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Start with audiences and content, not templates. Those decisions set the navigation, the page layouts, and the paths to action.
A nonprofit web design agency built around your mission.
Your website should reflect the organization you are now, with room for what comes next. Red Clay Creative is a nonprofit web design agency for organizations with overlapping audiences and a lot to explain.
Let’s work together →
At a glance
Service stage
02 Build
01
Start with audiences and content, not templates. Those decisions set the navigation, the page layouts, and the paths to action.
02
Name who writes, approves, enters, and migrates each page before work starts. No page should be left without an owner.
03
Plan for accessibility from the first wireframe, with an agreed conformance target and a way to test it.
04
Settle launch and ongoing support together: redirects, analytics checks, staff training, and who maintains what afterward.
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Ask to see relevant work. Our Whitman-Walker project shows how research and content decisions help a complex organization explain itself.
Experience
A nonprofit website has to serve people with different needs and reasons for visiting, often all at once. We’ve worked on those questions with mission-driven organizations including Whitman-Walker, Chamber Dance Project, and Rebuilding Together DC · Alexandria, from clarifying a complex mission to deciding how to present it online.
“Their in-depth market analysis and meaningful engagement with our stakeholders provided the clarity needed to refine our messaging.”
Abby Fenton · former Executive Director, Whitman-Walker Foundation
The challenge
More programs. More audiences. More to explain. Meanwhile, the website still describes the organization you were when it launched.
Added programs and years of updates can leave visitors unsure what you do or where to start.
Donors, volunteers, partners, and people seeking services each look for a different next step.
When basic edits are hard, content falls behind and your team spends its time working around the site.
Outcomes
We agree on what success means with your team. These are intended outcomes, not guarantees of donations, traffic, or rankings.
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Visitors can tell who you are, what you do, and why it matters.
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Giving, volunteering, and finding services get simpler, depending on what your project includes.
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We plan content, design, and features so more people can use the site.
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Your staff get page layouts and editing tools that fit how they update the site.
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Training and care options help your team keep the site current after launch.
What we do
Nonprofit web development goes better when the decisions behind the site and the experience people see are made together. We shape the scope with your team, then build to it.
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Understand what is working, what is getting in the way, and what each audience needs. Discovery gets your team’s priorities into one shared direction before design starts.
What takes shape
Discovery findings and website priorities
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We review and organize your content, refine the message, and plan the site map around the questions your visitors bring. Content and navigation are planned together, with owners named.
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Your brand becomes a website that feels recognizable and easy to explore. Layouts connect your story, imagery, and key actions on desktop and mobile.
What takes shape
Website designs and reusable page layouts
04
We build in WordPress, with an editing setup that suits the people who maintain the site. Before building, we work through the features and connections your project needs.
What takes shape
WordPress website and agreed website features
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Accessible nonprofit websites come from decisions across content, design, and code, so we plan for access from the first wireframe. Search priorities shape structure and content the same way, with testing scope agreed up front.
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Launch is when the site starts being used, so we prepare your team for that move. Launch support and training make the handoff clear, and care and hosting options cover what comes next.
What takes shape
Launch plan, training, and support options
How it works
The work moves through five phases, each ending in a review your team signs off on. You bring what you know about the organization. We turn it into a website people can use.
Let’s work together01
We interview stakeholders, review your content and analytics, and set audience priorities. Together we agree on a strategy brief and scope. Your team joins the interviews and an alignment session, so the project starts from shared priorities.
You get
Agreed priorities and project scope
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We develop the sitemap, content model, priority journeys, and wireframes for key templates. Your team reviews how the information is organized and approves the structure before design begins. We also test whether it makes sense to someone outside your organization.
You get
A site map and content plan
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We create the visual direction, key templates, and reusable components, with accessibility considered throughout. Your team reviews how the design handles real content and approves the system before development.
You get
Approved designs for the website
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We develop the WordPress site and agreed integrations, coordinate content entry and migration, map redirects, and run accessibility and quality checks. Your team reviews the working site against the agreed scope. Content roles are assigned in discovery, so the schedule doesn’t stall on a page everyone assumed someone else was writing.
You get
A working site ready for review
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We verify redirects, check analytics, complete launch QA, and train the people who will run the site. Together we confirm launch readiness and the support that follows. Your team leaves with a live site and a clear sense of how to use it.
You get
A launch and handoff plan
whitman-walker.org
[Mobile capture]
Client
Whitman-Walker
Partner
Spotted MP
Client since
2021
Whitman-Walker has been a client since 2021. Our work together spans brand strategy, Digital Strategy, web design and development, graphic design, SEO, and Google Ads.
It started with a question about how the organization explained itself. Whitman-Walker’s work spans care, advocacy, and research. Its website needed to help people understand those connected roles and find what’s relevant to them.
Working with Spotted MP, we conducted research and interviews with leadership, board members, and key stakeholders. That work informed the brand messaging, clarified how the organization’s pillars support one another, and led to a strategy for bringing two websites together. Knowing how the pieces fit gave the website work its direction.
Working together
Your team already has a full job. We plan the work so you know what we need from you and when, and we stay accountable for the result.
We settle audiences, content, and priorities before anyone opens a design file, so layouts answer real questions.
We take the time to understand your programs and the people you serve before we recommend anything.
Content, UX, design, and WordPress development are planned together, so a decision in one doesn’t undo another.
We stay involved after launch. Care Plans & Hosting and Digital Strategy support are there when you want them.
FAQ
A clear explanation of your mission, useful information about your programs, and an easy next step for each audience. That might be finding services, donating, volunteering, or attending an event. The right mix depends on who you serve and what they need to do.
It moves through five phases: discover, plan, design, build, and launch. We start by understanding your organization and the problems you want to solve. Scope and review points are agreed with your team along the way.
We build on WordPress. Before recommending an approach, we look at your current platform, who edits the site, and which features you need. If your project involves a different platform, we’ll talk it through with you before defining the scope.
Bring your existing tools into the first conversation. We look at what needs to connect, such as donation, event, email, or form tools, how people should move between them and your website, and what the project requires. Specific platforms and connections are confirmed during planning.
We plan for it from the start, using the W3C’s WCAG 2.2 as the reference. Together we agree on the project’s conformance target and how it will be tested. Design, content, and features all affect who can use the site, so these decisions stay open throughout.
A redesign is a chance to decide what to keep, improve, combine, or retire. We agree on who writes, enters, and migrates content before the build, and we plan page address changes and redirects alongside it. We can’t promise rankings, and the exact work depends on scope.
It depends on scope. The main factors are the size of the site, the condition of your content, the features required, and how your team reviews work. We start with a conversation about those needs, so the proposed scope, budget, and timing reflect the actual project.
Launch support and training are part of our website services. For ongoing needs, we also offer Care Plans & Hosting and Digital Strategy support. We can help you decide what fits, from keeping the site maintained to planning larger improvements over time.
Support beyond the website
Ongoing, embedded support with regular check-ins, quarterly planning, and coordination across your website, content, SEO, and marketing.
Messaging, content audits, and editorial refinement that help each audience find what to read first and what to do next.
Security monitoring, updates, backups, and managed hosting, with someone responsible for keeping your site running after launch.
Let’s talk
Whether you’re planning a redesign or deciding what comes next, we can help connect your website, communications, and organizational goals. Tell us what has changed, where the current site gets in the way, and what the next version needs to make possible. We’ll work toward a clear direction together.