DevCollaborative

How to Use AI in Your Nonprofit Work

Johanna Bates — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 01:15:25 EDT

Many organizations have stakeholders who are demanding that they level up and participate in the “AI revolution” as soon as possible, so as not to get left behind. But how should any organization be using AI right now?

Nonprofit Staff with a Broken Website? Project Management Tips

Allie Thorpe — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 12:59:03 EDT

You work at a nonprofit organization, and something is broken on your website. You can’t get your work done because your website is broken. What’s the best process to fix it on time and within budget? What details do you need to share with your web developers?

Help Protect Your Organization in These Times: Use a Password Manager

Clare Parkinson, Miranda Max — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:28:38 EDT

To protect your website, your team members, and your organization, we recommend using a password manager. The benefit isn’t just security, but convenience too. A tool to store sensitive information can save time, precious headspace, and dozens of trees worth of insecure post-it notes.

National Center for Family Philanthropy

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 05:08:52 EST

We rebuilt the NCFP.org website that drops a costly HubSpot subscription and streamlines their workflow - saving staff both time and money.

Why Drupal for Nonprofits: A Conversation with Johanna Bates & Jess Snyder

Johanna Bates — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 09:00:00 EST

On the podcast, Talking Drupal, Johanna Bates and Jess Snyder share experiences and insights working with Drupal in the nonprofit sector.

The Consultative Approach: How Asking “Why” Can Get You a Better Website at a Lower Cost

Clare Parkinson, Allie Thorpe — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 07:25:06 EST

When you want to develop a new feature on your website, make sure you’re working with someone whose first instinct is to ask “Why?”.

Synergy! Jargon Doesn’t Just Cause Eye Rolls 🙄

Clayton Dewey — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 07:20:11 EST

Nonprofit website copy is often unnecessarily difficult to read. Jargon is a main culprit. Using plain language will extend your reach and engage more of your audience.

Protecting Communities from Contaminants with a Redesigned PFAS Exchange

Clayton Dewey, Clare Parkinson — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 05:21:47 EST

We redesigned the PFAS Exchange website on WordPress with a fresh look, easily editable by the communications team, and multilingual. All within a modest budget.

PFAS Exchange

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 05:13:25 EST

We redesigned the PFAS Exchange website on WordPress with a fresh look, easily editable by the communications team, and multilingual. All within a modest budget.

Webinar Recording: Writing Accessible Content for Your Nonprofit Website

Clayton Dewey — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 04:52:31 EST

In this free webinar, we get into the nitty-gritty of ensuring that our written content, and its images and other embedded media, are accessible and inclusive.

The Keys to Your Website: Everything You Need to Keep Your Digital Properties Running

Miranda Max, Clare Parkinson — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 03:40:28 EDT

Every organization should have complete autonomy over their digital properties. When you own, and can access, all your needed licenses and web service accounts, you are not beholden to any one vendor.

Hey Drupal Content Editors, Make Your Work Easier with Admin Menu Swap

Clayton Dewey, Jeff Hipp — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 05:23:28 EDT

Change out the developer-centric administration menu with one that meets the needs of your site admins, editors and authors with the Admin Menu Swap module.

Protecting Nonprofit Websites from a Hostile Government

Clayton Dewey — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 12:58:06 EDT

The Trump administration and its supporters are attacking dissenting views on a terrifying scale. Here are steps to protect your website from censorship.

A New FreePress.Net for More Effective Mobilizing

Clayton Dewey — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 03:18:52 EDT

We led a rebuild and redesign of Free Press’ Drupal website to modernize its codebase, expand its storytelling features, and refresh its design system.

Free Press

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 02:46:31 EDT

We redesigned Free Press’s Drupal website with a modern codebase, expanded storytelling features, and a fresh design system.

Building Websites That Last: The Open Source Superhighway

Johanna Bates — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 03:06:31 EDT

One of the things that decision-makers in nonprofits fear most is that they’ll their limited energy and funding into a project that will need to be scrapped within a few years. We minimize this needless risk by building collaboratively in open source software.

Why DevCollab is a Certified Drupal Partner

Clayton Dewey — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 10:56:27 EST

DevCollaborative is a certified Drupal Partner, demonstrating our expertise in the space and giving back to the open source community that our business benefits from.

The Entertainment Community Fund's Redesigned Website Navigation is Connecting More Actors with the Services They Need

Clayton Dewey — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 06:42:42 EST

We increased traffic to the Entertainment Community Fund’s service and program pages by implementing an easy to use, accessible mega menu.

