Summary

World Animal Protection has been protecting animals from needless suffering for over 50 years. It’s a global charity with 14 offices and millions of supporters all over the world. 

 Its website sits at the heart of its operation. The charity first called us in to work as an extension of its in-house web team on an interim basis.

 The management team quickly realised the outsourced model made really good business sense for the long term. We gave them a flexible resource and expertise that added value. Crucially, it also saved costs so more funds could be directed to its vital work.

We continued to power World Animal Protection’s web properties and global donations on a flexible, rolling basis., working alongside its teams, pooling our expertise and ambition to help the charity achieve its mission.

 Why Drupal was chosen

World Animal Protection has a global website and individual, country-based ones. 

Different countries have different donation platforms, payment providers, CRM systems and marketing methods. The Drupal website integrates with all of them, simplifying this complexity. 

It allowed World Animal Protection to run 12 different websites in 12 different languages from a single installation of Drupal. At the same time, all the features and functionality of each site can be tailored according to each country’s specific requirements. 

This capability lowered the total cost of ownership. For a charity like World Animal Protection it’s ideal. It helps reduce running costs so more funds can go to its work.

Goals, requirements and outcome

We started as an interim solution for World Animal Protection but have since become embedded within the digital teams and workflow. 

When the charity first approached us, it  needed an outsourced web development team to seamlessly extend its in-house web team in the short term. We’d be on call to provide additional resource as and when. An elastic service, if you like.

We got plugged into the team’s Slack channel and systems alerts. Then we got to work. 

Upgrade with no downtime

Our first task was to upgrade the website to Drupal 9. The World Animal Protection team knew some elements of website functionality were being compromised by being on Drupal 8 so this had to be a priority.

We carefully coordinated the transition so no downtime was needed at any point. This meant there was no time when the websites couldn’t accept donations from supporters.

Supporting global teams

As well as overarching projects like the upgrade, we also worked on individual projects. They included the following two. 

A campaign website for China 

The Chinese team were running a campaign to reduce the use of animal-based remedies in traditional Chinese medicine. In turn, this would help achieve one of World Animal Protection’s core aims – to end the wildlife trade.

Our remit was to build an interactive website that supported the campaign. We built a database with an engaging front end. Users could choose a traditional animal-based medicine and see a plant-based alternative that provided the same benefits. 

See the site →  https://tawap.org 

A G20 Twitch campaign

The G20 summit was the perfect opportunity to raise awareness of World Animal Protection’s petition to end the wildlife trade.

One way we did this was with Twitch. (If you don’t know it, Twitch brings millions of gamers together live every day to chat and interact.)

We built two widgets for one popular gamer, Grant Hinds, who has over 14,000 followers. While he was streaming, his screen featured live updates of the petition. It showed signatures as they came in and asked viewers to add their names too. A totaliser widget also showed how near to the million-signature goal the petition was.

These hugely emotive and engaging widgets gave World Animal Protection a new way to market to a new audience. 

Watch a 2-minute video about this project →

Result

Like all charities, World Animal Protection had a tricky balancing act. It needs the best people doing their best work so it can achieve its mission. But it also needs to keep a close eye on costs. As much money as possible needs to go into its work.

The team initially intended us to be an interim solution while they extended their in-house team. They soon realised we provided a more cost-effective way of doing things. 

We were a resource they could flex up and down depending on the schedule. You can’t do this with an in-house team.

As a Platinum level Drupal Certified Partner, we also provided a level of expertise it would be difficult to justify having in-house.

It’s why they invited us to be their outsourced solution. We were delighted to accept.

We developed a product roadmap and engaged in regular meetings to look at the big picture. We collaborates to make sure the direction of travel is right and we make best use of resources.

We each brought valuable expertise to the table. Together, we made sure the charity’s websites worked as hard as they can. It’s helped World Animal Protection move the world to protect animals.