The Hope Chest Scholarship Foundation provides financial assistance to minority New Jersey students attending a college, university, or trade school.
Hope Chest’s vision was to help as many students as possible reach their dreams and become the next generation of leaders. But something was holding them back.
The Foundation’s application process was stressful and time-consuming for both applicants and the Hope Chest grant approval committee. When BCS Interactive was called in to take a look, they knew that web-based automation was the way to go.
As part of a comprehensive website redesign, they worked with the Hope Chest team to build a custom scholarship processing system to automate their entire scholarship application and assessment process.
The goal of the automation was to process more applications, more efficiently – and with no headaches. Lou Kotsinis, CEO of BCS Interactive, explains the 3-step process that guided the work:
- Finding the Pain Points – this exploration revealed a stressful, time-consuming process for the student applicants and the application review committee.
- Visualizing the Process – knowing how the process worked, BCS Interactive was able to address each pain point, using technology to create a smoother, more efficient process.
- Meeting User’s Needs at Every Point – With a user-friendly WordPress CMS (Content Management System) as the foundation, BCS Interactive built an online application process that made both the submission and management of scholarship applications simple and accountable.
The Hope Chest Scholarship foundation knew what they wanted. BCS Interactive knew how to get them there. The end result? A 30% increase in year-over-year applications, and a 35% increase in website traffic. The Foundation has distributed $1.8 million in scholarships. The future is looking bright for New Jersey students!
Lou Kotsinis
CEO, BCS Interactive
