55,000 Degrees

55,000 Degrees is a public-private partnership with the mission to launch Louisville into the top tier of educated cities by increasing the number of bachelor’s degrees attained by 40,000 and associate’s degrees attained by 15,000, by 2020.

55,000 Degrees strives to build a common understanding of the link between education and future success.  This can be achieved through their five objectives: create and support a college-going culture, use the business community’s unique points of leverage to accelerate attainment, prepare students for success in college, career, citizenship and life, make post-secondary education accessible and affordable, and increase educational persistence, performance and progress.

DBS designed 55,000 Degree’s new website with an enhanced user experience that has strong calls to action for donations and support.  The main emphasis of the site is 55K’s Count Me In Feature, an outreach campaign created to engage community support and ownership for 55,000 Degrees. Using this feature, individuals and businesses can make a pledge to support 55K’s mission by signing up to become an advocate, ally, or partner.

Users can search to see what other supporters are doing to support 55K’s mission and a real-time status report on the homepage showcases the current support of Count Me In. With the goal of adding 55,000 degrees, this organization needed a resource not only for them, but for all of those in school trying to make this mission a reality.