Family Service Lincoln
Kickoff Brief

Pulled from the Discovery doc and the Site Audit. Do not burn meeting time on these.

Mission & voice

• Tagline: "Helping Families Thrive" — since 1891. Oldest nonprofit in Lincoln. Lean into the legacy.
• Personality: friendly, helpful, consistent, open to growth, steady
• Values: family-focused, adaptable, passionate, collaborative, accountable, preventative

Audiences (priority order)

1. Clients — but most don't find FSL via web; defined intake channels per program. Site is for orientation, not lead gen.
2. Donors & funders — adults 30+, established in community, civic-minded. This is the audience the new site needs to grow most.
3. Future employees — college-age for high-turnover Youth Development roles

Programs (7, all need their own page or section)

• Behavioral Health — school-based therapy
• Child Care Food Program (CCFP) — nutrition reimbursement for licensed providers, statewide NE
• Community Crops — gardens, training farm, education (was its own external site, becoming a program page)
• FiftyOne Commons — affordable housing + STEAM + community garden, NE Lincoln (was its own external site, becoming a program page)
• Housing & Support Services — homelessness prevention, case management
• WIC — nutrition for pregnant/postpartum women + kids ≤5
• Youth Development — before/after-school programming, Community Learning Centers

Brand

• Navy #003056, Sunshine Orange #f7a800, Green #63a70a
• Type: Montserrat Bold (display), Open Sans (body), Crimson Text Roman (serif accent)
• Each program has its own graphic element/symbol — Crystal wants these kept and used in the new design
• Logo motif: three pillars / "three i's" representing people — open to using as a standalone graphic element

Peer orgs (for differentiation framing)

Cedars, Matt Talbot, Lutheran Family Services, YMCA Lincoln, CenterPointe, HopeSpoke. Crystal frames these as collaborative not competitive. Difference points: longevity (oldest in Lincoln) + breadth of services (most peers are single-focus, FSL is many).

Crystal flagged this as their biggest brand friction point: name confusion with Lutheran Family Services, Family Health Services of Lincoln, Jenda Family Services. The new site should make FSL distinctly recognizable — not just by visual identity, but by how the value prop reads above the fold.

Each needs a decision (or "we'll come back to it" with a deadline) by end of call.

Navigation & structure

1. Header/footer menu cleanup — Crystal wants to remove stuff. Asks: should that happen at kickoff or later in the process? Recommend: capture deletions now while they're fresh, sequence in wireframes.
2. Donate button placement — Currently in "Upper Head" bar. Wants it in main nav, possibly swapped with Contact. Standard nonprofit pattern: Donate prominent in main nav. Contact can move to footer or stay tertiary.
3. Annual Report + Strategic Plan — currently external PDF links in About dropdown. Asks for a better way to incorporate. Options: dedicated About sub-pages with embedded PDFs, or stat-driven impact sections that pull selected numbers.
4. Careers — pulls from UKG externally. Asks whether new build needs to consider that interface. Default: keep external link, no integration. Confirm.
5. Footer cleanup — wants 990 moved into About Us dropdown, annual report removed from footer, YD enrollment + parent portal moved to the YD program page. All reasonable; capture for wireframes.

Home page

6. Hero photo — wants something more engaging. Considered video, worried about it dating. Recommend: high-impact still photo first, design system supports video later if desired. Crystal wants G&M's involvement specifically on the home background.
7. Program sections on home — too space-heavy currently. Wants compact. Likely a card grid or icon-based program list with deep links, not full-bleed program-by-program.
8. Impact stats — wants "X people served" type numbers. Need to ask: which numbers, source of truth, how often updated.
9. Events calendar — wants one. Open on placement. Recommend: dedicated /events page with home-page module showing next 3-5.
10. Partner/program logos in footer — currently a few logos. Asks about carousel. Recommend: static logo strip is cleaner than carousel; carousel only if there's pressure on space.

Terms & privacy

11. Terms page generation — Crystal mentions clients use legal counsel or online generators (Termly, TermsFeed). Asks for guidance. Recommend: she runs through Termly or similar; we provide the page template. Don't take on the legal exposure of writing it.

Photography

12. Photo strategy — wants to update all photos but knows it wasn't in the package. Open to placeholders for now, updating themselves later. Only the home page hero is something she wants G&M's input on. Daniel Muller is on the table at $5K-$8K if she wants to engage him for the hero shoot.

G&M owes by Thursday May 7

Flowchart sent to FSL. The mermaid source already exists in the project folder with PNG/SVG renders. Eric to review against discovery + site audit before we send — logged on the Dev board.

Specific things to verify the flowchart reflects:

• 7 programs all represented
• FiftyOne Commons + Community Crops as program subpages (NOT external links)
• About Us as a real page absorbing Agency History
• CCFP Classes folded into CCFP
• Donate moved into main nav
• Events as a top-level destination

FSL owes back by Monday May 11

Round-1 flowchart feedback. Brooke has the calendar/to-do list updated.

• No Google Analytics on any of the three legacy sites. Crystal confirmed April 29. Fresh GA4 setup is part of our SEO scope. Heads up that we're starting from zero on analytics history.
• DNS is in Azure, FSL's IT provider handles DNS changes. Already confirmed. Brooke / Crystal don't need to chase domain delegate access. We'll send them the Flywheel IP at cutover.
• WP admin granted on April 29 to web@grainandmortar.com for all three legacy sites. We have access for content audit + asset extraction.
• accessiBe — optional, $490+/year recurring, paid by FSL. Decision deferred until later phase.
• Brand handling on this project = match-existing. The April 2026 brand guide is the source of truth for colors/type. We're elevating the existing brand on the new site, not rebranding.

Eric's eyes only — for tracking against Harvest. Source: Sales-proxy quote, FSL tab. Total 159 hrs · $27,825 at $175/hr nonprofit rate (90-day target).

Hard caps to watch

• 20 ACF modules — anything beyond is change order territory
• 2 custom post types — likely Programs + Staff (or Programs + Locations)
• 10 unique page layouts in design
• 2 revision rounds on wireframes, 2 on design, 2 tweak rounds at soft launch

Excluded from scope

• Hosting fees (Flywheel — client pays)
• Recurring plugin fees (accessiBe ~$490/yr if opted in, Gravity Forms, etc.)
• All content — copy, photos, video (Daniel Muller recommended for photo, $5K–$8K, billed separately)

Payment milestones