b'Three pillars of the rebuild Website Messaging ChecksCitygate Networks five-month project unfolded acrossQuestions to assess your site:three interconnected pillars: design, messaging, and portal + data architecture. 1. Is it immediately clear how someone in crisis can get PILLAR 1: DESIGN help today?Visual storytelling for a movement2. Do donors quickly understand the issues your mission The old website contained valuable information, butaddresses and why it matters now?it lacked hierarchy and emotional pull. Working shoul-der-to-shoulder with the staff, our team created: 3. Does your homepage communicate hope and transfor-A modern visual identity tied to the movement. mation through real stories?Clear section hierarchy and short, scannable content blocks. 4. Can volunteers see a simple, compelling path to get An intentional photography strategy, sourcing contentinvolved?from members to reflect the networks mission.A homepage that conveys purpose within seconds.An about section that tells Citygate Networks storyPILLAR 3: PORTAL + DATAwith clarity and warmth. The most transformative layerA conference microsite that finally matches the events significance. Where the website tells the story, the portal enables The mobile experiencepreviously a strugglewasthe movement. Citygate Network needed a new system completely rebuilt. [The new digital experience is]that was simple to manage, easy to use, and built for attractive, engaging, tells our story, tells our memberslong-term sustainability.stories, and really helps share who we are and what weAs Louders lead software engineer, Jonathan Gividen, do far better than we were doing it before, Bethany said. put it, The old system tried to do everything, which PILLAR 2: MESSAGING meant everything suffered.Clarity, credibility, and alignment The team built the new system with a simple principle in mind: Dont over-engineer.Citygate Networks mission was strong, but their mes- We built what the organization needed today, with saging wasnt communicating it. Through a collaborativeroom to grow tomorrow, Jonathan said. Simple things messaging process, we helped articulate: should be simple. The challenges rescue missions and ministries face.How Citygate Network supports and strengthensWorking closely with Citygate Network, our team them. designed a flexible framework that integrates cleanly The unique value the network brings. with the organizations CRM. The new system centralizes Why partners and donors should care. member data, streamlines workflows, and removes the The resulting messaging guide gives Citygate concise,fragile dependencies that once made updates risky.repeatable verbiage they can return to again and again.The results were immediate and noticeable:The resource library is organized, searchable,and intuitive.[Louder] really heard what we were saying. BETHANY WININGER23 INSTIGATE|January/February|2026'