Milestone customer 1440 Multiversity is a 501c3 non-profit learning organization that established itself as one of the world’s most renown centers for individual development programs, corporate offsites, retreats, and leadership training in the pre-Covid era.
HSMAI has recognized the compassion and achievement of the 1440 team with a 2021 HSMAI Adrian Hospitality Hero Award.
Having a website current with the times was critical to sharing the new philanthropic story and delivering it in a way that would resonate with users. “We elected to work with Milestone because we appreciate the strategic partnership, collaboration and comprehensive services provided to us. Most importantly, we believe in the alignment of our organizational cultures in terms of core values, and caring for customers and employees,” said Ashmore. It’s great to see another customer exercising some of the creative holiday ideas we covered in our September blog 8 Amazing Hotel Promotion Ideas for Holiday 2020 and our March blog 10 Ideas to Improve Booking Performance During the Crisis.
Initially managing director Frank Ashmore selected Milestone to leverage the digital channels to foster a trusted relationship, improve the storytelling and engagement, and provide a satisfying customer experience with a high-performing website.
1440’s new mission message is “Creating Hope for Living Well” centered around five key pillars – Love Well, Live Well, Lead Well, Work Well and Wonder Well. With a redesigned site they were ready to pivot the organization towards designing programs provided on a complimentary basis through scholarships for frontline medical workers and other essential service providers, like firefighters, nurses, doctors, medics, military veterans and those suffering from chronic disease with funding provided by public and private donors in addition to the 1440 Foundation.
Through their efforts, the 1440 team also entered into a strategic partnership with the County of Santa Cruz Office of Emergency Services, FEMA and the State of California to provide housing and meals to more than 25 shelters across Santa Cruz during the COVID-19 crisis and evacuees displaced by the wildfires that ravaged the West Coast this year.
During the pandemic when you entered the 1440 site, you were greeted with the Campus Update:
1440 Multiversity has proudly served the County of Santa Cruz, Office of Emergency Services as a designated Essential Business throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by providing over 40,000 meals to more than 20 local shelters; donated linens to make more than 2,500 medical gowns for frontline medical workers; and established our campus as an Alternate Care Site in response to the need for more statewide resources. You can give the gift of time and space for the mental and physical healing of exhausted essential workers by Donating Now.
The 1440 team also partnered with Operation BBQ Relief during the recent wildfires that devastated our community to provide more than 20,000 hot meals to evacuees, first responders, the emergency resource center, and related resource shelters, in addition to launching the Healing our Community program to provide temporary housing to those in need. We invite you to stay connected by visiting the Online Learning section of our website, where you will find a variety of complimentary content curated to support your wellbeing and create hope for living well.
“In order to expand our mission work and tell our story, we knew we had to have a more robust website that enhanced our FAQs and organized content better to really emphasize the fact that people could donate to meaningful causes that resonated in their hearts. Expanding our efforts through a digital platform made sense, and increasing our digital capability along with creating new relevant content is something Milestone was able to guide and accomplish for us,” Ashmore said.
The 1440 story has all the elements of digital transformation: digitizing parts of the experience, finding new audiences, telling a story digitally, tapping into new revenue sources, and getting the digital experience right. Now page views and session duration are up over 50%. Mobile site speed is up by 150%. Ashmore said that having clear organizational values made repositioning easier. During the pandemic pivot, they updated their mission and learning objectives with full support from their Board of Directors.
“The pandemic has allowed us to give purpose to a broader scope of community building by truly understanding our place and embracing ways to help. There are a lot of ways for organizations and businesses to give back to their local communities – if you seek them, they will surface. If anyone wants to reach out, I am happy to share some of our ideas so we can all make a difference together,” explained Ashmore.
In case you were wondering, the name 1440 derives from the number of minutes in a day and all the many doors you can choose to enter and exit on your learning journey. Take a moment to visit www.1440.org today, and go in person when the time is right for you to recharge your batteries after a trying 2021.
