Nonprofit & Public Sector. Websites that serve the public.
We design, build, migrate and maintain websites for organizations that answer to boards, councils, funders and the public — nonprofits, local government, schools, universities, libraries and member associations. Accessible by default, written in plain language, and documented well enough to survive a change of staff.
The problem
Public-serving organizations don't buy websites the way businesses do
A commercial website has one audience and one goal. A public-serving website has neither. A city site has to work for a resident renewing a permit at 11pm on a phone, a reporter looking for a council packet, and a screen-reader user who is legally entitled to the same experience as everyone else. A nonprofit site has to move a first-time donor, reassure a program officer mid-diligence, and tell a family in crisis where to go tonight — often on the same page.
The buying process is different too. Instead of one decision-maker, there is a committee, a scoring rubric, a public record, and a budget that was set months ago and cannot move. Vendors are chosen on a written proposal, not a sales call. And the site that results has to keep working long after the staff who commissioned it have moved on — which means the handover documentation matters as much as the design.
Most agencies treat this as a nuisance. We treat it as the specification. If your organization is accountable to people who did not choose to visit your website, that accountability is the thing the site has to be built around. That extends to anything automated you put in front of residents — see AI services for public agencies.
Who we serve
Built for organizations with a public to answer to
Different mandates, same underlying requirement — a site that is accessible, understandable, and maintainable by whoever inherits it. If you are here from the education sector, that vertical has its own overview, and you can see every industry we serve.
Nonprofits & foundations
Donation journeys, program directories, impact reporting and grant-ready documentation. Built so a program officer doing diligence finds what they need without emailing you. See our guides on GEO for nonprofits and donor-retention CRM design, or the Assistance League case study. Full detail on nonprofit website design.
City & county government
Resident services, public notices, council and board materials, and department sites that stay consistent across a dozen teams. Our work with government and contractors covers procurement-facing sites too, down to details like smart-card authentication on government sites. See government web design and municipal website design for cities, counties and special districts, or state agency and federal agency work where the compliance bar is set higher.
Schools & districts
Enrollment, calendars, staff directories and family communication, backed by our K-12 schools practice and district-wide builds across every grade band — elementary, middle, high school, private, parochial, Christian and public.
Higher education
Program pages, admissions funnels and campus site governance for institutions where a hundred people can publish. See university web design and campus site management, community and career colleges, our broader website design for educational institutions, and custom software for education platforms when a portal sits behind the site. At campus scale the harder problem is governance — see higher education website design.
Associations & membership organizations
Member portals, dues and renewals, chapter structures, credentialing and event registration — the systems a membership organization actually runs on, not a brochure with a login button. See association and membership website design.
Libraries, museums & cultural institutions
Collections, programs, hours and location data that stay accurate everywhere they are syndicated — and that answer engines can quote correctly when someone asks a question out loud. See library, museum and cultural institution web design.
Non-negotiables
What a public-serving site has to get right
These are not upsells on our proposals. They are the baseline, because for this class of organization each one is either a legal exposure or a service failure. The work behind them lives in our SEO services, generative and answer engine optimization, and ongoing maintenance and support.
Accessibility
Accessibility is the part most vendors quietly skip
Almost every public-sector RFP names accessibility. Almost every vendor answers it with a sentence and a plugin. A plugin cannot fix a heading order, an unlabeled form field, a color contrast failure, or a carousel that traps keyboard focus — and those are the failures that generate complaints.
We build to WCAG 2.2 AA and verify it, rather than asserting it — the same standard behind our WCAG accessibility services, accessibility compliance work and ADA-compliant design and development. Where a solicitation names the federal standard instead, see Section 508 compliance. That means automated testing across the whole site plus manual keyboard and screen-reader passes on the journeys people depend on. We have run that process across our own client base, including full remediation of sites that were already live, and we will tell you plainly which issues are fixed, which are inherited from a third-party embed, and which need a content decision from your team.
If your current site is the problem, we can audit it and hand you the findings with or without doing the remediation work. Some organizations need the evidence before they can fund the fix. If you are still building the internal case, start with understanding ADA compliance for website accessibility, or commission a standalone accessibility audit.
Selected work
Mission-driven and public-serving clients
A sample of the nonprofit, government and membership work we have delivered — written up as case studies for the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists, Visit Auburn and The Bee Conservatory. More mission-driven builds are written up in our full portfolio — among them Literacy Imagined, The Inclusive Educator and a faith-based nonprofit rebuild. Work we cannot publish openly is available on request.
Procurement
How we respond to a solicitation
Send us the RFP and you will hear from a human within two business days — including when the answer is that we are not the right fit. A committee working to a deadline deserves a fast no more than it deserves a slow maybe.
When we do bid, the proposal answers your evaluation criteria in the order you wrote them, in language a non-technical reviewer can score. It includes scope, deliverables, timeline, named team members, our accessibility approach, hosting and maintenance terms, references you can actually call, and pricing that does not move after award unless the scope does.
We are candid about the things procurement teams get burned on. If your timeline is not achievable, we say so before you award rather than after. If a requirement in the RFP will not do what you are hoping it does, we flag it in the response. And if part of the work is better handled by your in-house team or an existing vendor, we will tell you that too.
