Night shift · Nonprofit

CEF Chicago

The website of Child Evangelism Fellowship of Chicago, and the staff tool behind it. Parents find a club or an event, supporters give, volunteers sign up, and the staff keep it current themselves.

Visit the site
CEF Chicago's home page: a photo of children at an outdoor club, the headline 'Sharing the Gospel with Chicago's children', buttons to give, find a club and serve, and the next event
The front page. What the chapter does in one line, three ways in, and the next event on the calendar.

The public site

For parents and supporters

Six programs, each with its own colour. Events that drop off the day after they end. Stories and newsletters written by the staff. A give button on every page, which hands off to the chapter's donor system, so the site never touches money.

The stories page: the newest story large on the left, with smaller stories and a newsletter beside it
Stories and newsletters on one board, newest first.
The programs page: a short introduction, six coloured program tags, and the first program with a photo
Six programs, each with its own colour, so a parent can find theirs fast.

The staff side

Nobody waits for me

Staff write stories, upload newsletters and post events, jobs and internships themselves. A story is built from blocks, and a checklist says what is still missing before it goes out.

The story editor: a toolbar of blocks to add, a story with a cover photo and title, and a checklist on the right showing everything the story has
The story editor. Add a block, write, and the checklist on the right ticks itself off.
The staff list of stories with drafts and published ones, views, and buttons to edit, publish and delete
Every story, draft or published, with its views. Names of staff are hidden here.
The staff dashboard: buttons to write a story, add an event and upload a newsletter, drafts to pick up, and counts of what is on the site now
The first screen after signing in: what to pick up, and what is on the site now.

What it does

  • Stories are built from blocks: text, headings, lists, photos, a photo row, video, quotes, Bible verses, highlight boxes and buttons. A plain copy is kept beside every story.
  • Staff sign in with a passkey, and each person has a role.
  • A message from the contact form passes a bot check, then is saved for staff and emailed to them too.
  • Every address from the old site still works.
  • The privacy page lists exactly what the site collects, and changes in the same commit as anything new that collects data.
  • A page with nothing in it yet says Coming soon and stays out of search until it is ready.

What it runs on

Next.js 16
The public site and the staff tool, on Vercel.
Supabase
Stories, newsletters, events, jobs and staff accounts, behind row-level security.
BlockNote
The block editor for stories, page sections and job listings.
Resend
Contact form email.
Donor system
Giving and event registration, off the site.

How the giving and the forms work underneath, and how this work feels, is on The giving ledger.

All workNext: The charity office