YAI Launches Integrated Web site to Better Reach, Inspire and Move People to Support People With Disabilities in Maximizing Their Potential

Leading technology and online best practices help the YAI Network communicate hope and opportunity for people with developmental and learning disabilities and their families

Austin, Texas (September 22, 2009) —

The YAI Network (YAI), one of America's foremost non-profit organizations devoted to creating hope and opportunity for people with developmental and learning disabilities and their families, announced today the introduction of a new Web site at www.yai.org. The new site provides visitors with a crisp and clear presentation of the organization’s mission and opportunities to engage with the network to support people with disabilities as well as access services and information. The site is integrated with the organization’s online marketing, advocacy and fundraising system to provide visitors, volunteers, advocates and donors with a more personal and engaging experience. It also enables the organization to communicate more effectively with audiences based on their interest and level of involvement.

“The Internet and digital technology has changed the way our stakeholders communicate, access information and manage their most important relationships,” said Philip H. Levy, Ph.D., CEO and President, of the YAI Network. “The people who guide our mission and spread our message have high expectations for YAI and the valuable resources we offer. The new site will help us strengthen those relationships, provide greater access to information and messages of hope as well as allows us to use social media and digital technology such as video to better transform the public’s perception of  people with developmental and learning disabilities.”  

The new YAI Web site offers members and other visitors a more dynamic, effective and professional design. While YAI supporters and visitors have a common interest in learning about the organization or supporting the cause, the YAI site has a number of constituencies that come to the organization for information, thus the site must be easy for families, service providers, agency professionals and other stakeholders to easily find and access information.  The flexibility and power of the system allows the organization to provide timely information such as the organization’s recent appearance on the YES Network with the New York Yankees and ABC-TV’s The View. Other features include the Developmental Disabilities in the News blog, the Spanish-language site, and the YAI Autism Center with information on the organization’s upcoming Autism Conference. The site also features YAI’s renowned training videos and provides numerous opportunities for individuals and families to become a Friend of YAI; subscribe to the innovative YAI Resource Center; learn about corporate volunteer opportunities; and  much more.

To better position the brand and engage and activate a variety of audiences, YAI partnered with Fenton Communication and Convio to define, design, and deploy a revitalized Web site with a strong focus on the user experience. The site’s redesigned front-end is integrated with the Convio CMS, a full-featured content management system for nonprofit organizations with advanced Web site needs and multiple content contributors. The software provides a web content platform that combines content types and content relationships and integrates with Convio’s email marketing, fundraising and advocacy platform also used by the organization. The Convio system is provided through the Software-as-a-Service model offering a highly-scalable system that is available to the YAI staff anytime, anywhere with little to no capital expenditure.

“YAI provides exceptional programs and services to people of all ages, from babies to seniors, so it was important to design a user interface that reflects that breadth of service,” said Sharene Azimi, Vice President, Fenton Communications. “It was also important to create a sense of optimism, because YAI is all about helping people with disabilities achieve their full potential. The resulting site is both practical for families in need and inspirational to the larger community of funders and advocates.”

Hilary Shore, Director, Design and Technical Services added, “YAI has done an exceptional job of creating and launching an online experience that matches their reputation as a highly acclaimed professional organization and engages people in the cause. In this difficult economy YAI also saved money by using in-house talent during the development process and will continue to see reduced costs by leveraging Convio’s on-demand platform to remove the hassles, headaches and costs of traditional on-premises hardware and software. YAI is able to leverage the Internet to conduct business more efficiently by more effectively providing tools to register attendees for conferences, sell materials through its Training Store, better communicate with stakeholders and raise critical funds to support the necessary services that people with disabilities count on every day."

For more information on Convio, visit www.convio.com
For more information on Fenton Communications, visit www.fenton.com

About the YAI Network
The YAI Network is a group of seven not-for-profit health and human services agencies that provide a comprehensive array of programs for people with developmental and learning disabilities and their families.
YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities, our flagship agency, was founded in 1957 as the Young Adult Institute. The organization later changed its name since it was serving people through all life cycles — infancy through senior years. Currently, the YAI Network has more than 450 community-based programs, serving more than 20,000 individuals with disabilities and their families throughout the New York metropolitan area, including Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange,  Sullivan, Dutchess and Ulster counties, and New Jersey, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The YAI Network is recognized nationally for its conferences, training seminars and publications.

Press Contact:
Karoline McLaughlin
Director, Corporate Communications
Convio, Inc.
kmclaughlin@convio.com
512-652-7865