Coach and Guide
Would you like a trusted coach and guide to help as you build or improve your website?
I partner with nonprofit staff to provide valuable website coaching on a weekly or regular basis. I charge a simple hourly rate, so you have full control over your budget.
When you work with me, you can rely on my knowledge of nonprofit websites and best practices to answer your questions. Through weekly or biweekly coaching sessions, we’ll tackle challenges together and minimize the risk of wasting time or going over budget. If I don't know an answer right away, I'll tap into my extensive network and find someone who does.
I've been building and improving websites for over 25 years. I've worked both inside and alongside nonprofits, including serving as an Executive Director and on staff at consulting firms. I've collaborated with large international nonprofits, foundations, and small organizations. I’d love to work with you.
In What Areas Can I Help You?
With my extensive experience working with nonprofit websites, I can help you:
Understand the pros, cons, and best practices for key decisions: I’ll break down the options, so you can make informed choices.
Reduce costs and risk: Together, we can identify and minimize the risks of going over budget or falling behind schedule.
Bridge communication gaps: I'm fluent in the languages of executive leadership, communication teams, vendors, project managers, and IT. I can help ensure smooth collaboration between these teams and processes.
Bring an outside perspective: I offer an unbiased viewpoint to help navigate vendor or internal team dynamics, preventing misunderstandings.
Incorporate research, metrics, and KPIs: Data is crucial for project success. We can work together to define data collection methods, use the data effectively, and establish project success metrics.
Plan internal website tasks: I can guide you in managing essential elements that need to be done within your organization even if you’re working with a firm, such as creating high-quality content and conducting site testing.
Support junior staff as they manage web projects: I can provide a safety net for junior staff, helping them make decisions while recognizing when senior staff involvement is necessary. This saves leadership team time while allowing staff to grow and develop their skills.
“Laura is practical, incisive, and egoless. She will tell you when she does NOT know the answer to something, and has the skills and connections to find the answers. She's been an important mentor to me across a range of technology and strategic projects.”
-Hanna Kaufman, Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois
What’s My Background?
I have over 25 years of experience helping nonprofits with website development. My primary expertise lies in website strategy, research, understanding requirements, user experience, content strategy, and project management. I got my start as a coder and testing lead with Accenture, giving me a solid understanding of the technical aspects of projects. Specifically, my background includes:
Leading or participating in every stage of website development for more than 20 websites.
Extensive expertise in website strategy, defining and prioritizing needs, creating compelling user experiences, and site structure.
Several years worth of full-time experience in project management, budgeting, estimating, and managing vendors.
Technical project management, including working with developers to problem solve, agile scrum roles, and both system testing and user acceptance testing (UAT).
Adapting to a wide range of processes. I'm flexible and can work under any process you prefer, offering suggestions to streamline and incorporate best practices. I’ve led projects with agile, waterfall, design-centered and custom methodologies.
Modern content management systems (CMSs), especially Drupal and WordPress.
A wide network of contacts to assist with questions, tasks, or projects related to websites, communications, constituent relationship management (CRM), and more.
Experience with key issues across multiple sites, such as site analytics, accessibility, translation, and search engine optimization (SEO).
“I enjoy collaborating with Laura because of her thoughtfulness about the work and her ability to bring out the best in clients. I would absolutely recommend Laura to any nonprofit that needs to start their website project right.”
-Paul Steinberg, Constructive