Nonprofit portfolio

Discover. Develop. Differentiate.

website screenshot of NIIOH

A new mobile responsive WordPress CMS for NIIOH, to replace their non-mobile friendly Drupal site.

NIIOH provides convenings, tools and resources for thousands of educators, health professionals and other organizations to eradicate dental disease.

New site features include an e-newsletter signup, site search, custom 404 error page, and a modern visual refresh.

Scope of Work

  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Security Hardening
  • Visual Layout & Design
  • WordPress Theme Development
Performance MetricOld Drupal WebsiteNew WordPress Site
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility45/10089/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices67/10096/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed90/10070/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed100/10096/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization54/10085/100
WebPageTest Speed Index4.2834.786
Total Homepage File Size252 Kb (153 Kb Images + 54 Kb Scripts + 26 Kb CSS + 15 Kb Other + 4 Kb HTML)1.136 Mb (679 Kb Images + 101 Kb Scripts + 189 Kb CSS + 175 Kb Fonts + 19 Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests52 (11 images + 2 scripts + 37 CSS files + 1 Other + 1 HTML)52 (31 Images + 9 Scripts + 9 CSS + 2 Fonts + 1 HTML)
Estimated Homepage Mobile Load Time~4.3 seconds~4.8 seconds

WebPage Test Speed Index: median = ~3.591; top 10% = <1.388
In 2023, the average page size = ~2.4 Mb and median page size = ~2.1 Mb.
Database-driven websites, like WordPress, are more performance optimized when server requests are < 40 – 60.

Site Credits

Visual Design: David Owen Hastings
WordPress Design + Development: Scott Marlow

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Scholarships to Support Spokane Student Education

Spokane nonprofit retired teachers association website

A new WordPress-powered website for Spokane Area Retired Educator’s Association (SAREA), a member organization of Washington State School Retirees Association.

This Spokane nonprofit association lost access to their domain registrar and host, after a key stakeholder passed away. After a new domain name was secured,  site content was manually migrated into a WordPress CMS for more intuitive content editing. The new site incorporates an online application for scholarships and mini-grants awarded each fall.

Scope of Work

  • Content Migration
  • Performance Optimization
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Security Hardening
  • Visual Layout & Design
  • WordPress Theme Development
  • WordPress Training & Consulting

Performance

Page load speed is excellent with overall page size, 273 Kb, 88% below the median homepage size. Accessibility benchmarks are also superb.

Performance Metric New WordPress Website
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility 100/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices 100/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed 70/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed 91/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization 93/100
WebPageTest Speed Index 1.795
Total Homepage File Size 273 Kb (218 Kb Images + 9 Kb Scripts + 45Kb CSS + 8Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests 18 (5 Images + 4 Scripts + 8 CSS + 1 HTML)
Estimated Mobile Homepage Load Time ~1.8 seconds

WebPageTest Speed Index: median = ~3.591; top 10% = <1.388
In 2022, the average page size = ~2.4 Mb and median page size = ~2.1 Mb.
Database-driven websites, like WordPress, are more performance optimized when server requests are < 40 – 60.

Site Credits

WordPress Design + Development: Scott Marlow

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Building WordPress Websites, Online Forms, and Marcom Confidence

A website redesign and rebuild for Habitat for Humanity of Kitsap County. This new custom-branded WordPress website replaces a 2017 volunteer-built static HTML site, which was not mobile-friendly, despite a significant amount of site visits from mobile devices.

The WordPress CMS with a Block Editor-integrated Theme enables the new marcom staff to intuitively edit content, as well as create rich, modern layouts. Google Lighthouse benchmarks across the board were significantly improved.

Scope of Work

  • Accessibility Consulting
  • Branding & Visual Design
  • Content Migration
  • Performance Optimization
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Security Hardening
  • WordPress Theme Development
  • WordPress Training & Consulting

Performance

Page load speed improved considerably by reducing overall page size 96% from 15.4 Mb to 618 Kb, 1/4th the median homepage size.

Before & After Performance Comparison

Performance Metric Old Website
 New Website
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility 41/100 98/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices 83/100 100/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed 58/100 70/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed 53/100 98/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization 50/100 93/100
WebPageTest Speed Index 11.384 3.422
Total Homepage File Size 15.336 Mb (14.6 Mb Images + 933Kb Scripts) 618 Kb (148 Kb Images + 290 Kb Scripts + 133 Kb CSS + 49 Kb Fonts + 11 Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests 40 (16 Images + 9 Scripts + 2 CSS + 8Other + 5 HTML) 41 (7 Images + 15 Scripts + 15 CSS + 2 Fonts + 1 HTML)
Estimated Mobile Homepage Load Time ~11.4 seconds ~3.4 seconds

WebPageTest Speed Index: median = ~3.591; top 10% = <1.388
In 2022, the average page size = ~2.4 Mb and median page size = ~2.1 Mb.
Database-driven websites, like WordPress, are more performance optimized when server requests are < 40 – 60.

