2026-05-07 — CenterPointe Discovery Call

Source: Granola — link Date / Time: 2026-05-07, 11:00 AM CDT Duration: ~60-75 min (estimated from transcript word count) Full transcript: 2026-05-07-granola-discovery-transcript.md

Attendees

Grain & Mortar: - Eric Downs (Technical Director) - Kristin DeKay (Operations Director)

CenterPointe: - Marin King (Marketing & Communications Manager) - Megan [last name TBD] (VP of Development) — new contact, not on calendar invite, joined via Marin's account. Confirm last name and add to README.

How they found us

It was an AI / Google search, not a referral from Family Service Lincoln. Marin's quote near the end: "Got to us from Family Service Link, but that's so funny. Actually, it was ChatGPT. I was like, who does really great non-profit websites in Omaha, Lincoln, and they popped you out." Earlier in the call Marin said Megan found us via Google search. Either way: AI-assisted search, not word-of-mouth, which is a useful data point for our SEO + LLM-visibility work.

(Side note: Family Service Lincoln coincidence — G&M just did discovery with them, and CenterPointe's new building is going to house Family Service Lincoln's 24/7 youth and family crisis program. Worth flagging if it comes up in either project.)

Decisions

• G&M is going to put together a proposal for delivery on May 19-20.
• Approach: custom WordPress build with accessibility built into the design system from day one. Four-phase process (Strategy → Wireframes → Design → Development). ~120-day timeline. Fixed bid.
• Short-term posture for the May 11 deadline: Eric explicitly framed it correctly on the call — government isn't going to pull funding May 12, they reward documented good-faith remediation. The proposal will reflect a defensible-posture sprint plus the rebuild.
• Federal-language word filter is in scope. This is new and surprising — see "New requirements" below.
• Training videos (Loom walkthroughs from Brooke for content updates) are part of the G&M deliverable.
• Proposal will include case studies + references (G&M doesn't ship references in the proposal by default — they'll provide on request).

Action items

What CenterPointe told us about the org

• Nonprofit health and wellbeing org, Lincoln + Omaha, ~53 years (started 1973).
• Started in substance use treatment, expanded to mental health, primary care, housing.
• 40+ programs across three umbrellas: 1. Community Response — crisis, street outreach 2. Outpatient Services — primary care, therapy, support groups, intake 3. Residential Care — short-term and long-term facilities
• Outpatient launched in October (recent — explains why the program list grew).
• 6,300 people served annually. (Note: Scout brief had 6,265 from press kit — 6,300 is the round-number Marin used on the call. Both are right; 6,265 is the published figure.)
• 240 employees. (Scout brief had ~188-200; Marin said 240 on the call. The 240 figure is more recent.)
• They run Lincoln's 988 crisis line. "If you call 988, you're going to get someone from CenterPointe." Big differentiator we should lean into.
• Evidence-based, trauma-informed, harm-reduction model. Explicitly NOT 12-step.
• CEO transition last year — 40-year CEO retired, new CEO in seat. Marin: "Everybody knows about CenterPointe, but they don't understand the depth and breadth." That gap is a marketing problem we can solve.
• Medicaid-funded ("largely funded by the government"), CCBHC implied (not explicitly named on call).

Current website pain points (from the client's own mouth)

• Built by Firespring ~3 years ago. Marin's framing: "Everything's fine. It's just that we started looking at new options because of federal funding accessibility requirements."
• Donation button issues — "wonky things" they can't get figured out with Firespring.
• Hard to navigate 40+ programs. People don't know which program they need.
• Manual email list management — no BlackBaud integration. Marin pulls list, hand-imports.
• Multiple locations create confusion for users trying to find help.
• Need to balance healthcare focus with donor storytelling. The site has to do both jobs without one drowning the other.
• Editing happens often — staff changes, leadership changes, program changes. CMS needs to be easy.

New requirements surfaced on the call (not in Scout brief)

These are things we didn't have when I wrote the pre-call brief. Add to REQUIREMENTS.

1. Federal-language word filter (real-time, fail-safe). New administration restricts certain language. CenterPointe must avoid "harm reduction", certain LGBTQ phrasings, "culturally diverse," etc. They want the CMS to catch prohibited words BEFORE content goes live. Eric pitched an AI-powered filter; estimated ~$30/mo in token costs. Marin will send the word list.
2. AI-powered intake / program-matcher. Most users don't know which of the 40+ programs is right for them. An interactive intake (a few questions → routed to right program + intake form) would be a first-of-its-kind in the local space.
3. BlackBaud integration for the email list (eliminate manual export/import).
4. Event registration. They run events through the site currently. Confirm whether to keep Nelnet as payment processor, route through BlackBaud if possible, or move to Stripe.
5. Training videos as deliverable. Loom-based walkthroughs for content updates. Standard G&M deliverable, but worth noting in the proposal.
6. Crisis-line "pop up right away" — Marin's idea. Confirms the sticky/persistent crisis bar from the Scout brief is on-target.

What G&M already pitched (and what landed)

Open questions / to verify

• Megan's last name — pulled "Megan, VP of Development" from the transcript but no last name spoken. Add to contacts when confirmed.
• CCBHC certification — Scout brief had this; it didn't come up explicitly on the call. Confirm in proposal phase whether their CCBHC reporting should feed any website data (impact dashboard).
• Annual budget for the website project — never directly discussed. They didn't push back on the 120-day implication so the budget conversation is alive.
• Are they on Firespring contractually beyond a notice period? — never discussed. Worth asking before the proposal lands.
• Hosting preference — they didn't volunteer. Default G&M Flywheel recommendation, but they may have a stated preference.
• Existing site audit — we should run our own (Lighthouse + axe + WAVE on top 10 pages) to ground the proposal scope.
• The federal language list — Marin will send. Until we have it, we can't fully scope the word-filter feature.

Likely transcription artifacts to flag

Granola is speech-to-text. A few suspect terms in the transcript:

Quick wins to surface in the proposal

Things they directly said they want, that we can quote precisely: - "Donation button issues" — fix in week 1. - "Crisis line should pop up right away" — sticky bar across all pages, accessible to keyboard + screen readers. - "Easy to edit content regularly" — emphasize the modular ACF system + Loom training videos. - "We just got back from a national conference on health and wellbeing" — Marin and Megan are bringing fresh ideas in. The proposal should leave room for them to feel like collaborators, not order-takers.

Status

Discovery call complete. Proposal in flight for May 19-20 delivery.