When the Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge came to us, they were facing a familiar but urgent challenge. Their existing Joomla website was outdated, difficult to maintain, and limiting their ability to communicate effectively with supporters. As an all-volunteer nonprofit dedicated to protecting San Francisco Bay, they needed a digital presence that matched the urgency, beauty, and importance of their conservation work.
The organization wanted a completely new website—one that was image-first, modern, and easy to manage without technical assistance. In addition to a fresh visual design, they needed tools to publish action alerts, highlight urgent issues, promote events, and mobilize supporters quickly.
Strategy, Design, and Platform Migration
We approached this project as a nonprofit website redesign, building a custom WordPress site from the ground up. The process began with in-depth discovery to understand the organization’s goals, followed by detailed sitemapping to organize content around education, advocacy, and engagement.
Our design work drew inspiration from the organization’s logo and natural color palette, with a strong emphasis on accessibility and visual storytelling. We created wireframes and style tiles that supported an image-first experience, incorporating nature photography, aerial views of the bay, and visual data points to reinforce the impact of their work.
On the technical side, we completed a programmatic migration from Joomla to WordPress, using command-line tools to safely transfer a large media library and existing content while implementing proper redirects. This ensured content continuity and preserved search visibility.
Functionality for Engagement and Action
To support advocacy and community involvement, we integrated tools that make it easy for the team to activate supporters:
- The Events Calendar for programs and public events
- Custom volunteer forms to grow and manage engagement
- PayPal donation integration for fundraising
- Action Network integration to publish action alerts and mobilize supporters quickly
The result is a flexible WordPress backend that allows staff and volunteers to update content independently and respond quickly to advocacy needs.
A Long-Term Partnership With a Strong Finish
This project stands out not only for its technical complexity, but for the long-term partnership required to bring it to completion.
Rather than stepping away, we remained committed and flexible—adjusting timelines, supporting content preparation, and transitioning project management mid-stream to ensure continuity. When the project re-launched in July 2025, we collaborated closely with the organization’s new content lead to finalize pages, refine the site, and prepare for launch.
A Website Built to Support Conservation Advocacy
Today, the Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge has a modern, reliable nonprofit website that reflects the beauty of San Francisco Bay and supports their advocacy efforts. With an intuitive WordPress platform, integrated action alerts, and a clean, nature-focused design, the organization can now communicate more clearly, mobilize supporters more effectively, and focus on protecting the bay for future generations.
This project reflects our commitment to seeing complex nonprofit websites through to success—adapting to real-world constraints while delivering a high-quality, mission-driven digital platform.
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