The Mountaineers

About The Mountaineers

Since 1906, The Mountaineers have been helping people in Washington State and beyond enjoy the outdoors safely and responsibly. The Mountaineers have less than 20 program staff and yet offer hundreds of outdoor activities and classes every month — almost all of them led by volunteers.

These volunteers are the lifeblood of the organization. They contribute not only their time and expertise, but also take on a significant administrative burden. Volunteers have to manage their own classes, record attendance and achievements, and participate on committees to develop course requirements and curriculum. It’s a lot of work, and those who do it are extremely dedicated and feel great ownership over the organization.

The Challenge

Unfortunately, The Mountaineers had a messy set of tools, processes and exceptions, requiring constant maintenance and troubleshooting by staff. Even worse, it was virtually impossible for a new student or member to navigate without assistance: finding a course, participating in a class, or even signing up for membership required a topo map and lots of patience.

The Solution

Over the course of six months, Percolator worked with The Mountaineers to plan a new website, CRM, and activity management system that would give their volunteers and staff the powerful, flexible tools they needed to run their programs while extending a welcoming hand to the new members The Mountaineers hoped to attract — especially younger members and families.

We went deep on audiences, building out detailed personas to guide our decision-making throughout design and implementation. We helped prioritize functionality to fit within their budget. And we checked our assumptions by testing wireframes, designs, and working software with real volunteers and members throughout the project.

Percolator led an all-star implementation team including web development shop Jazkarta, designer Neal Maher, and user experience designer Darrell Houle. Percolator led on strategy, Salesforce development, and managed the overall project.

The Mountaineers’ beautiful new website makes it easy for users to find and sign up for activities and classes. Members can earn badges for completing courses and learning new skills and proudly display them on their profiles. Volunteers can create courses and activities, manage rosters, and communicate with students. And all of this data is pulled in to Salesforce, giving staff a single reference point for every contact in their universe, including donations, volunteering, activity and course participation, and email responsiveness.

The Numbers

The Mountaineers’ investment is already paying dividends. In the three months following launch of the new site, mountaineers.org saw a 30% increase in site visits, a 53% increase in unique users, and a 15% drop in bounce rate compared to the year before. A new mobile interface displays the engagement strategy work we did as well.

But more importantly, The Mountaineers membership base is growing. Family memberships, a particular focus for growth, have grown 13% over the last six months.