Vote Solar
Website redesign updated proposal
Updated proposal
November 2026
Vote Solar
Prepared by Firefly Partners with Mangrove Web
Updated proposal
November 2026
Our commitment to Vote Solar
We'll give Vote Solar a website with the strategic clarity, design and build quality its work deserves. The team will be empowered to manage and grow it with confidence.
Vote Solar's five-year strategic plan organizes the work around three narratives: affordability, reliability and load growth. Funders and partners are responding to that sharper focus, but the website was built on an earlier brand guide and doesn't reflect it yet. This project gives Vote Solar a site built around those campaigns, with the flexibility to publish them quickly.
Blogs and press releases are easy to publish today. When state teams and philanthropy ask for accordions, maps or custom layouts, those pages have needed a developer, so they go up rarely. The new site lets the team build those pages without waiting on one.
Two staff members carry most of the website editing now. A clear block library, training and a written manual let more of the team publish with confidence.
The strategic plan centers affordability, reliability and load growth, but the site's navigation grew campaign by campaign across many states. A simpler structure lets each audience find the issue and the state they care about.
Our July proposal recommended a modern, headless build. In our calls on October 27 and November 4, your team told us the benefits make sense, and the open question is the learning curve for a team that already has limited time for the website.
This updated proposal answers that directly. It shows what editing a campaign page looks like, offers WordPress as a second path built on the same block library, and prices both, so leadership can choose with the full picture.
Our recommendation
Design the blocks first.
Then pick where they live.
A library of well-designed blocks is what makes a campaign page easy to build: your team stacks them in any order without breaking the design. We design that library around your real pages and campaigns, and it works the same way in either platform.
We recommend building it on Astro with Sanity as the editor. It's faster, needs far less security upkeep than WordPress, and leaves you free to change the editing tool later. If staying in WordPress feels like the safer move for the team right now, we'll build the same library there at the same price.
| Option A · Astro + Sanity (recommended) | Option B · WordPress | |
|---|---|---|
| Build price | $45,000–$50,000 | $45,000–$50,000 |
| Editing | Sanity's block-based editor, new to the team | WordPress block editor, familiar to the team |
| Security upkeep | Light: no plugins or live database on the public site | Regular core and plugin updates |
| Speed | Static pages served from Cloudflare | Pages assembled from the database on each visit |
| Ownership | Code, CMS and hosting in Vote Solar's accounts | Code and hosting set up in Vote Solar's accounts |
| Changing CMS later | The CMS can be swapped without rebuilding the site | Content and site are tied to WordPress |
| After launch | Little required upkeep. Optional support retainer. | Maintenance plan recommended |
The build price is the same because most of the work is the design, the templates and the block library, and none of that changes with the CMS.
What day-to-day editing looks like
Templates can be locked where consistency matters, like a team page, or left open so blocks can be rearranged, like a campaign page.
Training comes before launch, with a recorded session and a written manual anyone on the team can use. Your team tests editing on the staging site before we go live.
If the team later needs a block that doesn't exist yet, such as a custom interactive map, we design it and add it to the library. That works the same way in either option.
Our approach
Each phase builds toward a site organized around Vote Solar's campaigns and audiences, with a block library the team can use on its own. You approve the sitemap before design begins and the designs before we build, and your team tests editing on the staging site before launch.
We expect five to seven months from kickoff, depending on review time. With a decision by mid-November, discovery can start in December.
A simpler structure built from stakeholder interviews, audience mapping and a content audit, approved before design begins.
Homepage, campaign page, state page, press release, resource and donation landing page, wireframed and designed in Figma.
15 content blocks that work across templates, so staff build new pages by stacking blocks.
EveryAction pages and forms, OptinMonster, newsletter signups and Infogram embeds.
AI-assisted, so nobody copies pages by hand. We start from the page audit Vote Solar's team has already built.
URL planning, redirect mapping, metadata migration, and GA4 with Google Tag Manager.
Built into the design system and tested before launch.
A recorded training session and a written manual that anyone on the team can use.
Support and documentation for the first month after launch.
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Page building & flexibility | Staff build pages from the block library on their own. Developer help is only needed for a new kind of block. |
| CMS & training | Sanity for Option A, with content preview and nonprofit pricing. A recorded training session and a manual are included in both options. |
| Integrations & search | EveryAction pages stay on EveryAction and link in directly, with no iframes. OptinMonster and forms work as they do today, and Infogram drops in through the embed block. Site search works the same way it does on any website, in either option. |
| Ownership | Accounts are set up in Vote Solar's name, and the code is documented so another developer could take it over. |
| Ongoing maintenance | Your team manages content. Option A needs little security upkeep. Option B needs regular core and plugin updates. |
| Project timeline | Five to seven months, with sign-offs on the sitemap, wireframes, designs, staging site and launch. |
Project management & financials
Team and investment
Executive Sponsor & Lead Strategist, Firefly Partners
Founder and CEO of Firefly Partners, 20 years in nonprofit digital strategy. Leads the relationship with Vote Solar and brings strategic input at each sign-off.
Technical Lead, Mangrove Web
Founder of Mangrove Web, building websites since 2006. Leads the technical approach, the platform and the build.
Project Manager, Mangrove Web
Started in video production and brings a storyteller's eye, close attention to detail and strong project management to mission-driven work.
Dev Enablement & Sr. Tech Strategist, Mangrove Web
Bridges strategy and development, so the technical architecture supports the client experience and the site can grow.
Firefly and Mangrove work as one team, and we want your team's input at every phase.
We check scope, timeline and budget with you at the end of discovery and at each sign-off.
The same scope, and the same price, for either option. We'll confirm the final figure at the end of discovery, before any build work begins.
| What's included | Status |
|---|---|
| Discovery and strategy: interviews, audience mapping, content audit, sitemap | Included |
| Content outlines for 9–12 key pages | Included |
| Design: wireframes and visual design for six templates and the block library | Included |
| Brand and design package from our design partner | Included |
| Build, integrations, SEO and analytics setup, WCAG 2.1 AA | Included |
| Content migration, QA, training and launch | Included |
| 30 days of post-launch support | Included |
| Total, either option | $45,000–$50,000 |
Ongoing costs: Option A runs on free and nonprofit plans (Astro, Cloudflare, Sanity). Option B needs paid WordPress hosting and a maintenance plan. Optional support retainer for either: $1,500–$2,500/month.
Each of these organizations has worked with us on a nonprofit website or digital infrastructure project, and all of them are happy to speak to how we work.
Director of Communications, Borealis Philanthropy
ckholi@borealisphilanthropy.org
Executive Vice President of Marketing and Visitor Experience, San Francisco Zoo & Gardens
PauloV@sfzoo.org
Marketing Programs and Brand Manager, Assiniboine Credit Union
JHollosi@acu.ca
Senior Director of Digital Media & Brand, Kids in Need of Defense
apender@supportkind.org
Next steps
Thank you for the conversations this fall. We're excited to help bring Vote Solar's strategy to the web.
When leadership has chosen an option, we'll find a kickoff date that works for your team, as early as December. We're glad to walk your leadership through this proposal on a short call.
We'd love to build this with you.
Thank you!
Firefly Partners × Mangrove Web
Jen Frazier, Founder & CEO · jen@fireflypartners.com
Maiya Holliday, Technical Lead · maiya@fireflypartners.com