Charitable Organization's New Web Site Reaches Out to People Touched by Adoption

TORONTO, Ontario (November, 2008) - With help from Yfactor Inc., the Adoption Council of Ontario (ACO) has launched a new Web site that provides all the comforts of a virtual home for people touched by adoption throughout Ontario.

The cheery, easy-to-use site, www.adoption.on.ca, has helped ACO establish itself as the premier resource for people considering adoption. Fresh and modern, the site designed and implemented by Yfactor makes a positive first impression that is increasing visitor traffic and helping ACO to solicit donations.

As a non-profit, charitable organization, ACO serves the needs of birth parents, adoptees, adoptive parents and adoptive professionals. Effective communication is essential to fulfilling its mission and the new site has given ACO some advanced tools it never had before.

The site can be updated in minutes, as opposed to the weeks required for ACO's previous site. Both staff and students can easily update the content and resource data.

Easy management of the site means that viewers regularly find new information in the "Resources" and "News & Events" sections of the web site. The helps the ACO and its clients to:

• Create the voice of adoption in Ontario;
• Raise awareness about adoption;
• Support, educate and advocate on behalf of those touched by Adoption.

These capabilities are provided through a combination of Yfactor's Power Site Factory and iCMS Web site management suites. Yfactor worked closely with Pat Convery, the Executive Director of ACO, to understand the organization's needs in building a stronger community.

"Yfactor really communicates with their clients," Convery says. "They asked a lot of questions, and grew to understand our association in depth before even starting to work on Web site functionality. This has felt more like a partnership than a traditional vendor/client relationship.

"We are very pleased with the site - we have had a lot of great feedback. I feel that the site has much more potential than we realize and I want to maximize the use of it for our programs."

Yfactor provided enhancements to its content-management system to help ACO achieve its leadership goals in the adoption community:

• An Events module enables people to register and pay online to attend ACO events. In addition to the added convenience for clients, this application captures valuable data for ACO and improves administrative productivity compared with the previous manual methods.
• A Donations module lets people donate online to ACO, using whatever options they choose, and again reduces the time that ACO invests in managing donor records.
• Yfactor's iCMS Resource Database has been integrated to make it easy for people to search the extensive ACO article library.
• Yfactor also integrated a third-party software into the Web site to enable people to search for resource material in ACO's library, request loans of books and download articles in PDF format.

Anya Codack, Founder and CEO of Yfactor, said: "We're very pleased and proud to have been able to help the Adoption Council of Ontario work towards their goal of being recognized as the key resource on adoption in Ontario. This new site and its integrated content and data management tools will help ACO reduce administrative effort while providing better services to prospective and current adoptive parents, adoptees and the broader community that is touched by adoption."

About the Adoption Council of Ontario

The Adoption Council of Ontario (ACO) is a non-profit charitable organization formed in 1987 by representatives of the adoption community. Our mission is to educate, support, and advocate on behalf of those touched by adoption in Ontario. Our Board of Directors and general membership represent all aspects of adoption: birth parents, adoptees, adoptive parents, and adoptive professionals from Ontario. Our adoption resource centre is supported through memberships, donations and program fees.