Nonprofit website design your own team keeps current

My clients include a statewide maternal health coalition, a global water pledge with the World Health Organization and UNICEF among its partners, and the research centers inside UNC and Colorado State. You get the website, the logo and brand around it, and the print and email marketing that carry the same message.

Book free consultationSee the work
 

Adrial is absolutely wonderful and cares deeply about his work and the content that he creates. … We trust Adrial with all of our graphic needs.

Kauline CiprianiVice President for Inclusive Excellence, Colorado State University
All testimonials

Three projects

A coalition, a global pledge, and a foundation's deadline

The Nurture NC homepage in purple and magenta: the pinwheel logo above the headline Join us in advancing maternal and infant health in NC, with a Get updates buttonNurture NCA coalition with no staff of its ownMore than 40 leaders from universities, health systems, state agencies and foundations, all pointed at the same problem. The site makes the statewide case easily scannable and gives the coalition somewhere to point.Read the case study The Global Lead-Free Water founding partners page: flags for Ghana, South Africa and Uganda beside UNICEF and the World Health Organization, then IAPMO, the Rural Water Supply Network, the UNC Water Institute, the University of Leeds, WaterAid and World Vision, above a row reading 47 partners have joinedGlobal Lead-Free WaterA pledge 47 organizations have signedGhana, South Africa and Uganda signed it, with UNICEF, the World Health Organization, WaterAid and World Vision among the founding partners. The site takes a health ministry or an NGO director from asking what this is to joining it in one sitting.Read the case study The FOCUS NC identity page: the wordmark with its starburst logo shown on white and again reversed on near-black, with notes on the typeface and on the violet NC lettersUNC Center for Thriving CommunitiesPaid for by a foundation, with a date on itFOCUS is funded by the William T. Grant Foundation and used by 114 local governments: 5 objectives, 18 steps, and a working session that runs for months. I designed the identity and built the application.Read the case study

None of the three had a marketing department. A coalition borrows its staff, a pledge lives on who is willing to sign it, and a foundation award arrives with a date on it. That is the budget and the clock I usually work inside.

The actual work

The pages that do the convincing

Most of the work on a site like this sits past the homepage: a number a board member can read in one glance, and a document somebody has to be willing to put their organization's name on.

A chart in purple and coral: a tall North Carolina bar labeled 26.7 beside a shorter national goal bar labeled 15, both for maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, above a large 29% figure for lower preterm birth risk with doula support
Nurture NC. The number the coalition is pointed at, set beside the national goal, from March of Dimes data on the coalition's own chart. See the project.
The Lead Pledge laid out as a readable document: four opening statements, then four numbered commitments covering new water systems, monitoring and data sharing, investigating lead at 10 parts per billion, and supporting communities
Global Lead-Free Water. The pledge itself, readable on the page, with every commitment an organization is signing up to. See the project.

The work

More work for mission-driven teams

Research centers, a consortium, a law school and a study. Most of these began as one piece of work, and the rest followed.

The UNC Consortium for Cancer Implementation Science siteUNC Consortium for Cancer Implementation Science53 research tools, found in one searchSee the projectThe UNC Cancer Control PopSim siteUNC Cancer Control PopSimFive tools that turn a simulation into a decisionSee the projectThe UNC Ecosystem Assessment siteUNC Ecosystem Assessment68 questions that map a whole systemSee the projectThe UNC FoRtitude Study siteUNC FoRtitude StudyAn eight-lesson program for life after cancer treatmentSee the projectThe UNC Water Institute siteUNC Water InstituteEvery project, paper and person, behind one filterSee the projectThe UNC Sheps DATA+ siteUNC Sheps DATA+50 years of rigor, on a site that shows itSee the projectThe UNC School of Law siteUNC School of LawEvery elected prosecutor in the country, searchable by zipSee the projectThe UNC Gillings COVID-19 Dashboard siteUNC Gillings COVID-19 Dashboard57 researchers, one page the public could useSee the project

The usual client

The team that does everything, including the website

That is who I usually work for. You have a mission, a budget somebody has to approve, and nobody whose actual job is the website. What you need is a site a staff member or a volunteer can update on a Tuesday afternoon, a quote your board can read in one page, and the same person on the phone next year. That is most of the work on this page.

The money

What a fixed price actually covers

One price per phase, approved before it starts

Your board sees a number, not a range, and that number is what the invoice says. There is no retainer and no monthly minimum, and you can stop after any phase.

No markup on anything I don't make

Your printer, your mailing house and your stock photography bill you direct, at their price. I charge for my time, which keeps the number your finance committee is looking at smaller.

A site your own people update

Every site here runs on a CMS a staff member or a volunteer keeps current, because a coalition can't wait on a vendor to change an event date. The UNC Water Institute runs 316 pages that way.

Questions

What nonprofits ask before they hire me

Our budget is fixed, and it is smaller than an agency's minimum.
That is usually why people call me. The work is quoted in phases, each one priced and approved before it starts, so you can take the piece you need now and come back for the next one when there is money for it. Plenty of this work began as one logo or one site.
Our board has to approve it.
The quote is one page, and it is written so somebody who was not on our call can read it and understand what they are approving: what you get, what it costs and when it happens. Every phase carries its own number, so a board can approve one piece without committing to the rest.
Our funding is a grant or a foundation award.
That changes the timing more than the work. Award money usually has a spend-by date and a scope written months ago, so I price in phases that start and stop on those dates and write the scope in the award's own language. FOCUS was paid for exactly that way, by the William T. Grant Foundation.
Can a volunteer keep the site updated?
Yes, and that is the test I build against. Every site here runs on a CMS that a staff member or a volunteer keeps current, because a coalition cannot wait on a vendor to change an event date. The UNC Water Institute runs 316 pages that way.
Do you take a cut of what we spend on printing?
No, your printer bills you direct at their price, and I charge for my time. The same goes for hosting beyond mine, stock photography and any other vendor. On a budget somebody has to defend line by line, that keeps the number you are defending smaller.
Does it have to be accessible?
If you take federal money, yes, and it is worth building in from the start. Every site here is built to WCAG 2.2 AA: real headings, a keyboard order that makes sense, color contrast that passes, and alt text written by somebody who saw the picture. Your readers get the benefit whether or not a funder asks.
Are you an agency?
No, I am one designer, and that is the trade. An agency gives you a team and an account manager between you and the person doing the work. You get me on the call and me doing the drawing, which is faster and cheaper, and it means I can only run a few of these at a time.

The disciplines

What this usually involves

Website design and buildThe site, and a CMS your own staff and volunteers run.Read more Logo and brandingA logo for a coalition or a campaign that has to travel.Read more Email and outreachThe newsletter your supporters asked for, going out on time.Read more Print and collateralAnnual reports, program books, posters and the leave-behind.Read more

Tell me what has to ship, and when

Twenty-five minutes. Bring the thing you have to get out, who has to approve it, and when your funder or your board expects it, and I'll tell you whether I can do it in that window.

Book free consultation