e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Drupal/Joomla Development Shops for Campaigns and Nonprofits

June 21st, 2007

A few weeks ago, I put out a request for vendors that create sites using Drupal or Joomla, specifically focusing on progressive campaigns and nonprofits. Here are the results, with the most-suggested two companies first and the others in the order they were recommended. I haven’t used any of these companies and know them only by reputation, but this list should give you a good starting point for price and feature comparisons.

Want to suggest another vendor? Add it in the comments.

– cpd

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30 Comments Add your own

1. Tom | June 21st, 2007 at 2:54 pm

The Williamson Group also provides custom Drupal implementations, as well as high end online technology services and consulting.
2. Will | June 21st, 2007 at 4:31 pm

Great list(!) — and great to see CITI/Community IT Innovators getting into the open source development arena. These folks are the creme of the crop – and the fact they have been around for 10+ years serving all sorts of npo orgs (big and small) show that they’re doing alot right!! I highly recommend them.
3. Mike Connery | June 21st, 2007 at 4:42 pm

I love Chapter Three because they host and did the design work on my site (still a work in progress, I’m buddies with them so it’s pro-bono).

But how could you leave out the good folks at Advomatic?

http://www.advomatic.com – one of the best Drupal shops around.
4. Rob Cottingham | June 21st, 2007 at 4:57 pm

Enter horn-tooting mode: Social Signal has built some ambitious custom Drupal sites, including Vancity Credit Union’s social-change-focused Change Everything and CompuMentor’s NetSquared community, aimed at non-profits hoping to expand their use of the social web. Our focus is not just on building sites, but on bringing people and technology together to collaborate — designing for participation and change.

Communicopia is also now building Drupal sites for non-profits, as is Agentic. Both are neighbors (and friends) of ours here in sunny Vancouver, Canada.
5. Adam Mordecai | June 21st, 2007 at 6:38 pm

I humbly suggest adding Advomatic. Their client list includes Greenopia.com, maplight.org, Air America Radio, General Wesley Clark among others…

Cheers,

Mordecai
Partner – Advomatic.com
6. Amanda | June 21st, 2007 at 8:20 pm

Thanks for listing Soapbox! We are Joomla specialists (15+ implementations) with CiviCRM expertise as well.
7. Troy Schneider | June 21st, 2007 at 9:17 pm

Two great Drupal shops are Development Seed (based right here in DC), and Lullabot (which has staff scattered all over, and does a lot of training in addition to development work). I’ve worked with both, and they’re good people who do great work.

Mindshare, also based in DC, has done Joomla-based sites. They’re more of a full-blown communications shop though (and a good one!), rather than purely a web development shop.

And for what it’s worth, all of the New America Foundation’s web sites — most notably newamerica.net and assetbuilding.org — are run on Drupal.

-TKS
8. Rob Cottingham » li&hellip | June 21st, 2007 at 10:23 pm

[...] Drupal/Joomla Development Shops for Campaigns and Nonprofits A small but growing list of Drupal and Joomla dev shops with a non-profit/progressive bent. (tags: development business drupal joomla nptech shops progressive nonprofit) [...]
9. PICnet Blog » Blog &hellip | June 21st, 2007 at 11:43 pm

[...] Our PICnetters have been working hard in 2007 to turn out some of the best projects for our community, so it’s a nice reward for hard work when people in our community send us props. Today, Colin Delany, the writer of e.politics, reported on the results of his search for the most recommended Drupal and Joomla development shops in the non-profit and campaign sectors. He sent his list of the best over the Progressive Exchange mailing list, where this writer noticed something interesting: PICnet was listed at the top of the list! [...]
10. markus | June 22nd, 2007 at 3:28 am

in germany there is newthinking communications providing drupal services for campaigning and non-profits: http://www.newthinking-communicatins.de
11. Marie | June 22nd, 2007 at 9:05 am

I second the Community IT Innovators recommendation. They’ve been around the longest and really know the NPO sector inside out. Plus they can play the consultant – i.e. recommend the best solution for the job *and* implement it. They’re not just pushing Joomla, or Drupal, or … these apps are different and one is not the right fit for every case.

Thanks Colin!! This is a great list – with alot of great companies.
12. Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg | June 22nd, 2007 at 11:04 am

I’ll third the recommendation for Advomatic (as well as Chapter III). Here in Philly there’s a shop called Evolve Strategies that builds nice Drupal based sites…
13. Chris Casey | June 25th, 2007 at 11:26 am

NGP Software develops web sites for Democrats and Progressive groups, primarily using Drupal.
14. Justin Hamilton | June 25th, 2007 at 5:30 pm

GovTrends
15. Jerimee | June 25th, 2007 at 6:51 pm

The North Carolina Democratic Party has had a good experience with

http://www.grandjunctiondesign.com/

for Drupal consulting and technical expertise.
16. Jim | June 25th, 2007 at 10:19 pm

They use Joomla….
17. ben | June 26th, 2007 at 1:19 pm

we do sites for all kinds of progressive organizations (especially in the bay area) and we use drupal. http://www.415.com
18. Steve Hanson | June 29th, 2007 at 12:05 am

I’d also like to (self-serving as it is) mention my own consulting company here in Wisconsin – doing Drupal sites for nonprofits and political organizations.
http://www.cruiskeenconsulting.com
19. ab emam | July 19th, 2007 at 4:33 pm

OpenSource is the way to go:

Established in 2002, DialogConcepts’ web studio, is one of the most highly regarded web implementation agencies on Capitol Hill and among notable fortune 1000 commercial clients and newspapers. We have a solid grasp on implementing Joomla, Drupal and Django websites.