If you are still working out what to specify, the public sector website requirements checklist pulls the obligations into one list, and the procurement glossary covers the vocabulary the documents use without defining.
The process
From solicitation to award
A predictable path that fits how public and nonprofit organizations actually have to buy, running on the same design and development process as the rest of our work. Step by step, that is what happens after you submit, and how we structure the proposal itself.
Submit the solicitation
Upload your RFP, RFQ, RFI or scope of work — or just describe the project. Attach addenda and evaluation criteria if you have them.
Fit review, two business days
We read it properly and tell you whether we are bidding. If we are not, we say why, and where useful we point you toward someone better suited.
Clarification call
A working conversation about scope, constraints, accessibility obligations, existing systems, and what has gone wrong with previous vendors. Skipped if your process does not permit contact.
Written proposal
Delivered in your required format and against your scoring rubric, with fixed pricing, a real timeline, named staff, and references.
Award, kickoff and handover
On award we run discovery, build in reviewable stages, test accessibility before launch, and finish with documentation and training so your team owns the result.
Procurement
RFP and procurement guides
Written for the people who have to specify, score and fund these projects.
How to Write a Government Website RFP (Checklist + Template)
Read article →BlogWriting a Nonprofit Website RFP: What to Include
Read article →BlogHow to Evaluate Website Design and Development Proposals
Read article →BlogWhat Should a Government or Nonprofit Website Cost?
Read article →BlogRed Flags to Watch for in Web Design RFP Responses
Read article →BlogHow to Register as a Web Design Vendor for Government Contracts
Read article →BlogHow to Create a Website RFP: A Template for Hiring a Web Design or Dev Partner
Read article →Accessibility
Accessibility and compliance
The standard, the rule behind it, and how conformance is actually verified.
Delivery
Building and running the site
The non-negotiables on this page, covered properly.
Website Migration Checklist for Government and Nonprofit Sites
Read article →BlogWhy Website Handover Documentation Matters
Read article →BlogWebsite Content Governance When a Hundred People Can Publish
Read article →BlogWriting Plain-Language Web Content for Government and Nonprofit Sites
Read article →BlogMultilingual Requirements for Public-Sector Websites
Read article →BlogDesigning Public Records, Agendas and Minutes Pages That Get Used
Read article →BlogGEO for Government Websites: Getting Cited Accurately by AI
Read article →BlogGovernment Software UX Design
Read article →By sector
Nonprofit, library and membership guides
Sector-specific guidance for the organizations we build for.
GEO for Nonprofits: Getting Cited by AI Search
Read article →BlogDonor Data Privacy and Security for Nonprofit Websites
Read article →BlogDonation Page CRO: Design Patterns That Increase Giving
Read article →BlogPreparing Your Nonprofit Website for the Google Ad Grant
Read article →BlogNonprofit CRM Design Features That Increase Donor Retention
Read article →BlogLibrary Website Design Best Practices
Read article →BlogDesigning Member Portals That Reduce Renewal Churn
Read article →BlogWebsite Maintenance Tips for Nonprofits, Schools and Clubs
Read article →What clients say
Organizations trust us with the sites their communities depend on
“Since beginning work with Irina and her staff at eSEOspace our internet activity has really begun to lift off. We had lots of issues with our site and the site was built several years ago. Irina found the problems, created a plan to fix them, and has since been implementing the plan to drive traffic to our site. Give them a call — they are a great company to work with!”
“After quickly exiting a previous marketing contract and needing to hit the ground running, the swift and capable onboarding with eSEOspace was exactly what we needed. Six months in, it's been a completely different experience. Irina and her team bring a level of attention to detail and consistency that you rarely find. As someone with over 15 years of marketing experience, I'm not easy to impress — what sets them apart is that they genuinely listen. It feels like a partnership, not a vendor relationship. eSEOspa…”
“We have had an outstanding experience working with Ben Gunther, Project Manager at eSEOspace. From day one, the team has been incredibly patient, educational, and supportive. They created a gorgeous Shopify store for our company that is both professional and perfectly on trend. I genuinely do not have one negative thing to say. I would absolutely work with them again and highly recommend eSEOspace.”
5.0 ★ average from 102+ verified reviews on Trustpilot, Google, Clutch & DesignRush
Deadlines & California
Accessibility deadlines and California local government
The ADA Title II compliance dates were extended by a year in April 2026 and a lot of published guidance still quotes the old ones. These pages carry the current dates.
ADA Title II Deadline: April 26, 2027 and April 26, 2028
View page →ServiceCalifornia Special District & JPA Website Design
View page →ServiceCalifornia City & County Website Design
View page →ServiceAI Services for Public Agencies
View page →BlogWhat a California Special District Should Budget for Its Website
Read article →FAQ
Procurement questions
More of them, answered in depth, live on the RFP and procurement FAQ.
How do we submit an RFP to you?
Do you respond to solicitations with a hard deadline?
What are your vendor registrations?
Can you meet WCAG 2.2 AA or Section 508 requirements?
Will our existing content and URLs survive a redesign?
Who owns the site when the project ends?
Do you work with organizations outside California?
Project Managers who will work with you on your project!
Have a solicitation open right now?
Send us the RFP and we will tell you within two business days whether we are bidding — and if we are not, who might be a better fit.
Book a Strategy Call →