Southeast Asia Resource Action Center

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 06:14:06 EST

We modernized SEARAC’s aging WordPress with a new design, EveryAction integration and a variety of WordPress blocks for powerful storytelling.

Why and How to Install Google Search Console on Your Drupal or WordPress Website

Clayton Dewey — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 12:48:05 EDT

Use Google Search Console to be a better listener by understanding what search queries are bringing visitors to your website.

You Hate Your Website, Who’s To Blame?

Johanna Bates — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 12:48:27 EDT

When a website is frustrating to update and use, it can be cathartic to vent about it. Most likely, a number of people–working in various contexts, with different kinds of challenges and constraints–made the many decisions that created a website that’s frustrating you right now. And when a site isn’t working for an organization, it can be tempting to look for someone or something to blame. As designers and developers, we have some insight into this. As well as into the age-old question: is it possible to future-proof your next site to prevent this from happening?

Entertainment Community Fund

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 05:22:53 EDT

We rebuilt the the Fund’s website in Drupal 10, maintaining its core design and content while enhancing the content administrator’s backend experience.

Free Press Action

Fri, 24 May 2024 05:53:22 EDT

We designed and developed a Drupal website for Free Press Action that integrates with ActionKit to encourage supporters to donate and take action.

When Your Website Is Getting In Your Way, It's Time

Johanna Bates — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 05:36:36 EST

Building a website should be much easier for us than it is for our clients. We can build websites in our sleep. We don’t have to run any decisions by outside stakeholders. What took us so long?

Hollywood, Health & Society

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 06:02:15 EST

We redesigned and rebuilt Hollywood, Health & Society’s website in WordPress, empowering their team to create tip sheets and other resources that are engaging and accessible.

Asian Resource Network

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 05:11:52 EST

We worked with the Asian Resource Network to build an intuitive, multilingual website matching disabled Asians with culturally competent service providers.

Decoded

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 01:11:33 EST

Decoded is an educational campaign funded by counties & cities in California to support young people in their overall well-being, both physically and mentally.

Social Innovation Forum

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 03:51:58 EST

We led SIF in a series of workshops to rearrange their organizational, community-oriented, and programs content to better suit their audiences.

USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 01:49:44 EDT

We updated the Center for Health Journalism website with a bold, new design, a seamless authoring experience built in Drupal, and a content strategy centered around the needs of journalists.

MaxLength 2.1.2 - A More Reliable and Easier Way to Set Character Limits on Your Drupal Website

Clayton Dewey — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 09:00:00 EDT

A new version of MaxLength is out now, with a more accurate character count for lines and spaces, a more consistent user interface and added flexibility for link fields.

Plausible Analytics for Nonprofit Websites

Clayton Dewey — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 09:00:00 EDT

The sunsetting of Google Analytics UA in 2023 is causing many to looking for alternatives. Plausible Analytics is an easier to use, privacy-respecting and ethical alternative analytics tool.

Futures and Options

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 02:12:29 EDT

Futures and Options empowers New York City youth to acquire skills, pursue higher education, and succeed in the global economy. DevCollab partnered with Pixels & Pulp to redesign the website and showcase FAO’s student programming and employer partnerships. The WordPress site includes mobile-friendly application forms for student participants and community partners.

Choosing the Right Analytics Tool For Your Nonprofit Website

Clayton Dewey — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 09:00:00 EDT

Google Analytics is changing, and becoming more complex. Do you need GA 4? Here’s a summary of the top analytics tools your nonprofit website can use to measure its performance, and how to find one that’s right for you.

Making Images Meaningful and Accessible with Alternative Text and Captions

Clayton Dewey, Heather Brokmeier — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 09:00:00 EST

Practical advice on writing helpful alternative text and captions for your images.

A Guide to Google Analytics 4 & GA Alternatives for Nonprofit Websites

Clayton Dewey — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 03:28:40 EDT

If you’ve logged into your Google Analytics dashboard recently, you probably noticed this message, “Universal Analytics will no longer process new data in standard properties beginning July 1, 2023. Prepare now by setting up and switching over to a Google Analytics 4 property.” So what exactly does that mean? In short, you will need to either upgrade to the new version of Google Analytics or use another system to gain insight into your site traffic.

The Climate Center

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 09:00:00 EDT

We redesigned the Climate Center’s WordPress website with an intuitive navigation, flexible authoring experience and action-oriented design.

5 Biggest Cost Drivers of Nonprofit Website Projects

Johanna Bates — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 04:43:43 EDT

Folks often ask us, “What are the things that can make website redesign and rebuild projects more expensive?” The quick answer: things that take up a lot of time.

