SCHOOL SPOTLIGHT
International Coalition of Girls' Schools
How ICGS Created a Global Hub for Storytelling, Connection, and Member Engagement
With more than 580 girls’ schools across 28 countries, the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS) has a wide-reaching mission: to connect, support, and champion a global network of 50,000 educators focused on what helps girls thrive in education.
But for years, the organization’s website didn’t fully support the strength of that mission.
At a Glance
As the leading advocate for girls' schools, the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools brings together educators, researchers, and advocates to prepare girls to lead meaningful lives and to shape a more just and equitable world.
The Challenge | A Website That Held Information, But Didn’t Guide Visitors
ICGS had no shortage of valuable content on its previous WordPress site. It housed professional development opportunities, event information, research materials, partnership pages, and support for members, but visitors had to work too hard to find them.
As Kathleen Osborne, ICGS’s director of strategic communications and programming, explained, its previous website was organized more around internal needs than the needs of the people using it.
“It was a filing cabinet for the people who worked there and wasn't really prioritizing the end user experience,” Kathleen shared. “WordPress is universally applicable, but it doesn't take into account the unique needs of education providers and folks who are working in that space.”
ICGS was not looking for a generic, “one size fits all” website provider. The team needed a partner that understood schools, education, and mission-driven storytelling so they could represent the coalition’s influence across the globe and help each audience understand where they fit in the larger story.
“WordPress is universally applicable, but it doesn't take into account the unique needs of education providers and folks who are working in that space.”
KATHLEEN OSBORNE
DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS
Too Many Hurdles for Members and Visitors
For Kathleen, the premise was clear: if staff had to explain how to use the site, the site wasn’t doing its job.
“If you have to walk somebody through a website for even five minutes, your website doesn't work,” she said.
That concept shaped their entire website redesign project. The ICGS team wanted visitors to quickly understand the coalition’s core pillars: professional development, research, advocacy, and networking. Instead of burying those priorities deep within layers of navigation, they wanted to bring them forward into the spotlight.
“We wanted to pull that right up onto the screen for users to be able to see at a glance without having to click through a bunch of menus,” Kathleen shared.
“One of the things we really love about Finalsite is how many different avenues there are to organize information. The layouts are so simple and user-friendly, but also very dynamic and beautiful.”
KATHLEEN OSBORNE
DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS
The Solution | A User-First Website Strategy
Working with Finalsite, the team began rethinking the site from the user’s perspective. ICGS serves many audiences, including 50K members, advocates, partners, and members, not to mention 350K students and their families from across the globe. Each comes to the site with different needs, questions, and goals.
But rather than forcing everyone through one path, the team built multiple entry points. Kathleen described the strategy as creating avenues and giving each visitor a more personal experience.
“We have to give people on-ramps,” she said, asking her team to think about how users can enter and explore the site. That idea became central to the structure and navigation. Visitors should be able to explore through the lens of their role, whether they’re a student, parent, educator, or advocate. This persona-based approach helps guide the coalition’s strategy right away.
“We wanted people to see themselves in the website,” shared communications and member experiences manager Dorothy Martindale, who led much of the site-building process.
“We wanted the homepage to invite people into the story of ICGS, the girls, and the partnership that our international coalition allows between schools,” she said. “It's an international perspective, but we're all coming together to serve the same purpose, which is to ensure that girls thrive around the world.”
A Collaborative Process for a Remote Team
Because ICGS is a fully remote organization, the team had to be thoughtful about how decisions were made. The project began with planning, mapping, and many conversations about how users should experience the site.
“It all started really in an Excel spreadsheet,” Kathleen explained, “and lots of conversation about how we would hope our end users would experience the site.”
From there, Finalsite became a strategic partner in helping the team refine ideas, simplify content, and shape the final experience. Kathleen said the process worked because the Finalsite team understood the problem they were trying to solve.
“It was really collaborative. The team embraced and understood the problem that we were trying to solve.” She also pointed to Finalsite’s professional services team as one of the biggest differences.
“Having a great resource library was helpful, but even more important was having thought partners who were along for the journey with us as we were bringing this to life, who were always accessible and easy to work with.”
Using Composer to Organize Complex Content
Composer gave the ICGS team the flexibility to turn that goal into a clear, engaging experience. The site now uses stronger visual sections, bold orange accents, thoughtful transitions, and Post-based layouts to make a large amount of content feel easier to browse. That balance of storytelling and structure was critical because ICGS didn’t want to strip away important resources but organize and present them better.
