About the Client

As the oldest and most successful minority higher education assistance organization in the nation, the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) mission is to provide financial support to its 39 member institutions and increase minority degree attainment by reducing financial barriers to college. It supports more than 65,000 students at over 900 colleges and universities across the country through scholarship, internship and fellowship programs, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs.

UNCF.org is the web portal supporting the UNCF. It is the entry point for multiple data-driven applications that support the distinct UNCF processes for donor cultivation, student scholarship, advocacy of minority education issues, and member institution capacity building. The UNCF.org web portal is critical to the successful execution of the UNCF mission of generating and distributing funds for underprivileged scholars.

The Challenge

UNCF relies heavily upon their web presence to carry out their mission. They needed an agile, responsive, and highly capable application support team to ensure continual operations of their critical web applications which serve their community of students and donors. UNCF business units needed to be able to quickly and dynamically update their site content, the paper application upload process required automation, and the environment as a whole needed improvements for stabilization, security, and work flow efficiency.

The Solution

Upon assuming responsibility for the UNCF Application environment, Segue Technologies® immediately implemented system enhancements to improve response time, correct architectural flaws, implement development best practices, minimize dependence on expensive hardware through server virtualization, and secure sensitive user data. In addition, Segue successfully designed and developed DotNetNuke Content Management systems with SQL server back-ends for three distinct UNCF business units (the Association of UNCF/Merck Fellows (AUMF), the Institute for Capacity Building (ICB), and My Fellows). These provide UNCF staff with an enhanced capability for updating and managing site content to serve their communities of scholars and donors.