Maxlength Module 2.0 Out Now - Set Character Limits on Your Drupal Website

Clayton Dewey — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 12:12:12 EDT

Last year, we at DevCollaborative became maintainers of the Maxlength Drupal module. Numerous usability tests, 32 commits and 35 contributors later we’ve reached a stable release for the project.

Health Equity International

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 09:00:00 EDT

We modernized Health Equity International’s Drupal website with storytelling component, a streamlined editing experience with a full suite of storytelling components.

Maxlength 2.0.0-RC2 - A More Accurate and Easy-to-configure Character Limit

Clayton Dewey — Mon, 02 May 2022 12:12:12 EDT

The latest version of Maxlength fixes a user permission, solves an obscure blinking cursor situation and more. Plus an improved UI based on user feedback.

Enhance Your Drupal Website's Authoring Experience Part 5 - Accessibility Tools and Conclusion

Clayton Dewey — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 12:12:12 EST

Help your authors write accessible content on your Drupal website with these tools.

Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 09:00:00 EST

We helped Fairbank to redesign and rebuild their old WordPress site to put more focus on their people and events while preserving accessibility.

Drupal 7 Support Extended to 2023: Good News for Nonprofits

Johanna Bates — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 12:12:12 EST

Drupal 7’s End of Life has been extended again to at least 2023. We’re here to tell what this means, and why it’s still important to plan to rebuild your site if you’re still in Drupal 7.

Enhance Your Drupal Website’s Authoring Experience Part 4 - Fine Tune Admin Pages

Clayton Dewey — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:12:12 EST

Customize the administrative experience to make it easier for content editor users to manage content, user accounts, and content blocks.

Enhance Your Drupal Website’s Authoring Experience Part 3 - Improve the Field User Interface

Clayton Dewey — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 12:12:12 EST

With logical grouping, appropriate field formats, and polished workflows, we can make the entry process for even the longest forms manageable and intuitive.

Social Innovation + Change Initiative at Harvard

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 09:00:00 EST

SICI, DevCollab, and Pentagram collaborated to create a new information architecture, and bring their new messaging and aesthetics to life, prioritizing web accessibility throughout the project.

Enhance Your Drupal Website's Authoring Experience Part 2 - Declutter the User Interface

Clayton Dewey — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 12:12:12 EST

In our first post, we saw the big difference that switching our Drupal website to the Gin admin theme can make for sighted users. Gin’s approach to spacing, its clean icons and soft color palette allows the elements on the page to breathe more freely (and we authors as well!). There are so many elements on this page, however, that the interface can still feel overwhelming. We have some tips to help make things better.

Enhance Your Drupal Website’s Authoring Experience Part 1 - Modernize the Admin Theme with Gin

Clayton Dewey — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 12:12:12 EST

Something as simple as switching the administrative theme can have a big impact on the usability of your website for sighted users, thanks to the law of the aesthetic-usability effect.

Using Analytics and Usability Testing to Inform More Tenants of Their Rights

Clayton Dewey — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 12:12:12 EDT

We knew through analytics that “Resources” on Bay Area Legal Services were not reaching as many people as they should be. We used usability testing to make small changes that greatly improved user engagement.

The Best Drupal Accessibility Checker for Content Authors Is... Editoria11y

Clayton Dewey — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 12:12:12 EDT

We want our websites to be able to reach as many people as possible. If done right, your site’s visual design and theme will ensure that color contrasts work for the vast majority of people, that screen reader users and keyboard navigators can use your menus, and that other accessibility benchmarks are met. So, when all is said and done, remaining accessibility issues usually come down to the content that editors add to a site. This is where accessibility checkers prove useful.

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 09:00:00 EDT

We worked with the Carle team and Theory One Design to make a user-friendly site while putting the museum’s wonderful art and distinctive aesthetic front-and-center.

How to Add an RSS Feed to a Drupal Website

Clayton Dewey — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 09:00:00 EDT

I recently went through the process of setting up an RSS Feed for our blog here at DevCollaborative so that our articles can be syndicated to Planet Drupal. It had a surprising amount of gotchas and the documentation was dated and sparse. So I thought I’d help remedy that by sharing what I learned.

Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 03:16:31 EDT

We needed freshened up the Rockefeller Brothers Fund website withtheir new visual brand and integrated it with the GivingData Grants Management System API.

Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 09:00:00 EST

We built a new Drupal site for the Davis Center with a modern, mobile-friendly design, and created flexible components to show off their rich content and imagery.

The Journalist's Resource

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 03:27:26 EST

We updated the Journalist’s Resource brand and logo, then built out the new brand into a complete web design in a fresh WordPress site.

