Building a greener, more accessible digital home with WWF-US

A fresh start with purpose

WWF-US's previous website, launched in 2012, had served them well for over a decade, but the infrastructure needed replacing. Vice President of Digital Projects Diane Querey and her team had just six months to deliver a new platform before a critical fundraising period, a tight deadline that would require intensive collaboration and focused execution.

"We were looking for more than just technical capability," Diane explains. "We needed a partner who genuinely understood both the technology and the unique needs of conservation organisations."

Through connections in the digital community, including a previous meeting with Torchbox's Tom Dyson at a WWF Webby's event, Diane discovered that Torchbox had created Wagtail CMS, the very platform WWF-US had identified as the right choice for their needs. The decision to work directly with Wagtail's creators, rather than simply hiring another implementer, proved transformative.

Building sustainability into every decision

For a platform serving 33.5 million annual pageviews to nearly 10 million users, every technical choice carries environmental weight. The Torchbox team worked to ensure sustainable practices weren't just talking points but were built into the platform's foundation.

The new site runs on Cloudflare's renewable energy infrastructure, with efficient content delivery networks using caching to serve content while reducing data transfer. Modern image formats like WebP and AVIF, combined with responsive image delivery using the <picture> tag, ensure users receive appropriately sized images for their devices, delivering better performance, whilst reducing unnecessary data usage.

Accessibility as standard, not an addition

Accessibility features are integrated throughout the platform rather than added as an afterthought. Enhanced keyboard navigation, improved colour contrast, proper semantic markup, and screen reader compatibility ensure WWF-US's conservation content reaches all users.

Isabelle Willson, Director of Web Experience at WWF-US, emphasises the importance of these improvements: "The new site has a modern design with increased white space and improved visual hierarchy. We've moved away from outdated elements and added features like breadcrumbs and enhanced navigation that were previously absent."

For Isabelle and the team, choosing Wagtail represented more than a technical decision. Moving from their bespoke Ruby on Rails system to an open-source platform with an active community provided future-proofing and flexibility. "The open-source nature of Wagtail was crucial," Isabelle notes. "It provides stability and community support that gives us confidence in the platform's longevity."

Reorganising 6,000 pages of conservation content

One of the project's most significant challenges was migrating and reorganising 6,000 pages of content. Alison Henry, Digital Content Lead at WWF-US, led this monumental effort, thoughtfully restructuring how content serves different audiences.

"We transitioned evergreen content that was previously classified as news stories into a new 'resources' section with explainers and tips," Alison explains. "The new site's navigation creates a deliberate user journey with logical breadcrumbs and interconnected pages, something we didn't have before."

The Wagtail platform's nested page structure provided a centralised and organised content management system that made this reorganisation possible. "It's a much more intuitive back-end user experience," says Alison. "Features like live previews that were absent in the old CMS now help our content team work more efficiently."

Collaboration under pressure

The project required tight deadline management, with both teams working intensively to meet WWF-US' fundraising timeline. What made the difference was the collaborative approach.

The website is conservation's front door

For WWF-US, the website serves as the organisation's "front door", often the first point of contact for people interested in conservation. Alison believes the new platform will help WWF more cohesively share its mission: "The website reinforces our brand through consistent design patterns across pages. A beautiful, welcoming, and easy-to-navigate site deepens user investment in our diverse conservation work, which extends beyond wildlife to areas like food waste and climate."

The team expects the redesigned site to lead to increased time on site, more pages visited, and greater engagement, ultimately furthering WWF's mission and improving fundraising conversions through strategic placement of action items, such as petitions and donation requests.

Looking ahead

For WWF-US, the new platform provides a foundation for long-term digital growth. The successful delivery demonstrates how British digital expertise can support major international organisations in achieving ambitious sustainability and accessibility goals under demanding timescales.

The partnership also points to future possibilities. Diane envisions WWF potentially adopting Wagtail across their network of global offices, enabling shared components, assets, and innovations that could benefit conservation efforts worldwide.

Visit the new WWF-US website at https://www.worldwildlife.org/