Catholic Charities USA Website, Member Portal & Digital Campaign Systems

Leading UX, IA, taxonomy, and technical direction for the main website and member portal migration.

The main Catholic Charities USA website and member portal needed to move from Craft CMS to WordPress so the communications team could publish more flexibly, support strategic initiatives, manage member resources, and respond to organizational priorities without being boxed in by a rigid CMS.

I owned the UX and technical strategy from the CCUSA side. My work included gathering requirements, mapping stakeholder needs, reviewing the existing content structure, defining information architecture, advising on taxonomy, coordinating feedback across departments, testing the new WordPress experience, and ensuring the final system supported both public-facing communications and internal publishing workflows.

The external agency handled development and hosting infrastructure, but I directed the user experience, content structure, business requirements, CMS needs, stakeholder priorities, and implementation review. My role was to make sure the platform worked for the organization’s strategic priorities, not just that the website launched.

What this improved

The migration to WordPress created a more flexible publishing system, stronger campaign support, and a more maintainable platform for communications staff, member-facing resources, and national storytelling.

Organizing mission-driven content around CCUSA’s service areas and strategic ministry structure.

As part of the website redesign, I structured pages that translated CCUSA’s mission, vision, and national ministry areas into a clearer public-facing experience.

The Our Vision page connected mission-centered messaging with a structured Our Ministry section, giving visitors a visual pathway into CCUSA’s major service areas, including affordable housing, immigrant and refugee services, integrated health and nutrition, leadership development and Catholic identity, social enterprise initiatives, advocacy and social policy initiatives, disaster services, and foundational services.

This content architecture helped connect the organization’s strategic priorities to the way users actually explored the site.

What this improved

The page connected high-level mission language to concrete ministry areas, making CCUSA’s work easier to understand and navigate for public audiences, donors, advocates, and member agencies.

Designing a high-intent service pathway for users seeking local Catholic Charities agencies.

The Find Help experience was one of the most important public-facing journeys on the site. Visitors needed a direct way to find Catholic Charities agencies near them by entering a city, state, or zip code, or by browsing help by state or territory.

This was not just a directory page. It was a high-intent user flow for people looking for local services, support, and agency information. The page needed to be simple, direct, and usable for visitors who may have arrived with an urgent need.

What this improved

The Find Help experience connected the national website to local service access, making the site more useful for users who needed to move quickly from national information to local support.

Defining the requirements and CMS publishing workflow for a national story collection system.

CCUSA’s stories were not just blog posts. They were evidence of impact across the Catholic Charities network and needed to support fundraising, advocacy, public awareness, disaster response, media relations, ministry areas, and executive strategic priorities.

I defined the technical requirements and publishing workflow for the Storybank submission system, which allowed member agencies across the country to submit stories for potential publication on the website. My work focused on what information needed to be collected, how submissions should be categorized, how the communications team would review and use the content, and how the workflow should support publishing inside the CMS.

I also advised on taxonomy for story content, including how stories could be connected to ministry areas, campaigns, strategic priorities, and public-facing impact content.

What this improved

The Storybank workflow created a scalable content intake system for member agencies and gave the communications team better metadata for turning local impact stories into strategic public-facing content.

Creating action-oriented UX pathways from issue awareness to advocacy participation.

CCUSA’s advocacy work needed digital pathways that could explain the organization’s position, connect users to federal advocacy priorities, and move supporters toward action.

The Action Center page communicated CCUSA’s advocacy role and invited users to take action on behalf of vulnerable and marginalized communities. The page used an embedded VoterVoice tool for advocacy campaigns and action alerts.

What this improved

The Action Center connected strategic advocacy priorities to public participation, giving users a more direct way to understand the issue and take action.

Building a gamified WordPress campaign experience from strategy through technical execution.

The Be a Good Samaritan campaign was a digital engagement experience promoted through social media during Lent 2019. The campaign encouraged users to complete acts of kindness, participate in a Kindness Challenge, unlock achievement badges, refer friends, and connect campaign participation to advocacy and mission-driven action.

I built the campaign microsite in WordPress from strategy through execution. My work included planning the user experience, structuring the campaign content, building the pages, configuring the gamification experience, setting up campaign pathways, embedding forms, coordinating visuals and messaging, testing the experience, and connecting the microsite to social media and advocacy goals.

What this improved

The microsite turned a strategic campaign initiative into an interactive digital experience that connected mission storytelling, user participation, advocacy engagement, and social media promotion.

Building a WordPress campaign landing page for awareness, action, resources, and storytelling.

I built the World Day of the Poor campaign landing page in WordPress to support awareness, action, resource distribution, social promotion, and CCUSA’s broader strategic communications priorities.

The page functioned as a campaign hub. It included an introduction to World Day of the Poor, national poverty facts, action pathways, signup opportunities, social sharing prompts, downloadable resources, and related stories.

What this improved

The landing page turned a campaign moment into a structured digital destination, giving users a place to learn, act, share, download resources, and continue into related stories.

Managing a mobile event experience for national gatherings.

I worked with the events team and a vendor to design, build, deploy, and manage the CCUSA Convenings app for annual gatherings and events.

The app gave attendees a mobile experience for finding event information, viewing current and past convenings, and accessing event details. This extended CCUSA’s digital experience beyond the website and supported event operations for national gatherings.

What this improved

The app created a more organized mobile experience for event attendees and helped support CCUSA’s convening operations.