Consentful UX

Johanna Bates, Clayton Dewey — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 12:12:12 EST

Clayton introduced me to the Consentful Tech Project, which provides a framework for applying Planned Parenthood’s FRIES definition of consent to applications. Clayton and I played around with extending that framework into the world of web UX, and the result of those thought experiments is our talk, Consentful UX. A video of the talk and its slides are here.

The Media Manipulation Casebook

Sun, 01 Nov 2020 09:00:00 EST

We created a searchable database of Harvard’s unique research on detecting, documenting, and debunking media manipulation and disinformation campaigns.

Extending Drupal 7's End of Life: What's a nonprofit to do now? An Update

Johanna Bates — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 09:00:00 EDT

Drupal 7’s extended support is good news for nonprofit organizations on Drupal 7 who don’t have funds, capacity, and/or time for a rebuild right now.

CFLeads

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 09:00:00 EDT

We worked with Big Duck on a new brand for Community Foundations Leading Chang, then extended that into a brand new WordPress website.

Essential Partners

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 09:00:00 EDT

We launched Essential Partners on a new Drupal site that brings to life their new brand.

New England Quakers

Thu, 14 Nov 2019 09:00:00 EST

We helped New England Yearly Meeting move to Drupal 8, reducing their content, and modernizing their messaging and design in the process.

Bay Area Legal Services

Mon, 04 Nov 2019 09:00:00 EST

We designed and built an accessible, mobile-friendly site that prioritized the Bay Area Legal Services’ clients in need.

Silent Spring Institute

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 09:00:00 EDT

We helped the Silent Spring Institute organize their content and design a mobile-friendly, responsive site.

LightShip - A Smaller-stack Drupal 8 Starter Theme

Johanna Bates — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 12:12:12 EDT

I stopped complaining about overly-complex Drupal 8 starter themes and, together with the DevCollab team, made our own ready-to-customize sub-theme of Classy. Our Drupal 8 starter theme is called LightShip, and we shared it on Drupal.org.

Right Sharing of World Resources

Thu, 04 Oct 2018 09:00:00 EDT

We worked with Right Sharing of World Resources to create a clear information architecture, visual brand, and a mobile-friendly web design.

Drupal 7 & 8 Support Ends Nov. 2021. What's a Nonprofit to Do?

Johanna Bates — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 09:00:00 EDT

Drupal 7 reaches its end of life January 5, 2025. Here’s what it means for nonprofits.

DrupalCon Nonprofit Summit, Nashville Edition

Johanna Bates — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 12:12:12 EDT

I just got back from a double-conference trip, first to DrupalCon Nashville, followed mid-week by the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference (18NTC) in New Orleans. That’s a lot of conferences in one week, but my brief trip to each conference was really fulfilling. Here, I give a recap of the second-ever DrupalCon Nonprofit Summit.

Website Accessibility & Social Justice at NTEN 18NTC

Johanna Bates — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 12:12:12 EDT

I just got back from a double-conference trip, first to DrupalCon Nashville, followed mid-week by the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference (18NTC) in New Orleans. That’s a lot of conferences in one week, but my brief trip to each conference was really fulfilling. Here, I tell more about co-presenting the 18NTC session, “Website Accessibility Is A Social Justice Issue”.

D.I.Y. Disaster Response Web Forms in Drupal

Johanna Bates — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 12:12:12 EST

What gets me out of bed in the morning, day after day, to build websites for nonprofits is the idea that a well-built website can make an org’s work easier, save them time, or help them reach more people. Our client The Actors Fund (TAF) recently used their Drupal site to do all of those things, in response to the devastating 2017 hurricanes.

Fall Update

Johanna Bates — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 12:12:12 EST

I’ve finally managed to migrate our old blog from our old Drupal 7 site with its old design to this new Drupal 8 one, with its new design. In the meantime, I also wrote a blog post for SuperYesMore’s Human in the Machine project, about productivity. Or, more like, how to stop being productive when the day is over.

Why Nonprofit Developers and Decision-Makers Should Track Backdrop

Johanna Bates — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 12:12:12 EDT

When I first heard the news that there was a Drupal fork, I was pretty surprised and doubtful. Then I heard who started the fork, and I got a lot more interested, really fast.

Legal Services of Northern California

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 09:00:00 EDT

We helped Legal Services of Northern California re-imagine its site as a resource for their clients in need. Their mobile and tablet web traffic increased 35% shortly after launch.

