Nonprofit Website Maintenance — Case Study

The Website Issue Most Nonprofits Miss

Their Donation Form Was Failing Supporters. Here's How We Fixed It.

Your website is often the first place supporters go to donate, sign up, or learn about your mission. When a donation form fails mid-campaign or a routine update breaks a page supporters rely on, the cost isn't just technical — it's missed gifts and lost trust. Here's exactly how JanBask helped one nonprofit fix it, and build a website their team could finally rely on.

Get the 2-Minute Overview →
70% Fewer Recurring Website Issues Repeat problems stopped coming back
99.9% Uptime Donation Form Reliability Through the following campaign cycle
28% More Completed Donations Recovered from a smoother, faster experience
Client
Nonprofit Organization
Industry
Nonprofit & Donor Engagement
Timeline to Results
70% fewer recurring issues in 60 days
Service
Website Maintenance & Support

A Website That Was Quietly Costing Them Donations

A donation form that failed mid-campaign. An update that broke a page supporters relied on. A site that got slower every year. Before JanBask, this organization's team dreaded every campaign, wondering what would break next. Here's what changed — and why it matters.

What Our Client Said
"

Every campaign, we held our breath hoping the donation form wouldn't break. It happened more than once — mid-campaign, no warning, and we had no real idea how many gifts we lost. JanBask traced it back to the actual root causes and cut our recurring website issues significantly. Now our team can focus on our mission instead of babysitting the website.

DD
Development Director, Nonprofit Organization
Community-Based Nonprofit
Nonprofit-Aware Web Engineering We understand donation platforms, fundraising campaign cycles, and the trust supporters place in your site — not just generic CMS upkeep
Root Cause, Not a Patch Job Instead of silencing the symptom, we trace every outage and error to its actual source and fix it permanently
Dedicated Engineer, Not a Support Ticket One person who knows your site, your donation platform, and your campaign calendar — not a new freelancer every time
See How We Can Do the Same for You →
The 4 Problems We Solved

The Issues That Were Costing Them Gifts and Trust

Select a challenge below to see what was happening, how we approached it, and the measurable outcome it produced.

The Problem

A Donation Form That Failed at the Worst Possible Time

During a major giving campaign, the donation form would error out or hang — and donors simply gave up rather than reporting it. Nobody on staff knew anything was wrong until a supporter called to ask why their gift didn't go through.

  • Donation form throwing errors during high-traffic campaign days
  • Payment gateway timeouts with no visible error message to donors
  • No confirmation emails sent after some completed donations
  • Staff unaware anything was wrong until a donor called to complain
How We Fixed It

Donation Flow Audit, Payment Gateway Hardening & Real-Time Alerts

We audited the entire donation flow end to end, fixed the payment gateway's timeout and retry handling, verified confirmation emails were firing reliably, and set up real-time alerts specifically for the donation form.

  • End-to-end donation flow tested under real campaign-level traffic
  • Payment gateway timeout and retry logic fixed
  • Confirmation emails now verified and logged for every transaction
  • Real-time alerts notify staff the moment a donation fails
99.9%
Donation form uptime through the following campaign cycle
The Problem

Routine Updates That Broke Pages Supporters Depended On

Plugin and CMS updates were applied directly to the live site with no testing. One update broke the volunteer sign-up page for over a week before anyone noticed — with no way to know how many supporters tried and gave up.

  • Updates applied directly to the live site with no staging environment
  • Volunteer sign-up and event registration pages breaking after updates
  • No rollback plan when an update caused a page to fail
  • Broken pages discovered by supporters, not staff
How We Fixed It

Staging Environment, Pre-Update Testing & Rollback Protocol

We built a staging environment that mirrors the live site, introduced a pre-update testing checklist for every supporter-facing page, and documented a rollback procedure so a bad update never sits live for long.

