Engaging Networks Implementation, Data Hub & Website Consolidation

02 The bigger idea

Start with the data layer

There is a natural order to a project like this one: pick a DAM, build a site around it, set up Engaging Networks, then connect everything at the end. We would start in a different place.

You're running an ecosystem bigger than any single platform, and a lot of your data — assets, resources, recipes — doesn't have a clear home today. On our August 13 call we started exploring whether the DAM is really a broader Data Hub for CAF, and that is deliberately still an open question. We would rather work the foundation out with you in discovery than assume it now, so that what gets built reflects how CAF actually works rather than a structure we guessed at before we understood your data.

Phase 01

Discovery & configuration

Oct–Dec 2026 · Your team: 10–20 hrs/week (higher during workshops)

Discovery sets the foundation for everything that follows. We start by understanding CAF's mission, audiences, and content, and by mapping the current technical landscape across both chefannfoundation.org and The Lunch Box.

From there we agree on what the connected ecosystem needs to do and how its systems should link, then turn that into a technical plan: the data architecture and DAM/Data Hub approach, the Engaging Networks configuration, and the integration logic between the website, Salesforce, and Health-e Pro. It's the phase that lets the build start on evidence instead of assumptions.

Phase 02

UX & brand application

Jan–Mar 2027 · Your team: 5–10 hrs/week for reviews and approvals

Structure first, then surface. Bringing two established website properties together is a chance to give visitors one clear, connected experience across CAF and The Lunch Box, so before any visual design we map what content exists, how it should be organized, and how people move between the two.

Wireframes then define layout, hierarchy, and the conversion paths for desktop and mobile, reviewed in Figma and approved before visual design begins. From there we apply your finalized brand into high-fidelity, responsive pages and a bespoke design system with a reusable component library, so the site stays consistent and easy for your team to build on.

Phase 03

Website build & system integration

Mar–Jun 2027 · Your team: 5–10 hrs/week for testing and user acceptance testing (UAT)

Development turns the approved designs and the technical plan into a working site. The Data Hub is built first, since everything else reads from it: we implement the record types and metadata structure CAF's team defines for recipes, resources, and assets, then expose them through the API layer. The CMS and page templates are built on a staging environment your team can review throughout, and the remaining connections follow in sequence — the Health-e Pro connection, and the Engaging Networks to Salesforce sync that Percolator builds.

Each integration is field-mapped and tested in a sandbox with your team before it is enabled in production, and live donation processing is not touched until the full path has been validated. Structured data and page performance are implemented in each template as it is built.

Phase 04

Migration, QA, training & launch

Jun–Sept 2027 · Your team: 10–15 hrs/week for migration, UAT, and training

Migration and launch, sequenced so live donation processing is never at risk. Content has already moved through writing, editing, and review alongside design and development, so the site isn't waiting on it now; this phase brings everything together for final integration and QA.

We don't launch until it's ready: functionality, performance, accessibility, and search all go through rigorous QA, and redirects and indexing are coordinated for a clean cutover. We also train your team — roughly 20 EN users, tiered by level — and hand off full documentation, so CAF can run the site with confidence. Launch is the starting point, not the finish line, so we stay with you through the first weeks of live traffic.

Website Infrastructure

WordPress, built by a team that knows it deeply

A CMS decision is really a decision about who can change the site. When every publish depends on a developer, good content waits in a queue and the site slowly falls behind the work it is meant to represent. WordPress is a strong fit for CAF on exactly that point: it's the platform your team already knows and has told us it prefers, it's the platform we build on every day, and it gives CAF real ownership of code and content rather than files locked inside a proprietary system — so your communications team can publish and restructure on their own schedule, and the site keeps pace with your programs.

WordPress is a great CMS choice and likely our pick, but we'll confirm again in discovery. The front-end landscape is moving quickly and we'd rather validate the CMS decision against the full data and integration picture than assume it. In all likelihood that picture points right back to WP; discovery just means the decision is made with the complete picture in view.

Data Hub + Ecosystem (API & Data Management)

Where your data lives, and how the systems connect

Today CAF's most valuable material lives in various hubs: recipes in one place, brand and photo assets in another, resources on The Lunch Box, supporter records in a third. Each of those systems does its own job well. What's missing is a layer above them that holds the canonical version of each thing — so a recipe is corrected once and is right everywhere it appears, on chefannfoundation.org, on The Lunch Box, and in every tool that reads it.

That layer is the Data Hub, and it goes a meaningful step past the DAM the RFP describes. A DAM stores files; a hub stores structured records — a recipe with its ingredients, its scaling data, and its images, rather than a document someone has to go find — and publishes them through one API that both websites, Engaging Networks, Salesforce, and Health-e Pro all read from. That structure is also what makes this a future-facing model: AI assistants read structure rather than layout, so the same records that keep your systems in sync are what let an assistant answer a nutrition director's question with CAF's material instead of someone else's.

SEO + AEO Optimization

Findable by people and by AI

Search is changing. People increasingly ask an AI assistant before they ever reach a search box, and the resources that get surfaced are the ones built to be read by machines as well as people. So CAF's resources now have three audiences to satisfy at the same time: the person searching, the search engine indexing, and the AI assistant answering on someone else's behalf.

That means clean, semantic markup and structured data so AI engines can quote CAF's recipes and resources accurately (AEO), the technical and on-page fundamentals that keep you ranking in traditional search (SEO), and clear navigation with fast pages so a real person finds what they need in seconds. We also keep the AI tooling small and cheap enough that it earns its place rather than adding cost for its own sake.

Additional Services

Optional Services: ongoing strategy & platform growth

Standing up this type of tech stack is a significant investment, and getting full value from it takes time and intention. The Data Hub will grow as CAF is ready to connect more to it. Engaging Networks has capabilities your team will want to explore as you get comfortable with it. And the new infrastructure opens up marketing and fundraising possibilities that didn't exist before.

Beyond the core engagement, we're available to stay on as strategic and technical partners as the work evolves. This could mean supporting marketing and fundraising campaigns built on the new infrastructure, building out donor journeys and email nurturing sequences in Engaging Networks, or picking up the Data Hub roadmap as new connections to Airtable, Qualtrics, and other systems get phased in.

These services are scoped separately and none of them need to be decided now. They're here so you know we're committed to helping you get it right over time.