As Kathleen put it, the redesigned site actually contains more information on fewer pages, even though it feels simpler. Dorothy credited Finalsite’s content management system, Composer, and its organizational elements, such as accordions, sliders, and page layouts, with helping the team create that sense of clarity.
“One of the things we really love about Finalsite is how many different avenues there are to organize information,” she said. “The layouts are so simple and user-friendly, but also very dynamic and beautiful.”
Once the site began taking shape in Composer, the ICGS team also saw how the platform could make their internal work easier. Previously, the team had to rebuild pages and manually update links across many different places, and for Dorothy, one of the most basic features made a major difference: the ability to duplicate pages.
“As simple as that sounds, it wasn’t possible with our old site,” she said, “but it’s absolutely life-changing here. The ability to duplicate our events without needing to rebuild them from scratch is… I can't tell you what a relief that is.”
Kathleen said that kind of change adds up quickly. “That's hours and hours saved.”
Now, they can create consistent event pages, copy layouts, adjust content by region, and keep the experience aligned with the larger ICGS brand.
With Composer and the “create one, post everywhere” functionality of the Posts module, Dorothy can make a few content tweaks here and there, and it serves a whole different purpose.
“I think our job bank is our most visited page, and being able to filter those categories so easily is really helpful for job seekers and employers.”
The redesign also helped ICGS represent the scale and energy of its global network. One standout section on the site expands a single image into a full-width collage of young women engaged in music, sports, arts, academics, and other school experiences. It gives visitors an immediate sense of the spirit, possibility, and purpose behind the coalition’s work.
The Results | An award-winning website that elevates the impact of girls’ education
Not long after launch, the site won gold at the Vega Awards, an international competition honoring excellence in the planning and execution of digital communications.
Aside from the accolades, Dorothy finds the workload easier than before. “I definitely am spending less time editing the site than I had been,” she shared.
The new website is also helping ICGS members. The organization launched a new association management database around the same time as the main site, creating a smoother experience between the public site and the member portal. Kathleen said they have seen a dramatic decrease in basic troubleshooting questions, especially around usernames, passwords, and where to find information.
The reaction from visitors has also been encouraging.
“We've gotten a lot of feedback from people saying, not only is the site beautiful, but it's so easy to navigate,” Kathleen reported. “People feel like, ‘Oh, okay, this makes total sense. I don't even have to ask anybody.’”
AI chat turns visitor questions into useful insights
In addition to Composer, ICGS is using “Ask ICGS,” a branded AI chatbot powered by Finalsite, to support visitors around the clock. The tool helps users find information quickly, but it also gives the team useful insight into what people need.
Kathleen has been reviewing the chat logs and has noticed that users often ask questions in a conversational tone, as if they’re speaking to a person.
“Seeing the conversational nature that folks are having with the bot underscores for me that we have the exact right tone of language on our site.”
The chatbot is also helping the team identify content gaps. If users ask about information that hasn't been posted yet, the team knows what to prioritize next.
Dorothy sees that as a major opportunity for future planning. “If they're asking about the latest research, we’re going to make sure those kinds of resources are highlighted.”
Multilingual access for a global coalition
For a global organization, the language support has also been meaningful. ICGS integrated Weglot on the site's front end and launched with French and Spanish translations, while the team has also seen the AI chatbot engage users in other languages, including Italian and Japanese.
Kathleen described the multilingual experience as a major improvement. “Having Weglot integrated into the front end of the site is a game-changer for us.”
Stronger visibility creates new partnership opportunities
Beyond navigation, content, and efficiency, the redesigned website is already helping ICGS grow its reach. The site now provides greater visibility for partnerships, programs, events, and the coalition’s broader impact, which is leading to new conversations.
Kathleen shared that organizations are reaching out after seeing the site, adding that, “Now folks are coming forward saying, ‘Hey, I’d love to talk more about how we could partner.’”
For Kathleen, the finished site aligns with the scale, quality, and purpose of ICGS’s mission and provides a flexible foundation for future growth.
“I love how everything works,” Kathleen said. “I love how it feels reflective of the high caliber of work that we are doing.” Dorothy agreed, adding, “We see so much potential in that being able to shape how we better serve our schools.”
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