  • Staging environment mirrors the live site for safe testing
  • Every update tested against key supporter-facing pages before going live
  • Documented rollback procedure — reverting takes minutes, not days
  • Update windows scheduled around campaign and event calendars
0
Supporter-facing outages since staging and testing went live
The Problem

A Website That Got Slower — and Harder to Use — Every Year

Years of added plugins, pages, and content with no cleanup had quietly slowed the site down. Navigation had become confusing, and the mobile donation experience lagged behind, even though most supporters were giving from their phones.

  • Page load times climbing past 6-7 seconds on key donation pages
  • Confusing navigation making it hard to find how to donate or get involved
  • Mobile experience lagging behind, despite most traffic coming from mobile
  • Years of accumulated plugins and unused pages slowing everything down
How We Fixed It

Performance Audit, Site Cleanup & Mobile-First Optimization

We audited and removed unused plugins and legacy pages, optimized images and assets, simplified navigation around the actions supporters actually take, and rebuilt the mobile donation experience.

  • Unused plugins and legacy pages removed, cutting page weight significantly
  • Caching and image optimization implemented site-wide
  • Navigation simplified around donate, sign up, and learn more
  • Mobile donation experience rebuilt and tested across devices
50%
Faster average page load across the site
The Problem

A Website Handling Donor Data Without Modern Safeguards

An outdated CMS core, inconsistent SSL renewal, and no clear process for securing donor and payment information left the organization exposed — putting the one thing nonprofits can't afford to lose at risk: donor trust.

  • CMS core and plugins several versions out of date
  • No clear process for securing donor and payment information
  • SSL certificate renewal handled manually and inconsistently
  • No monitoring for suspicious login or access activity
How We Fixed It

Security Hardening, Automated SSL & Donor Data Safeguards

We patched and updated the CMS and all dependencies, automated SSL renewal, reviewed and secured how donor and payment data is handled, and added monitoring for suspicious activity.

  • CMS core and plugins updated and placed on a patch schedule
  • SSL renewal automated — no more expiration risk
  • Donor and payment data handling reviewed and secured
  • Monitoring in place to flag suspicious login or access activity
100%
Of critical security patches applied, zero incidents since
Measurable Impact

60 Days. Real Numbers. No Guesswork.

From donation form reliability to page speed — every metric moved in the right direction.

0%
Donation Form Uptime
Through the following campaign cycle
0%
Fewer Recurring Issues
Repeat problems stopped coming back
0%
Faster Page Load
More supporters completing donations on mobile
0%
More Completed Donations
Recovered revenue from a smoother experience
Before vs After — 60 Days
Donation Form Errors During Campaigns-95%
BeforeAfter
Average Page Load Time-50%
BeforeAfter
Recurring Website Issues-70%
BeforeAfter
System Health Scores
0%
Donation Uptime
0%
Updates Tested
-0%
Form Errors
-0%
Recurring Issues
Measured across 60-day engagement period
Our Engagement Model

How We Approach Maintenance & Support

Three phases. Clear deliverables at each stage. You know exactly what's being done and why before we touch a line of code.

Phase 01Week 1

Full Site & Donation Flow Audit

We review your donation flow, hosting environment, CMS/plugin versions, page performance, and security posture — then prioritize fixes by what actually affects donors and supporters, not just visibility.

Technical audit Prioritised fix roadmap
Phase 02Weeks 2–8

Stabilise & Clear the Backlog

We work through the donation flow, hosting, security, and broken functionality systematically — testing every change in staging before it touches production. No band-aid fixes.

Tested & documented fixes Weekly progress report
Phase 03Ongoing

Ongoing Support Retainer

Once stabilised, we move to a proactive maintenance model — donation form monitoring, scheduled update windows in staging around your campaign calendar, monthly reports, and rapid response for anything urgent. Your team stays focused on the mission, not the website.

Donation form monitoring Monthly health report
Free — No Commitment

Get the 2-Minute Overview

See exactly how we helped a nonprofit reduce recurring website issues and build a more reliable experience for their supporters — and what it could look like for yours.

No pressure — just a quick look at how we helped a similar nonprofit.

