For apprenticeship and training programs

Your website is the first thing a recruit sees. Treat it that way.

I build and maintain websites for nonprofit trade training programs. Published rates, response times in writing, and everything stays in your organization’s name — including a named backup developer, so the site never depends on one person being available.

Website care plan
$425 / month
  • Hosting oversight and offsite backups
  • Core, theme, and plugin updates, tested
  • Security scanning and uptime alerts
  • 2 hours of content edits every month
  • A short monthly note on what was done

Nonprofit rate for 501(c)(3) training programs. Twelve-month agreement, billed monthly. Renews annually; cancel with 30 days’ notice before renewal.

Why boards call me

Three things go wrong with a training center’s website

Not because anyone was careless. It’s what happens when a site is maintained on a favor basis by whoever was willing.

01 / Recruiting

A kid found you at 10 p.m. He was gone in forty seconds.

He wanted one thing: when applications open. It was inside a PDF from two years ago, on a page his phone wouldn’t fit. He didn’t call the office to ask. He opened the community college site instead.

What it costs: applicants you never knew you had, in the exact year you needed the class filled.
02 / Continuity

The whole site sits behind one password, and he retired in March.

Domain in a former member’s name. Hosting on somebody’s personal card. Nothing looks wrong right up until the renewal notice goes to an email address nobody checks anymore.

What it costs: a site that vanishes on a Tuesday, with no one to call.
03 / Budget

Nobody can approve a number that keeps moving.

Charges show up unannounced, so every one of them turns into a discussion. Meanwhile the fix that takes an hour waits a quarter, because there’s no line item it fits under.

What it costs: months where nothing gets fixed, over amounts too small to argue about.
Rates, published

You shouldn’t have to book a call to find out what it costs

These are the same numbers that go in the agreement. Bring them to a board meeting as they are.

Nonprofit rate schedule · effective through December 2027
ServiceWhat it coversRate
Website care plan Hosting oversight, offsite backups, security and plugin updates, uptime monitoring, plus 2 hours of content edits each month. $425 / mo
Website refresh Updated layout, imagery, and content across up to 10 pages, built to appeal to graduating seniors and to read clearly on a phone. $1,350 flat
Additional work New pages, forms, or features outside the care plan. Billed only after you approve the estimate. $85 / hr
Rush turnaround Work needed inside 48 hours, by prior agreement. 1.5× hourly

Year one with a refresh runs $6,450. Year two forward is the care plan alone, $5,100.
Twelve-month agreement, billed monthly in advance, renewing annually. Included hours don’t roll over. Hourly work is billed in 15-minute increments after the first hour. Invoices due in 30 days.

Ownership and continuity

Your program owns all of it. Including if you fire me.

The most common problem I get called about isn’t design. It’s a site that quietly became dependent on one person. I document where everything lives, make sure your organization holds administrative access from day one, and name a second developer in the agreement who can step in if I’m unavailable.

  • The domain stays registered to the organization, not to me.
  • The hosting account is in your name, on your payment method.
  • All content and images are yours to keep and reuse.
  • Every credential is documented in a handoff sheet your officers hold.
  • Admin access stays with your staff at all times — not granted, held.
  • A named backup developer is written into the agreement, with documented access and a defined trigger.
  • If we part ways, there’s nothing to untangle. You already have everything.
Commitments

Response times, in writing

This work happens outside standard business hours, so I’d rather tell you exactly what to expect than promise instant and miss.

1 business day
Acknowledged

Every request gets a reply confirming I have it and when it will be done.

2–3 business days
Routine work completed

Text changes, class dates, staff updates, image swaps, new documents posted.

Same day
Outages and security

A site that’s down or compromised is treated as urgent, whenever it happens.

5 business days
Backup developer steps in

If I’m unreachable that long, a named second developer already has access and takes over. You’re buying a service, not one person’s availability.

Work you can look at

A training center homepage, built for recruiting

Application status at the top of every page. Wage progression shown as a ladder instead of a paragraph. Five plain steps from interest to first paycheck.

Built to read clearly on the phone a graduating senior is actually holding, and to load fast on it. On a previous rebuild I took a client’s Google mobile speed score from 56 to 95.

Open the demo site
How it starts

Three steps, no pressure at any of them

A twenty-minute call

You tell me what’s broken and what the board cares about. I look at the site beforehand so you’re not explaining the obvious.

A written proposal

Scope, rates, response times, and the continuity provisions on two pages, in language you can read aloud at a meeting. Nothing in it will surprise a treasurer.

A start date

Begin with the care plan alone and schedule the refresh for a later budget cycle if that fits better. That’s a normal way to start.

REPLACE
WITH PHOTO
Who you’d be working with

One person. You’ll always know which one.

I’m Wayne Tipton. By day I’m a cloud support engineer — currently at VusionGroup, and before that at Microsoft, supporting Azure and Power BI for customers in the U.S. Government Cloud. Before that I ran end-user computing infrastructure for Northern Trust Bank.

  • Cloud Support Engineer, Microsoft — Azure Government Cloud, Power BI, 2019–2024
  • Systems Administrator & 2nd Vice President, Northern Trust Bank — 2013–2018
  • WordPress performance: rebuilt a client site from a 56 to a 95 Google mobile speed score
  • A decade in regulated environments where access control and documentation are audited, not assumed

That’s an unusual background for someone who builds websites, and it’s the reason I’d put myself in front of a joint committee rather than a marketing agency. Agencies sell campaigns. I’ve spent my career keeping systems available and documented for banks and government customers, which is closer to what a training program actually needs.

I’ve also spent the last several years keeping an apprenticeship program’s site running as a favor, alongside full-time work. That’s how I know what breaks on these sites, and it’s why this business has the shape it does: defined scope, published rates, and a deliberate limit on how many programs I take on. A commitment I can’t keep isn’t worth signing.

If you sit on a committee, you probably want three answers before you want a portfolio: what it costs, how fast I respond, and what happens if I’m not here. All three are on this page, in writing, above this paragraph.

Next step

Send me your site and I’ll tell you what I’d fix first — free.

No call required. I’ll reply with a short written read on the three things costing you applicants, whether or not you hire me.

Request a free review
Or email me directly: [email protected]
Based in the Dallas–Fort Worth area · working with programs nationwide
Accurate Web Development
Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas

Website care and refreshes for nonprofit apprenticeship and trade training programs, nationwide.