Site Credits

WordPress Theme Development: Scott Marlow

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The Web Developer for People of All Races

screenshot for El Centro de la Raza

Another performance-optimized website rebuild from a ThemeForest template Theme to an open source WordPress Theme.

El Centro de la Raza provides 43 programs and services in 9 different service areas for children, youth, families and seniors around King County. The website features a new events calendar, language translation, and more dynamic program content in a more accessible Theme. The Gutenberg Block Editor provides more streamlined editing, with a plethora of layout and design options for content contributors.

Scope of Work

  • Accessibility Consulting
  • Branding & Visual Design
  • Content Migration
  • Performance Optimization
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Security Hardening
  • WordPress Theme Development
  • WordPress Training & Consulting

Performance

Page load speed significantly improved since 2022. By reducing overall page size 88%, from 11.5 Mb to 1.4 Mb, and reducing web server requests 19% from 64 to 52, average mobile page loads have improved from ~11 to ~3 seconds.

Before & After Performance Comparison

Performance Metric Old Website
 New Website
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility 88/100 98/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices 92/100 92/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed 39/100 87/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed 54/100 99/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization 79/100 77/100
WebPageTest Speed Index 10.729 3.024
Total Homepage File Size 11.5 Mb (10.1 Mb Images + 853 Kb Scripts + 136 Kb CSS + 31 Kb Other + 42 Kb Fonts + 42 Kb HTML) 1.366 Mb (1 Mb Images + 239 Kb Scripts + 123 Kb CSS + 22 Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests 64 (18 Images + 18 Scripts + 14 CSS + 10 Other + 4 HTML) 52 (13 Images + 14 Scripts + 22 CSS + 1 Other + 2 HTML)
Estimated Mobile Homepage Load Time ~11 seconds ~3 seconds

WebPageTest Speed Index: median = ~3.591; top 10% = <1.388
In 2022, the average page size = ~2.4 Mb and median page size = ~2.1 Mb.
Database-driven websites, like WordPress, are more performance optimized when server requests are < 40 – 60.

Site Credits

Visual Design: Pixel Lighthouse
WordPress Theme Development: Scott Marlow

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Make Your WordPress Website an Accessible Website

An accessible, performance-optimized site rebuild for Safer Homes, Suicide Aware – a public health campaign focused on “lethal means safety” to help reduce suicides and self-harm through safe firearm and medication storage practices.

The Safer Homes team distributes lockboxes for medications and firearms, educates participants in suicide risk, and encourages secure, proactive storage for both firearms and medications.  The organization’s main outreach efforts include:

  1. SAFER (Suicide Awareness for Firearm owners & Education Resources) – in-person lockbox giveaways
  2. TeleSAFER – remote lockbox distribution
  3. Targeted Interventions – a cultural competency training for medical and mental health providers
  4. Firearms industry training & outreach to promote suicide awareness and increase temporary, out-of-home emergency firearms storage
  5. Quarterly, public, free firearms safety webinars with an emphasis on suicide prevention

Scope of Work

  • Accessibility
  • Performance Optimization
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Security Hardening
  • Visual Layout & Design
  • WordPress Theme Development

Performance

To optimize performance, overall page size, at 582 Kb, is 80% below the median industry homepage size of ~2.4 Mb, and server requests have been reduced 74%, from 159 to 42. These improvements increased mobile page load speed index 6 fold, to an acceptable 3 seconds.

Accessibility

To conform with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Level AA – site updates included keyboard-navigable navigation; skip-to-content links; form field labels; semantic HTML; mobile-friendly ‘click-to-call’ phone numbers; and high color contrast palette.

Performance Metricold websiteNew Website
Google Lighthouse: Accessibility70/10089/100
Google Lighthouse: Best Practices58/10092/100
Google Lighthouse: Mobile Speed45/10086/100
Google Lighthouse: Desktop Speed53/100100/100
Google Lighthouse: Search Engine Optimization69/10098/100
WebPageTest Speed Index12.1552.925
Total Homepage File Size2.96 Mb ( 1.35 Mb Images + 809 Kb Scripts + 435 Kb CSS + + 351 Kb Fonts + 76 Kb HTML)582 kb (77 Kb Images + 175 Kb Scripts + 77 Kb CSS + 254 Kb Fonts + 13 Kb HTML)
Total Web Server Requests159 (43 Images + 67 Scripts + 37 CSS + 6 Fonts + 3 Other + 3 HTML)42 (7 Images + 16 Scripts + 14 CSS + 4 Fonts + 1 HTML)
Estimated Mobile Homepage Load Time~12 seconds~2.9 seconds
WebPage Test Speed Index: median = ~3.591; top 10% = <1.388
In 2022, the average page size = ~2.4 Mb and median page size = ~2.1 Mb.
Database-driven websites, like WordPress, are more performance optimized when server requests are < 40 – 60.

Site Credits

WordPress Development: Scott Marlow

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