The Virginia Home (TVH) has provided residential care to adult Virginians with irreversible physical disabilities since 1894, sustained by donors for its entire history. In 2025, the organization was preparing for a defining moment in that history: a move from its longtime Richmond location to a new, purpose-built campus in Henrico. With this initiative, the website would need to extensively support a capital campaign, extensive donor outreach, and earned media coverage.
The site, originally built by COLAB in 2018, had served the organization well, but the technical foundation was due for renewal. Many of the technical features were ready for replacement, including the content editor, which utilized the Classic Editor (a deprecated and limited WYSIWYG tool), and the campaign ahead required a new visual direction to align with printed donor materials. In addition, for a nonprofit whose mission promises lifelong care regardless of a resident’s ability to pay, the donation experience needed to be frictionless.
Solution
COLAB upgraded the site to a modern WordPress block theme, moved the platform off PHP7, and restyled the front end to align with the visual direction of The Virginia Home’s campaign materials. Typography and layout decisions centered on the site’s primary readers (donors, community supporters, and families of residents), with readability and ADA compliance treated as design priorities rather than afterthoughts. The upgraded site launched on May 6, 2025, and post-launch CMS training gave the team the ability to manage content independently. From there, the work continued: donation form integration, a giving stories archive, and preparation for the public phase of the campaign.
Project Approach
The Virginia Home is a long-term client, and the engagement was structured the way durable partnerships work best: clear task documentation, direct asynchronous communication, and careful scope management that balances big picture goals with realistic implementation plans for small, non-profit teams. Rather than defaulting to the largest or most complex approach, COLAB evaluated options against what the organization actually needed and recommended the path that resolved the aging site’s technical debt without adding complexity that the TVH team would have to maintain.
What began as a platform modernization grew naturally into campaign support as The Virginia Home’s needs expanded. That evolution was possible because both teams already knew each other well. Eight years of shared context meant decisions moved fast, and The Virginia Home’s team stayed an active partner throughout, shaping priorities, reviewing work, and keeping the site’s content current as the campaign took shape.
Choosing an Upgrade Over a Replatform
A full replatform was on the table. COLAB recommended against it. A block theme upgrade addressed the real problems (an outdated PHP version and an aging editing experience) while preserving the content and workflows the TVH team already knew. The recommendation reflected how COLAB approaches long-term partnerships: match the solution to the organization’s content needs and internal capacity, not to the largest possible scope. The result was a expanded, flexible editing experience and a modern, supportable platform, delivered without disrupting the TVH team that updates the site daily.
A Visual Refresh Aligned to a Brand Still in Motion
The Virginia Home’s design firm was producing the campaign’s branding, donor collateral, and print materials while the website work was underway, which meant COLAB needed to align the site with a visual direction that did not yet have a final brand manual. Instead of waiting, COLAB worked from the campaign materials as they took shape, translating their direction into a design system for the web. Typography was selected for the site’s audience, older donors and family members included, with readability and accessibility driving the selections. The site and the capital campaign materials now speak the same visual language and provide consistent messaging to donors.
Giving Tools for the Capital Campaign
After the launch of the visual refresh and technical upgrades, the engagement shifted to support the upcoming capital campaign itself. COLAB embedded the third-party donation form directly into the site so donors can complete a gift without leaving the site, built a new content type for giving stories (so the organization can publish the stories that move people to give), and continued rolling out other enhancements (including mobile refinements and new program pages). The technical platform work and the campaign work were not strategized as separate projects; the technical upgrades were implemented so the campaign would have a solid digital foundation to build upon.
I feel secure knowing that COLAB is on the other side of everything we do to our website. I know I can depend on our team at COLAB, all of whom are incredibly responsive and helpful, to guide us through.
Belinda Falconer Director of Development
The Virginia Home now runs on a modern, supportable platform with a design that matches its updated branding and campaign materials, and a donation experience built for the needs ahead. The TVH team manages its own content, the site reflects the organization it serves, and the campaign for a new campus has a digital home ready to carry it.
Eight years into the partnership, the pattern holds: when The Virginia Home’s mission asks more of its website, the website is ready, and so is the team behind it.
