My nonprofit organization has a website that provides research information to the public. We have a small grant to fund the work - everything on the website is available for free. For over 10 years, we had a freelance developer who handled the backend MySQL database and a custom CMS interface he built for site maintenance and updating. He was an independent contractor for us.
After COVID ended, he moved states and disappeared. We’ve been keeping the site running but can’t make any real changes. We need to rebuild the website as it’s currently using PHP 7.4 and is badly in need of modernization.
Where do I look to find someone? I’d like to find a new longer-term independent contractor or similar, but am not sure of the best places to advertise or look for someone like this.
If your funds allow, get off the custom CMS and onto something that has a developer community around it, e.g., WordPress, Craft CMS, Drupal, and the list goes on. It will prevent dependence on one person in the future.
@Teo
Hi Tilario, I wanted to touch base further on your comment. I am kinda in the same boat as dragonfruit, new to Reddit so can’t post my own topic, so hopefully, I can ask some of my questions on behalf of dragonfruit that will help him and myself going forward.
I am working with a developer agency, building a phone app and web app. Everything is going smoothly, but I’m getting heavily invested and getting towards the end of the initial build and was told I will get a copy of the code at the end, doing bug fixes and talking about the next phases of the build. I asked for access to the source code. They told me they use – Web App and admin is on Next.js (GitHub), backend is on Node.js, Also app Flutter? Not sure what Flutter is by the website. So I created my account on GitHub.
I don’t want to ask too many questions about getting access to the code and make a big deal about it.
So my question: Is most coding done through GitHub, and how do they share the code? And can you back up the code after each development launch?
When building and hiring developers, I tried to keep myself in control of everything with a general admin@email account. I didn’t understand how receiving the code worked and should have had access from the beginning.
Now learning, trying to safely build, what’s the safest route to keep everything securely with the business in case a developer leaves? Front end and backend.
@Gray
Yes, most of the code is kept on source control sites such as GitHub. The owner of the repository will need to allow access to you if you need any more help understanding it. DM me.
Tonne of people looking for this kind of work at the moment, or anything honestly. Word of caution though; unless you want to end up in a very similar position you currently are in again in a short time, ask for proof of their work. Make sure their previous projects are sufficiently complex and not just clones of other things and tutorials, and ensure that their name or contact details are somewhere on the sites they have in their portfolio.
I’m a small agency owner that does this kind of work, but I receive a tonne of spam emails every day offering dev, design, or SEO services from people with broken English and very dubious portfolios. And make sure you have contracts in order to protect yourself.
@Rowan
Exactly my thoughts. I bet the large majority of people offering their services by cold approach or even here on Reddit, don’t have the skills to do it.
I used Advyz.io to help me with my branding and website. They completed everything in an 8-week sprint and it was amazing. I know they’ve worked with nonprofits before too.
Check out platforms like Upwork or Toptal—they’re great for finding experienced freelance developers for longer-term projects. Another option is LinkedIn job posts or even reaching out to relevant groups.
