Cat Connections NYC - Technical Lead, Web Development, Donation Forms & Digital Operations
Technical leadership for an animal rescue nonprofit - designing and building its full CMS website, first on WordPress and then on Webflow, with adoption, foster, volunteer, and intake forms connected to Shelterluv animal management software.
Visit Cat Connections NYC website →Overview
Cat Connections NYC is an animal welfare nonprofit I founded in New York City. As the rescue's technical lead, I built and ran everything behind the scenes - designing and developing the full CMS website (first on WordPress, then on Webflow), setting up Google Workspace for Nonprofits, managing staff email accounts and forwarding, running Google Ads, setting up the animal management software, launching and running the rescue's YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook accounts, and creating the brand identity around the logo from a professional designer.
What I built
- Tested several fundraising platforms - starting with GoFundMe and moving on to Zeffy and Raisely. Raisely became our biggest success: I built custom donation forms for each cat and for each campaign, and once I shared them on social media, they brought in a large share of our donations
- Built the rescue's first website on WordPress, integrating the AnimalsFirst animal management database via its API with custom PHP - so animal profiles managed in AnimalsFirst displayed dynamically on the public-facing site
- Migrated the organization to a full Webflow CMS website - pages for adoptable cats, foster information, volunteer sign-up, and about the organization
- Implemented two animal management systems for the rescue - first AnimalsFirst, then Shelterluv - keeping animal records and adoptable-cat listings in one place
- Built custom adoption application forms, foster application forms, and volunteer sign-up forms - each with conditional logic, required field validation, and submission routing
- Set up Google Workspace for Nonprofits - creating and assigning team email accounts and managing email forwarding
- Ran basic Google Ads campaigns to bring adopters, fosters, and donors to the site
- Set up and ran the rescue's YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook accounts
- Created the Cat Connections NYC brand identity - colors, typography, and visual style - built around the logo from a professional designer
- Ensured mobile-first responsive design and accessibility compliance across all pages and forms
- Configured Google Tag Manager and GA4 conversion tracking on all form submissions to monitor adoption inquiry performance
Campaigns - Raisely Donation Forms
Results
- Placed 50 cats in forever homes
- Raised around $18,000 in about six months, with 90% of the funds going to medical bills for the cats in our care
Tools used
- Webflow CMS
- WordPress
- PHP
- API Integration
- AnimalsFirst
- Shelterluv
- GoFundMe
- Zeffy
- Raisely
- HTML5
- CSS/Sass
- JavaScript
- Google Analytics 4
- Google Tag Manager
- Google Workspace
- Google Ads
- YouTube
- Figma
- Canva