No spam Reply within 24 hrs 100% free
Donor-Data-Aware Engineering
Every fix respects donor and payment data
Nonprofit Web Specialists
Donation platforms, CMS, campaigns — we know nonprofit sites
Rapid Response SLA
Fast turnaround on critical issues
Dedicated Engineer
One person who knows your site
Common Questions

Before You Reach Out

Straight answers to the questions every nonprofit director and comms lead asks us before getting started.

Small website issues rarely stay small — especially during a campaign. Here's what we typically see before an organization reaches out:

  • A donation form stops working during a campaign, and nobody notices until a supporter calls to ask why.
  • An update affects a page supporters rely on — a sign-up form, an event page, a way to get involved.
  • The website becomes slower and harder to navigate over time, quietly costing conversions.
  • Small glitches turn into missed gifts and frustrated supporters during the moments that matter most.

If any of this sounds familiar, get the 2-minute overview of how we helped one nonprofit fix it.

  • A short, plain-language walkthrough of how we found and fixed the recurring issues behind one nonprofit's donation form failures, broken updates, and slowing site.
  • The same methodology and tools we'd use to assess your own website — no jargon, no obligation.
  • It's a genuine look at our approach, not a sales pitch — if it's not a fit, you'll know quickly and we'll say so.
  • Request it here and we'll send it over within 24 hours.
  • WordPress, Squarespace, Drupal, and custom-built nonprofit websites — along with donation and CRM integrations like Donorbox, Classy, Neon CRM, and Blackbaud.
  • We work with both off-the-shelf platforms and fully custom sites that your current vendor no longer maintains properly.
  • If you're unsure whether we cover your stack, the 2-minute overview is a low-effort way to start the conversation — no commitment required.
  • Site and donation flow audit begins within 5 business days of engagement kick-off — we don't need months of onboarding to start being useful.
  • If a campaign is already live and something's broken, we can triage and scope an emergency engagement faster — get in touch and tell us what's happening.
  • The first week is audit-only — we observe, document, and ask questions. No changes are made to your live site until you've reviewed and approved the fix plan.
  • We start with a defined 60-day stabilisation engagement — fixed scope, fixed deliverables, clear success metrics.
  • After 60 days, ongoing support moves to a rolling monthly model. Cancel with 30 days notice at any point.
  • No multi-year lock-in. Organizations stay because the site stays reliable — not because a contract forces them.
  • Everything we document, fix, and test is yours — no IP lock-in on the work product.
  • JanBask is an enterprise IT and AI consulting firm — not a generalist web agency or a break-fix freelancer. We understand donation platforms, campaign cycles, and the trust supporters place in your site.
  • Most web vendors patch what's reported. We analyse why the site keeps breaking — and fix that. The difference shows up during your next campaign, when the donation form just works.
  • You get a dedicated engineer who knows your site's hosting, integrations, and history — not a shared ticket queue where you re-explain the context every time.
  • See more about our Enterprise IT Services capabilities.
  • Pricing is scoped to your site's complexity, issue backlog, and hosting environment — we also work to be mindful of nonprofit budgets, since we know every dollar matters.
  • The 60-day stabilisation engagement is a fixed-fee scope. No surprise invoices halfway through.
  • Most organizations find the ROI clear within the first 60 days — fewer missed gifts, less staff time spent firefighting, and a site supporters can actually trust.
  • Get the 2-minute overview and we'll follow up with a scoped estimate specific to your situation — usually within 24 hours.
  • Yes — securing donor and payment data is part of our standard approach, not an add-on. Every fix is reviewed with donor trust and data safety in mind.
  • Our audit covers payment gateway handling, SSL/encryption, CMS patching, and monitoring for suspicious login or access activity.
  • We don't replace your legal counsel or payment processor's own compliance requirements — but we make sure the engineering side doesn't create gaps that put donor trust at risk.
Explore The Work

Pick A Story. See The Impact.

Each case study highlights the challenge, the solution architecture, and the measurable outcomes delivered.