certified 501(c)(3) organization. From there, we check whether they fit our thematic priority area. Then, we give them usernames and passwords. They can submit a letter of intent, which our organization can approve, move forward, or deny. If they’re given approval, they’ll answer specific questions about their project, budget, and what they want to achieve. After that, we give our final recommendation to the board of directors. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with their project leaders, who have a team of people behind them.

How did you come to work with BCS Interactive?

They were recommended to us by our colleagues. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $30,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2021, and the engagement is technically ongoing. The portal was completed in April 2021, however. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Like many nonprofits, we have a small bandwidth of staff. BCS’s support has transformed our work because we’re now much more efficient. Moreover, they’ve enabled us to work on programs in real-time and in a time that works best for our staff. With their help, we’ve also learned how we can operate effectively on our own. On top of that, their work has helped us modernize our model in certain ways — that has been a gift to us. Overall, having this portal democratizes grant-making. 

How did BCS Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

BCS is highly organized, and they’ve always stuck to our agenda, which I appreciate. They make themselves accessible by being truly open to answering questions. When the project manager isn’t available, Lou (Co-Founder & CEO) steps in and answers our questions. That speaks volumes about their care for us. More importantly, I appreciate how honest they are when they don’t know the answer to a question. When that happens, they come back to us and follow up on it.

Overall, their project management has been great. To communicate with them, we use emails and Teams. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

What distinguishes them is Lou, who’s clear about his support for nonprofits. Meanwhile, many people can create a program portal, but BCS has worked with so many nonprofits that they truly understand the system. They understand our foundation and what grant proposals mean, and we greatly appreciate that.

On top of that, the team has taken the time to ensure they offered nothing superfluous because they know we have a tight budget, especially with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Simply put, they’ve been 100% transparent, and they stay on the budget and the timeline. In fact, their rates are also more reasonable in comparison to other vendors. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be sure about what you want. BCS can transform your idea into a practical tool — that’s the beauty of their work — but it’s better for you to have a formulated idea ahead of time for efficiency’s sake. You don’t have to know the specifics. For context, we work with them so well because they know clearly our wants and needs, which we’re able to articulate to them. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of the Be Foundation. We’re a private family foundation serving children and their families in the area of education. We largely focus on breaking down barriers, equity, as well as providing access and outcomes for underserved students in our state.

What challenge were you trying to address with BCS Interactive?

We launched a music education philanthropy which was based on a digital strategy. BCS Interactive was brought on to be the digital marketing team for our foundation and music education program.

What was the scope of their involvement?

BCS Interactive built our digital brand. They helped shepherd a digital acquisition, worked with Facebook, and built our website. Their team also manages our social media. We co-create the content. Earlier in the relationship, I was writing more copy than I am now. When we have ideas, we infuse them and our teams work collaboratively.

They inform our vision and strategy, focusing primarily on the tactical execution of our mission. Ultimately, we need to raise money and our digital strategy needs to produce in terms of donations we supplement through our foundation to support our grantees.

What is the team composition?

I work with Lou (Co-Founder & CEO), Jessica (Senior Account & Project Manager), Amanda (Project Manager), and a social media strategist.

How did you come to work with BCS Interactive?

I found them through the recommendation of a marketing leader from a private sector that also had a music education philanthropy that we ultimately acquired. He told me he trusted Lou, and I was impressed by the work BCS Interactive did. We had good chemistry from the start.

How much have you invested with them?

We invest between $70,000–$90,000 a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around January 2014.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Within our first six months, we grew organically really nicely. When we teed up the acquisition, they brought over a ton of followers that we merged into our social media accounts. BCS Interactive managed that transition with those followers. We had good user engagement and didn’t lose too many people.

Right now, we’re the largest digital footprint in music education globally. We’ve had thousands of small donors as well as some big donors and have raised about $500,000 digitally through the work. There have been occasions where our digital received major grants. We’ve gotten to the point where our digital strategy pays for itself now.

The best part of our engagement is BCS Interactive’s integration with my team. I don’t look at them as contractors. I see them as my digital team. They deliver results. Their team manages a global social media following, we have a quarter-million people that we keep engaged. We’ve grown organically and through acquisition.

How did BCS Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent at project management. BCS Interactive has managed transitions between project managers really well. After our previous project manager left and Jessica came on board, everything was seamless. They run the meetings and keep track of everything. Additionally, the grantees know they can reach out to Jessica.

