Nonprofit & civic tech
I build websites, volunteer management platforms, and membership systems for nonprofits and civic organizations across central Pennsylvania, and remotely anywhere. Three are already shipped and live: Volunteer Clinton County, a civic platform I co-founded; the Rotary Club of Downtown Lock Haven membership site, built pro bono; and GrantCue, a grant platform with a free plan for one person at any organization, nonprofits included. I also sit on local boards, so I know how the decisions on your side get made.
How I approach the work
Three of the systems I've shipped are civic or nonprofit work. Volunteer Clinton County is a platform I co-founded where local organizations post opportunities, events, donation needs, and board openings, and residents sign up, log hours, and message the org directly. The Rotary Club of Downtown Lock Haven site was pro bono: officers run content from a custom dashboard, members sign in with single-use magic links, and events take RSVPs with capacity and deadline controls. GrantCue is a multi-tenant grant platform whose catalog rebuilds itself on a schedule from more than 100 public sources, with a free plan for one person at any organization, nonprofits included.
Nonprofit budgets are a real constraint, so I scope to them. Work is fixed-scope by project, priced from what the first release has to do. What pushes a nonprofit number up is almost always a second user role, or a legacy system somebody has to be pulled out of. What brings it down is shipping a narrow first release and letting the rest wait for the next budget year. Nothing gets built before that number is in writing, and it moves only if you change what you asked for. See how pricing works.
The handoff matters more here than at a company with an IT department. Board members rotate and staff turn over. Content lives behind an editor a volunteer can use, roles change from an admin screen instead of a config file, and the documentation covers what an incoming officer needs: who has access, and how to run the thing without calling me.
Where clearances and sensitive records are involved, the rules belong in the database. On Volunteer Clinton County, volunteers upload Pennsylvania background-check and clearance documents into a private storage bucket; files are never public, and an organization only receives a short-lived signed URL after a dedicated function checks roster discoverability, share opt-in, and conversation status. Service hours are verified through a locked, audited routine.
What you get
- Public-facing site for events, projects, and donation paths, with content officers edit themselves
- Membership site with a member directory, gated document downloads, and event RSVPs
- Volunteer management: opportunity listings, signups, waitlists that promote automatically, hour logging, and org-side verification
- Role-based access with owner, manager, poster, and viewer tiers, plus passwordless or invite-only sign-in
- Private storage for clearances, minutes, and bylaws, released through short-lived signed URLs
- Spam-protected forms, per-action rate limiting, and outbound email with bounce and complaint tracking
- Structured data, a dynamic sitemap, and per-page social cards generated from the live content
- Handoff: admin walkthrough, written documentation, and hosting and service accounts in your organization's name
Project fit
Fit. Built for nonprofits and volunteer programs that have outgrown a template site and need roles and permissions behind it, on a budget that has to survive a board vote.
Engagement. By project, usually split so the public site can ship on its own and the member-facing side follows as a second release.
How a project runs
- Map the work. We sort the real workflow from the wish list, identify users, and write down what success needs to look like.
- Scope the first release. You get a clear proposal, timeline, and build plan with the risky parts pulled forward instead of hidden at the end.
- Build in the open. I share progress, ask focused questions, and keep the work testable so feedback arrives while it can still shape the product.
- Launch and hand off. Deployment, documentation, and training are part of the work, so the finished system is something your team can actually run.
Shipped work behind this
- Volunteer Clinton County — A civic platform I co-founded and developed, where local organizations post volunteer opportunities, events, and donation drives and residents sign up and log hours — on a hardened, security-first data model.
- Rotary Club of Downtown Lock Haven — The pro bono website and officer dashboard I built for the club. Officers keep meetings and minutes, dues, club email, and a shared drive there; members sign in for the directory, files, and RSVPs.
- GrantCue — A multi-tenant platform that syncs Grants.gov and 100+ state sources on a schedule, matches each organization to grants and to foundations that fund work like theirs, and drafts proposals in a team pipeline.
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Common questions
What does a county-wide volunteer platform need?
A county-wide volunteer platform needs organization accounts that are reviewed before they can publish, listings for opportunities, events, donation needs, and board openings, and search by cause, town, and schedule. Residents need to sign up, message an organization, and log hours the organization verifies. Volunteer Clinton County, which I co-founded and developed, does all of that, along with waitlists that promote the next person automatically and private storage for clearance documents. It is free for residents and for approved organizations.
Can volunteers' background-check documents stay private?
Yes, if the rule lives in the database instead of the interface. On Volunteer Clinton County, volunteers upload Pennsylvania background-check and clearance documents into a private storage bucket, and the files are never public. An organization gets access only after a dedicated function checks the volunteer's roster visibility, their opt-in to sharing, and the status of their conversation with that organization. Even then, the organization receives a short-lived signed link rather than a permanent one.
How do you scope a project to a nonprofit budget?
Nonprofit work is fixed-scope by project, priced from what the first release has to do, and nothing gets built before the number is in writing. A second user role, or a legacy system somebody has to be pulled out of, usually pushes the number up. Shipping a narrow first release and leaving the rest for the next budget year brings it down. I usually split the work so the public site ships first and the member-facing side follows as a second release.
What happens when board members and volunteers turn over?
I plan for turnover at handoff. Content sits behind an editor a volunteer can use, roles change from an admin screen instead of a config file, and the documentation covers what an incoming officer needs: who has access, and how to run the system without calling me. Hosting and service accounts are in your organization's name. On the Rotary Club of Downtown Lock Haven site, new members join with a single-use invite code and sign in with magic links, so there is no shared password to hand down.
Do you build membership sites for clubs and service organizations?
Yes. I built the Rotary Club of Downtown Lock Haven site pro bono, still support it as the club's developer, and serve on the club's board as president-elect. From a dashboard built for the club, officers run meetings and minutes, dues, club email, and a shared drive. Members get a directory, event RSVPs with capacity and deadline controls, the minutes, and the drive's member folders, none of which the public can open; board-only folders and meeting sections stay with the officers. A three-tier role system separates admins, officers, and members.
Start a project
Bring me the practical version.
Tell me what you're trying to build or improve and what's already in place — I'll reply with a clear next step.