Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts is one of the oldest and most successful home & garden tours in the country that funds music programs for young people — and awards gifts and grants to fund other nonprofit organizations.
Pasadena, California
Nonprofit
Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts is one of the oldest, largest, most admired, and successful home & garden tours in the country. Founded in 1948 to support music programs in the Pasadena community, the all-volunteer non-profit renovates a historically significant Pasadena-area home each year to showcase the talents of local designers and artisans. Proceeds from the tour, help underwrite music programs at local schools. It also provides music therapy for at-risk kids, scholarships, and sponsors youth concert performances at Walt Disney Hall.
After a dozen years online, the Showcase House website had grown bulky, glitchy and whiskers. It was time for a fresher, handsomer, user-friendlier site that reflected the spirit, substance and scale of what this nearly 75-year-old cultural phenomenon meant to the people of Pasadena — and what it could mean to the next generation.
In order to guide client decision-making and inform the project approach, we began with a deep dive into research consisting of a comprehensive competitive review of award-winning nonprofits, and the existing website’s content.
Following the research phase, the agency provided recommendations for streamlining content hierarchy and navigation to focus on user experience, as well as simplifying content with a uniform brand tone of voice.
The completed project offered the best of both worlds. The flexibility of WordPress’ Content Management System (CMS) enabled the client’s rotating volunteer staff to easily make edits and create new pages. While the website’s compelling experience addressed both existing and expanding younger audiences. The Board loved it. The volunteers loved it. The visitors loved it.