She’s exactly what we want in a highly professional project manager. She ensures that any ideas we exchange get addressed. Jessica is among the very best I’ve ever worked with in my career in terms of managing processes and being responsive. Their team also pushes back when I’ve given them license to. We have a great professional rapport.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m really impressed with their devotion to mission. They really focus on social cause issues and that comes through first. I also appreciate that they don’t overpromise. BCS Interactive shows well for our business. I’m comfortable having them represent us. There is total trust and even friendship; these are people I enjoy working with. They’re also the right size for our entity.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be honest upfront and involved. BCS Interactive has standards for the involvement of their clients. They’re not a widget kind of company. The issue of mission alignment matters.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the assistant director of education programs and communications for a land trust and conservation nonprofit organization.

What challenges were you trying to address with BCS Interactive?

Our website was outdated and not user friendly. We hired BCS Interactive to provide us with an updated website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us rebuild the entire website. They did both design and development using WordPress. They used some existing templates, but they customized our pages from there. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with Lou (Co-Founder & CEO) and Jessica (Sr. Account & Project Manager). There were one or two developers that also helped us. 

How did you come to work with BCS Interactive?

We looked at several companies. We chose BCS Interactive because they were in that sweet spot of providing affordable work that was also high quality. They also came highly recommended. 

How much have you invested in them?

We spent about $22,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We first got in touch with them at the end of 2017, but we didn’t begin working on the project until January 2018. We launched the website in December 2018. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We got great feedback from our trustees and members. People commented on how great the website looked and how easy it was to find information. We saw an increase in site traffic and the duration of visits. 

How did BCS Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. Our project manager, in particular, was fantastic. They constantly checked in with us and followed up regularly. Their team was accommodating, especially since we weren’t well-versed in how development projects work. 

We collaborated on the draft website and used Google Docs. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The usability of the new website impressed me. It looks modern, and it’s easy for us to upload weekly column. They were happy to work with us and make our vision come to life. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. Anytime there was a holdup, it was because of us, not them. They kept things moving forward and were happy to explain whenever we had questions. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

If you have a timeline, make sure you can stick to it on your end as well. For our project, we weren’t able to get content to them as quickly as was needed to meet the deadlines we’d set.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of development at a nonprofit mental health association.

What challenges were you trying to address with BCS Interactive?

We were launching a suicide prevention initiative, and we engaged BCS Interactive to help us with social media awareness. Our target audience for this campaign was young people.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re helping us leverage social media to increase awareness around suicide and prevention methods. They went through a thorough process with us to assess what we wanted to do. Their team developed the creative and handled the placements of posts – both organic and sponsored. We focused on Facebook and Instagram. 

They analyzed the analytics and helped us make tweaks to maximize the success of our campaign. 

They’re currently helping us redesign and maintain our company website. 

What is the team composition?

We initially worked with a team of four people, but we have one primary point of contact: our project manager. They also brought in other members of their team as needed. 

How did you come to work with BCS Interactive?

We were referred to them by our board president. 

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent about $5,000 per month. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2020, and we launched the campaign that May. The campaign is still running. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We had a lot of traffic, and many people that clicked on our ads spent time on our website looking at our content and resources.

It’s complicated because it’s hard seeing how much traffic some of the resources we have are getting right now. However, it shows that there’s a strong need in the community for our resources right now. It’s an important initiative, and I’m happy that our organization’s suicide prevention resources were easy to access due to BCS Interactive’s work. 

How did BCS Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

They were outstanding. The team was proactive, responsive, and receptive to feedback. We’ve been thrilled with them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their analytical skills are impressive. They always share in-depth analysis to show us what our initiative is accomplishing. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. It’s been a great partnership. They’re a small firm, which makes them very accessible. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

They’re good at what they do, and they know how to help you. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director and founder of Imagine, a center for coping with loss. We're a nonprofit organization supporting children and families coping with loss due to death. 

What challenge were you trying to address with BCS Interactive?

We wanted to improve our online presence and have a more professional-looking website. We needed something that was more user- and mobile-friendly, which our old site wasn’t. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

BCS got to know about our mission and vision, and they came on a tour of our center. They met with us to discover what we hoped to achieve with our website, who our audiences were, and how people would find and interact with us. 

We were engaged throughout the process. They had us look at designs and guided us in the project. We gave them the content, and then they made it web-friendly. They also taught us how to edit the website and use social media to drive traffic to it. We’d meet with them monthly, and they’d give us a report on all of our analytics. 

