The Nonprofit That Couldn’t Edit Its Own Website
The Flutie Foundation, a nonprofit supporting individuals and families in the autism community, had its website rebuilt a couple of years prior. The organization’s top priority for that rebuild was simple: make the site easy for employees and volunteers to edit. That was the whole point.
The Goal
The site launched and the team immediately hit a wall. They couldn’t edit the homepage. They couldn’t add events. The previous developer had built the entire homepage using Advanced Custom Fields in a way that locked every content block into a fixed structure. Nothing could be moved, added, or removed without developer intervention. The Foundation was effectively locked out of its own website. The build looked finished, but the people who needed to use it every day couldn’t touch it. When we got under the hood, it became clear the original developers likely didn’t have the experience to build a site that balanced custom design with editorial flexibility. The site needed to be rebuilt if the Foundation wanted any real control over their content.
The Solution
We delivered that assessment honestly, explained the technical reality in plain terms, and built a plan to gradually transition pages from the rigid ACF structure into Beaver Builder, a WYSIWYG editor that lets users drag, drop, add, and rearrange content without touching code. Rather than a full tear-down, we migrated the site page by page over time, keeping the Foundation operational throughout the process. We paired the rebuild with hands-on training so the team understood not just how to use the tools, but why things work the way they do.
The Result
Over the course of a two-year partnership, the majority of the Foundation’s website now runs on Beaver Builder. The team builds landing pages on their own, supports events independently, and has integrated tools like Monday.com forms without needing a developer. They’ve expanded into new programs outside the core organization, including a record label, and the website keeps up with them. The Flutie Foundation went from being locked out of their own site to running it with confidence.
From The Client
It’s so special to work with partners who are aligned with our goals and mission. Not only do Dani and Natalie take time to hear our needs, they provide clear instruction and are transparent with trainings so that we are empowered to take on core website edits on a day-to-day basis. Smack Happy understands our unique needs – all centered around directly helping the autism community. We are grateful for their partnership in amplifying our mission to help people and families with autism live life to the fullest.