Academic Resilience Consortium
Empowering a Global Academic Network with a Custom Website
Client: Academic Resilience Consortium
Industry: Higher Education
Services Provided: Branding, Custom Web Development, Membership System Integration, Payment Processing
Overview
Adina Glickman, Co-Chair of the Academic Resilience Consortium, found CleanForest on Upwork. She was drawn to our profile highlighting our work with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations that create meaningful local and global impact. The synergy was instant—this reflected the very heart of her own organization.
The Academic Resilience Consortium is a global network of faculty, staff, and students dedicated to promoting student well-being and resilience in higher education. When Adina took on the responsibility of relaunching the organization’s website after a recent Board-Member transition, she needed a trusted partner who could guide her through unfamiliar territory. She had never led a website development project before.
That’s where we came in—with a collaborative approach that demystified the process and filled in the gaps they “didn’t know they didn’t know.”
The Challenge
Adina needed a complete rebuild of the organization’s online presence to reflect new leadership, support a growing membership, and improve operational efficiency. The website required custom features to manage registrations, membership levels, and user access—built in a way that the team could manage independently long after launch.
Complicating matters, the organization’s operational infrastructure was tightly tied to a third-party managed service provider. The service’s limitations often conflicted with the new website’s requirements, creating a unique set of integration hurdles.
Our Solution
We began by designing a new logo and brand identity to reflect the organization’s updated vision and give the website a fresh, professional look. From there, we built a custom WordPress site that supported complex membership functions, payment integrations, and scalable backend management—all with user-friendliness in mind.
Key Features Developed for AcademicResilience.org
- New Logo and Brand Identity:
A clean, modern visual identity aligned with the Consortium’s academic and global values.
- Custom Membership Registration System:
Seamless registration experience accounting for over 40 unique fee structures and multiple user types (e.g., individuals, institutions, students).
- Payment Processing Integration:
Secure payment gateway integration with the organization’s third-party processor, tailored to their operations.
- Member Directory:
A custom-coded, searchable directory so members can connect by name or institution—critical for fostering global collaboration.
- Resource Library with Tiered Access:
Public previews of select materials, with full access gated behind a secure member login.
- Anti-Spam Features:
Invisible CAPTCHA and form hardening measures to eliminate spam submissions.
- User-Friendly Backend Management:
A top priority for Adina and her team was the ability to manage the site independently post-launch. We created intuitive systems on the backend so their team could add, edit, and manage content with confidence.
Results & Impact
Despite the obstacles posed by their inflexible third-party operations vendor, we worked creatively to integrate the new website with their existing systems—ensuring nothing stood in the way of launch. Every challenge became an opportunity to deliver with integrity, transparency, and technical ingenuity.
Today, AcademicResilience.org reflects the strength and vision of the community it serves. With a scalable and accessible digital home, the Consortium is better equipped to support student mental health and resilience across the globe.
But don’t take our word for it—Adina’s testimonial speaks for itself.
“Aimee and the CleanForest.co team took our project from the hopes-and-dreams stage through to a polished, professional, and dynamic website. Every single challenge that arose as our needs became more complex was met with her enthusiastic and reassuring commitment to solving the problems elegantly and functionally. Not only did she consistently go the extra distance to solve these emerging and complex issues, her sunny disposition never wavered and she kept every promise she made to bring us to completion. Those complexities were nothing trivial — integrating our website with challenging external platforms, that required miles-deep programming efforts from our simple request, customizing the look and feel of our site with a real feel for what our organization is all about, just to name a few — and she never let us down in delivering a fantastic product. She has continued to provide support and guidance as we assume day-to-day maintenance of our website, and we will be delighted to hire her again when new functionalities need to be added to our site.”
— Adina Glickman, Academic Resilience Consortium
Facing internal or operational roadblocks to a new website?
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