Website Resurrection for MarineStudiesConsortium.org Saves Non-Profit

Client

Marine Studies Consortium

Link

marinestudiesconsortium.org

THE CHALLENGE

The Marinestudiesconsortium.org website disappeared from the web in the middle of the night in late July 2019 without warning and without a trace. The website, which was built years ago by a third-party developer, had been hosted on a third-party platform that shut down its servers without any notification its customers. The website owner reached out to us for help. She was upset and confused about where the site had gone and what could be done to get it back.

It appeared to be a total loss; her calls and emails to the platform’s customer support went unanswered and the platform did not take any backups at all. Time was of critical essence: the website is used by students to register for marine studies courses at participating colleges and universities — and fall registration was about to begin.

The Solution

After reassuring the client that we would help her, we recommended completely rebuilding the site from scratch on WordPress, with an accelerated project plan so the site could launch in time for course registration. We recommended a reputable host – and urged the client to sign up for our Small Business plan to ensure that the website would be properly maintained — and backed up daily — so she would never lose it again. The build would be a full-scale project with phases for discovery, design, development and launch.

We recommended a reputable host – and urged the client to sign up for our Small Business plan to ensure that the website would be properly maintained.

The plan was simple but hit a major snag: with very little funding left in its budget for the rest of the fiscal year, this solution was not feasible. We went back to the drawing board and helped the client track down and communicate with the site’s original designer and we were able to obtain an original archive.

There was one more big hurtle: the client couldn’t access her DNS hosting account and this was crucial in order to connect her domain name to the new hosting account so it could be viewed on the web. We helped coordinate a password reset so we would be ready to repoint her IP address to the new server when the site was ready to be made live.

As for the original developer’s archive, it was just a skeleton of the website and a bit broken. With some troubleshooting, we were able to get it to work on our server. And with some content and image updates it would suffice. We arranged for new website hosting, uploaded the site files, and updated the content and images that the client provided to us. After the client’s final review, we scheduled the launch, apply the SSL certificate and made the site live in mid-September 2019.

RESULTS

Students were able to register for their classes and professors were able to post their syllabus online on time. The site will suffice until the organization is ready to rebuild.

ABOUT MSC

Marine Studies Consortium is a nonprofit organization that offers marine-related courses in Boston for undergraduate students throughout the area.

TESTIMONIAL

… WhatArmy rescued our Not for Profit’s website from the ashes. They helped recover data, rebuild and completely get our website recovered and up and running. They are terrific for any challenge one may need for website functionality, maintenance and service.

MARINE STUDIES FALL COURSES

3 Courses

PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS

15 Institutions

STUDENTS REGISTERED

TUITION REVENUE

$46,000

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