A bilingual platform for an organization protecting public health
The Canadian Covid Society launched with an urgent need and a tight deadline. What started as a French-language build became an ongoing collaboration: bilingual platform, custom API integrations, and organizational involvement that extended well beyond the website.
Urgent mission, tight timeline, two official languages
The Canadian Covid Society was doing urgent work, cutting through misinformation to bring science-backed public health information to Canadians navigating an ongoing pandemic. They had an existing English website. What they needed immediately was a French-language version, built fast and built properly.
After the French site launched, it quickly became clear that the organization's digital needs were growing faster than a single build could address. New campaigns, new fundraising initiatives, new content sections, and all of it needed to exist in both languages, maintained with parity, updated continuously.
What started as a development engagement grew into something more substantial: a long-term collaboration that touched the website, the organization's tools and processes, and eventually included board-level involvement.
For a national organization serving both English and French Canada, a bilingual digital presence wasn't optional. The French and English sites needed to be functionally and visually equivalent, not a translation afterthought, but a parallel platform maintained with the same care and attention.
The Canadian Covid Society's work evolved continuously as the pandemic evolved. Their website had to evolve with it. This wasn't a project with a defined end state. It required an ongoing development relationship that could respond quickly and keep both versions of the platform current.
A platform designed to grow with the mission
The Canadian Covid Society's digital presence grew from a single-language site to a full bilingual platform with custom integrations, developed iteratively as the organization's needs became clearer.
French and English: built and maintained in parallel
The engagement started with an urgent need: a French-language version of the site, under a tight deadline. After successfully launching the French site, the scope expanded to full bilingual platform management, maintaining feature and content parity between French and English versions of the site as both continued to evolve. Every update, new landing page, and new content section was implemented in both languages.
Third-party services connected through custom plugin solutions
The Canadian Covid Society's work required integrating third-party service APIs that no off-the-shelf plugin handled adequately. We developed custom WordPress plugins to connect these services, written to work within the site's existing architecture and stay maintainable as the organization's needs evolved. These integrations were built to be reliable and to grow alongside the platform rather than becoming technical debt.
A platform that grows with the organization
The Canadian Covid Society didn't need a finished website. They needed a digital platform that could keep pace with an organization that was actively growing and expanding its reach. We worked continuously with the society to add new content sections, build campaign landing pages, support fundraising efforts, and refine the site as their mission and strategic goals developed. That ongoing collaboration extended well beyond the website itself, including board-level involvement and strategic guidance on tools, processes, and operations.
What we built together
The measure of this engagement isn't a single launch. It's the ongoing capacity we helped build. A bilingual platform that can support fundraising campaigns, public health communications, and organizational growth simultaneously.
- Full bilingual presence serving both official language communities
- French and English versions maintained in parallel with full content parity
- Third-party service integrations supporting the organization's public health mission
- Custom plugin solutions that are maintainable as the organization grows
- Platform continuously expanded alongside organizational growth
- Ongoing collaboration spanning development, strategy, and organizational operations
Need a digital partner, not just a developer?
Some projects need someone who can grow with the organization. Let's talk about what that looks like.