Crown's singular mission is to create cutting-edge, turnkey solutions that unlock the charitable and social promise of donor advised funds (DAF) to power the global shift from charity to strategic philanthropy. Increasingly donors are demanding increased transparency, functionality and communication tools. And Crown works to build that bridge between the nonprofit community, financial organizations and donors. DonorFirst^TM v.2 Crown's DonorFirst version 2 platform, engineered by BOLD, is a web-based system built upon the open source Drupal platform to provide donors, donor families, financial services staff, and grant recipients with an online social and cultural environment tailored to support comprehensive charitable activity and address the technology demands of the current and future philanthropic climate. The platform introduces levels of communication and collaboration within each donor's dashboard that have been unavailable in any previous DAF program. Where It All Started Crown has been a BOLD client since 2005. Initially, BOLD graphic designers created the logo, graphic images and collateral pieces (brochures and PowerPoint presentations) — all to assist Crown in building identity and branding communications. BOLD web designers built Crown's first web site on a CMS platform [Ektron] to allow them to have control over their content as the company grew. Crown also utilized BOLD application developers to engineer DonorFirstTM, a preliminary .NET version of DAF management. This is still in use by several foundations through conceptualization and construction of DonorFirst v.2, which began in late 2006. Crown is utilizing a BOLD development team to engineer an entirely different and more advanced second version of DonorFirst, using the latest in web technology. While this version is based on a Drupal platform, most of the work is done at the code level (PHP, and others) to accommodate the complexity of customization needed for such a unique product. With Crown visionaries in New York and California, and the BOLD development team in the nation's heartland, the DFP2 team has been working "virtually" together through conference calls, web conferences and periodic face-to-face meetings on middle ground since January of 2007. Communication must flow constantly every day. Generally, to accomplish this, BOLDies and Crown staff communicate using a Drupal project blog, building threaded discussions, updates and statuses around a vast volume of tasks and issues — assigning tasks to different team members at differing stages of development. A project manager frequently disperses progress assessments and works with the "virtual" team to determine needs of each "pod" and timelines. Crown's familiarity and fondness for Drupal led to a desire to redesign their web site to bring about less of a focus on the organization and more on their platform. Crown also wanted to update the look for the site (already 4 yrs. old) and make it feel more accessible to reflect their changing direction — to move from a conservative, formal, button-down look to a more informal, open message that encourages potential donors to "plant a seed and watch it grow". Their knowledge of Drupal allowed Crown staff to build the structure of the site and enter content, utilizing BOLD for the final design and theming touches. This type of collaboration is not unusual for BOLD, as we always try to work with an organization to define needs, identify existing capacity, and determine where BOLD skills are needed. BOLD realizes that true internet solutions does not come in a one-size-fits-all package. There is every reason to believe that Crown and BOLD will be working together several years into the future as more advancements are made. Besides, we kind of think they enjoy, just a little, stepping away from the busyness of each coast and visiting Kansas City a few times a year for some calming, midwest charm!