Definition of Success
How we'll know the project worked, in MOWP's own terms
These criteria came from the MOWP team during discovery. They're your goals, roughly in your own words. A year after launch, this is what "it worked" looks like:
Online donations have increased
More people giving through the site, with fewer drop-offs along the way. Worth being upfront about measurement here: the final step of a donation happens inside Blackbaud, so site analytics can show how many people start the giving process and where they stall, so the full picture comes from pairing site analytics with Blackbaud's own reporting.
The site is easier to update
Staff can make routine content changes without developer involvement, and it actually feels easier — less hunting, less fear of breaking something.
Fewer internal complaints
Staff spend less time fielding "how do I update this?" and "why does the site say that?" questions. Informal but real: the people who work with the site daily notice the difference first.
Modern and approachable feel
The site looks current without chasing trends, and it still feels like MOWP.
Fewer visitor complaints
People find what they need. Less confusion about where to go, what to click, or which Meals on Wheels site they're on.
Donors stay on-site
The donation process happens on mowp.org rather than bouncing visitors to an unfamiliar third-party page partway through giving.
How we'll actually measure this
Some of these are numbers, some are felt. Before launch we'll capture baselines from the current site's analytics (traffic, giving-path starts, search visibility) so "increased" and "fewer" have something real to compare against a year in. For the felt ones, the baseline already exists: the Problems We're Solving list that came out of discovery. A year after launch, the honest test is whether those complaints have actually faded. If new friction points come up between now and then, tell us and we'll add them to the list.