Like most nonprofits, we receive a grant of $10,000 worth of Google ads a year. As such, BCS also helped us develop ads to raise awareness for our program so that more people would come to our workshop. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people in total, including Lou (Co-Founder & CEO). We also worked with a couple of other people, one of which worked locally and the other worked remotely. There was also a designer.

How did you come to work with BCS Interactive?

BCS and Lou were referred to us by a trusted colleague who was working as our development consultant. We met one on one, and he explained to me what they could do and what the process would look like. He did a presentation to our board and put together a proposal. 

I looked at 2–3 other web designers, but I wasn't that comfortable working with them. There wasn't the chemistry that we had with Lou and his team, so I didn't connect with the other companies. 

Lou's price was the highest, but I felt so confident with them. I felt we were going to end up with something that would last us for the long haul. We wouldn't be going back after a few years and say this no longer worked for us. I loved the things that he showed us and that they had done, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $15,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership lasted from November 2016–January 2017. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We grew fast as an organization, and the website was a factor in that. The design was beautiful and gave people a sense that we were professional, solid, trustworthy, and credible.

The SEO was great, and we were able to drive people to our website through social media. On Facebook, we went from 400 followers to over 5,000 followers. The Google ads that BCS created also made it easier for people to find us. 

I fell in love immediately with the concept they came up with. BCS captured the feel of Imagine and the energy and culture of our organization. Currently, we still get tons of compliments on our website, and some people have told me it's the best they've ever seen. 

How did BCS Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

BCS listened closely and communicated with us all along the way. The team was so professional and such a pleasure to work with. They had a great sense of humor, along with great technical skills, expertise, and knowledge of the whole online world and the website design. 

They were excellent and meticulous. Everything was done on time, and they did what they said they were going to do, keeping us on track. BCS helped us deliver what we needed to do so that they could also do what they needed to do on their end. They would share their screen and show us the designs of different pages, as well as how to do the navigation. 

Apart from screen sharing, we also communicated mainly over the phone. The owner was also involved in the process. He didn’t just disappear when he got our account.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I don't think I've ever worked with a vendor that was as impeccable with their word as BCS. They did what they said they would do on the time they said they’d do it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there are none. It was such a positive experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them. I always believe in trusting the experts and not trying to second guess. You're not in that business. They're in the business. Trust them and hold up your end. They can't do it without getting what they need from you, whether it's the language for the website or understanding your vision and mission, so be a partner in communication.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our organization serves people with a wide range of disabilities. We specialize in working with people with severe disabilities and medical challenges. Our variety of programs focus on early interventions for infants and toddlers in their homes. We also operate two special needs schools and offer three day-programs for adults. I’m the VP of development and communications.

What challenge were you trying to address with BCS Interactive?

We wanted to work on two websites: the overall agency website post rebrand (expanding from serving mostly cerebral palsy patients to people with a wider range of disabilities) and the website for our two special needs schools. The latter field is the most competitive in which we operate because parents want the best for their kids.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They completely redid both of our websites, handling both design and development. BCS Interactive created both sites on WordPress. One special feature we asked for was a map that showed where our services were located by county.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Lou (Co-Founder & CEO).

How did you come to work with BCS Interactive?

One of our board members provided recommendations of companies they’d worked with before. We were most comfortable with BCS because they seemed to really tailor their process; most companies come in with a template. BCS frontloaded their time by meeting with people and understanding the organization. We were confident that the end product would reflect who we are as an organization.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $80,000 on the two websites.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2019 until February 2020, when the site went live.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve seen a significant increase in tours and subsequent enrollments at our schools. From the time the site went live, we’ve had 15 families commit to the school, which is well above what we’d typically see in that time frame.

How did BCS Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a lot of in-person meetings in the beginning so they could learn about our programs firsthand and what our various internal stakeholders use the site for.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our previous school site was overly complex; families looking at it would get lost in the details and specifics. BCS sat with our staff of therapists, who like detail and specifics, and ran them through the benefits of a simpler format.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, I don’t think we had any issues or problems or ideas for changes to their processes.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They differentiate themselves early in the process. Folks might think they’ll have to invest a lot of their time in the project whereas another company might do it all for them. There’s an appeal to the latter, but the time you invest upfront working with BCS pays off in the end. They’re not going to do a template-job that’s similar to a million other sites.