Performance & Accessibility: Let's Open Source That

Johanna Bates — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 12:12:12 EST

I’m dashing this off because I just read Ethan Marcotte’s post “Free, faster”. In his post, he’s talking about a problem that we deal with all the time in our work with nonprofit organizations. And due to the political climate, we’re dealing with it even more than usual right now.

Content Editors Are Users, Too

Johanna Bates — Thu, 19 May 2016 12:12:12 EDT

Over our years of working with organizations, we’ve developed some strong opinions about how to make the Drupal content editing forms as helpful as possible. Our colleague Eileen Webb talks about this as “AX” (like “UX”, but for content administrators). We think AX is particularly relevant in the nonprofit sector, where there is often uneven funding for technology and extra staff turnover that can result in a loss of org knowledge. Since I find that I’m continually referencing these three A List Apart articles on this topic, I’m going to stash them here on our blog for efficiency’s sake.

The Drupal Three Year Plan

Johanna Bates — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 12:12:12 EST

We keep hearing this question: “Should I build in Drupal 7, or Drupal 8?” The answer to this question will differ depending on your organization’s needs and your project goals. But here’s one thing we can tell you: right now, if you build in Drupal 7 or Drupal 8, you should do so with a sound content strategy and a three-year plan. Why? Because Drupal is at a major transition point, and either path will need attention in the next three years.

Presentation from Design 4 Drupal Boston 2014

Erin Fogel — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 12:12:12 EDT

Johanna and I just came back from Design4Drupal 2014 at the MIT Stata Center. I’ve been going to this Drupal Camp for several years, but this year certainly had the most informative and well-rounded set of sessions. I particularly enjoyed Steve Fisher’s (@hellofisher) keynote with takeaways like: “Good user experience is connecting the head and the heart” and “Silos are for farming, not web design”.

Where We'll Be at the #14NTC

Johanna Bates — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 12:12:12 EST

Erin and I will be at the 2014 NTEN NTC next week in Washington, D.C. We’re going to helping with Drupal Day on Wednesday. I will also be doing a breakout session about diversity, accountability, and empowerment in nonprofits and the nonprofit tech community.

Style Tile Success

Johanna Bates — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 12:12:12 EST

If you’ve ever been here before, you may notice that the site looks totally different. We started DevCollaborative in January 2013. The three of us were already working together, and had been in various forms for some years, but we decided to team up under a common name to make it easier to think and talk about ourselves as a team as we worked to develop more unified processes, better collaboration techniques, etc.

CKEditor & Responsive Images

Johanna Bates — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 12:12:12 EST

Ah yes… WYSIWYG editors (or as I prefer to more accurately call them, “rich text editors”). As you can see, I’m not their biggest fan. There are lots of reasons why they’re troublesome, but I’ll save that for another post. I wanted to quickly share a problem we came up against yesterday with a site we’re about to launch, and its solution.

Recurring Memberships in Drupal 7

Max Pearl — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 12:12:12 EDT

Building a membership site in Drupal isn’t so hard, really. The challenge is to have memberships that include recurring fees. That is, a membership that automatically renews, and the member pays automatically. There are several reasons why this is hard. Some reasons include the payment processor - not all payment processors support recurring fees. But mostly, it’s the tools we have available that are limiting in their options. But it is possible, though difficult, and fraught with peril.

DrupalCon PDX Favorite Picks

Johanna Bates — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 12:12:12 EDT

We haven’t posted in way too long because we’ve been busy building some cool new sites, including this responsive beauty: http://jewishsocialjustice.org. And then Michelle and I went to DrupalCon Portland.

5 Days Left to Replace Your Twitter RSS Feed in Drupal

Johanna Bates — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:12:12 EST

If you haven’t heard, Twitter RSS is officially dead on March 5, 2013 (here it is in Twitter-corporate-speak; Mashable translation). If you’re using Aggregator to pull a Twitter RSS feed into your Drupal site for pretty stylin’, then you have to act now.

Saying "No" to Clients

Max Pearl — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:12:12 EST

As developers, saying “no” to clients sounds, on it’s face, like a bad idea. You want to do what the clients need, you don’t want to upset them, and, frankly, you want the hours. But the truth is, in order to build websites that are cost-effective and sustainable, you have to say “no” sometimes.

Symfony is Coming! This is Why You Should Care

Max Pearl — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 12:12:12 EST

Whether you belong to an organization which has, or is planning a Drupal site implementation, or a Drupal developer, you should know, and care about Symfony.

Drupal Commandments

Max Pearl — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:12:12 EST

About a year ago, I was deeply enmeshed in fixing a rather badly-developed Drupal site for a client. In my frustration and anger, I wrote these commandments. I thought these would go without saying, but obviously, they needed to be said.