Our interactive web solutions and our technology is not only protected and secured, but also is 100% approved, and regularly audited by Capitol Hill. All our work is 508 compliant and in compliance with World Wide Web Consortium.

Comprised of a team of qualified and diverse professionals, DialogConcepts’ staff is trained to fully understand the true needs and expectations of each client, and not offer a pre-packaged, one-dimensional solution.

From media buying, to email and direct mail programs, web design/content management implementation and hosting, there’s nothing that DialogConcepts cannot do to further our clients’ online marketing or outreach objectives. Results are measurable, and DialogConcepts has superior references and testimonials from Fortune 1000 companies to Congressional offices (from Hawaii to New York). We believe that success is in achieving the client’s outcome not ours. As a result, everything we do is centered on achieving results in the simplest and most effective manner possible for our clients. Making our clients more successful is how we define our own success.

Lastly, DialogConcepts is a full-service marketing agency, not a one-time transaction house. It is our intention to educate and enable our clients, with individual training, group workshops and ongoing consultations. The strategy in education is to provide our clients with the tools to ensure their ongoing success, and not feel limited to or at the mercy of a vendor that may not do the same.

Our interactive work and solutions have been provided to companies and organizations such as: Verizon, People Magazine, Fast Inc. Magazine, Household Finance, GMAC Insurance, Andersen Corporation, Information Week, IRS, Department of Health, Small Business Administration, NextBook, WYNN Las Vegas, JOS. A. Bank, Godiva Chocolate, Wharton Business School, Chase Manhattan Bank, JP Morgan, Sirius Satellite Radio, BMC Software, Progress Software, Reuters, Improve the World, Colorado Tech University, Snapple, Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, United Nations, Campaign for Millennium, Campaign for Safe Health Care, American Lung Association, FDANews, Timberland and WebMD.

Programming Capabilities:

- HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML

- ASP, PHP, mySQL, Django, Python, Ajax, JavaScript, Flash Action Script

- OS Commerce, Authorize.net, SSL, PCI, Google Checkout

- Customized Shopping Cart Solutions

- E-Commerce and Inventory Systems Integration

- Content Management Systems – Joomla, Django, Drupal, WordPress – Or custom built.

- Email Address Appending

- Search Engine Keyword Placement

- Custom Content Management System for Newspapers
20. Mike Gifford | September 3rd, 2007 at 9:19 am

OpenConcept is an organization based in Canada but we’ve been building open source solutions for NGOs since 2001. We’ve been developing and contributing campaign tools for Drupal now for the last couple of years.
21. Shai Sachs | December 5th, 2007 at 4:28 pm

Thanks for the link to Lightbulb First Consulting! We really appreciate it.

We also operate a division focused on websites for liberal religious organizations, called Welcoming Websites.
22. Darren | March 27th, 2008 at 7:43 pm

Advomatic is my favorite Drupal shop by far.

http://www.advomatic.com

They also have a great strategy department in the Advomatic Laboratory.
23. Rok | April 15th, 2008 at 6:48 pm

I feel that WordPress is poised to make the leap, along with the Rub on Rails apps, into bona-fide Web 2.0 online software, and is lsowly but surely edging out Drupal and Joomla in every category — from simplicity (of course) to contributed content to extensibilty.

So I’ll be looking out for that ‘top WordPress shops’ announcement.
24. Kurt | May 9th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

Great list! I’d like to add Forum One Communications (http://www.forumone.com) into the mix.

We’re a firm based just outside of DC, open-source based, and work primarily with research institutions and issue-focused ngo’s. We helped Ashoka launch changemakers.net on Drupal.

We’ve got two more drupal launches in the near future – one for an online community for policy students and young professionals called “The Next America Project” (organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies), and another for a World Bank program called Lighting Africa – watch for their launches!
25. Team Building Scavenger Hunts | August 13th, 2008 at 2:03 pm

Does anyone else think Drupal is getting so big that eventually Google will take it over or vice versa?
26. Beth Cathey | September 17th, 2009 at 10:30 am

is7 also develops on Drupal and Joomla. As well as Kintera Sphere and Convio, and most recently (and happily) 2Dialog.
27. Phillip Djwa | September 18th, 2009 at 10:03 am

Hi, thanks for putting together a list. I’d like to put us forward as well!

Agentic Communications, our Drupal shop, works almost exclusively with non-profits and social change orgs. We’ve done a lot of work in the States in Canada including Wilderness Committee (Canada), Ecotrust (Canada), and the Roosevelt Institute and Genocide Intervention Network in the US. http://www.agentic.ca for more.

Phil Djwa, Principal, Agentic Communications
28. e.politics: online advoca&hellip | October 19th, 2009 at 10:57 pm

[...] to update that list of open source software shops specializing in nonprofit/advocacy/political work — June of [...]
29. David Krewinghaus | October 20th, 2009 at 10:40 am

Hi Colin,

My partnership: Supermega Design works in Drupal and a large majority of our clients are campaigns and non-profits.

Thanks
David
30. Web Developer | November 1st, 2011 at 4:46 am

In South Africa, Media Hut (http://www.mediahut.co.za) provides custom Joomla and Drupal systems and has worked on several NPO projects.

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