— For the NDOT Manager + the Federation
How I'd run four national fundraising sites — with eight stakeholders each.
This is the operational playbook. Sprint cadence, Funraisin ramp plan, mid-campaign optimisation discipline, and the Federation stakeholder communication model. Built around the NDOT $30M+ Federation context and the four flagship sites the Lead owns.
The four sites — current state, my read
Performance and posture vary materially across the four flagships. Live curl data from this morning (Melbourne, 18 May 2026):
Daffodil Day
Aug 20 2026 · Peak campaign
HTTP200 OK
TTFB2.07s
SEO titleDate-bound
PriorityCRITICAL Q3
Aus Biggest Morning Tea
May 21 2026 · 3 days out
HTTP200 OK
TTFB2.52s
SEO titleDate in title
PriorityCRITICAL Q2
The Longest Day
June solstice · Active
HTTP000 (timeout)
TTFB12s+ no reply
SEO titleUnreachable
PriorityURGENT — week 1
Relay for Life
Year-round · strategic oversight only
HTTP200 OK
TTFB0.43s
SEO titleClean
PriorityREFERENCE pattern
The Funraisin ramp — day 1 to day 14
The honest answer: I haven't shipped on Funraisin before.
I have shipped on Firebase, Vercel, GitHub Pages, Shopify, WordPress, and three other CMSes. Funraisin is a fundraising-specific platform. My ramp:
- Day 1–3: Funraisin docs end-to-end. Identify every difference between Funraisin and the CMSes I know.
- Day 4–7: shadow your existing Funraisin power-users. Spin up a sandbox tenancy if available. Build one test page from scratch.
- Day 8–10: shadow a campaign change request end-to-end. Document the change-control process.
- Day 11–14: own one small live change (with sign-off). Independent contributor by day 14.
The trial period validates this rate of learning. If by day 14 I am NOT independent on Funraisin, you've lost two weeks at $95/hr. If I AM, you've hired someone whose learning velocity is now on record.
The Federation stakeholder model
NDOT's structural truth: every campaign change has 8 stakeholders. State and territory councils each have a view, the supplier has a view, the brand team has a view. The Lead's job is not to please everyone — it's to make the trade-offs visible and signed-off.
NSW · CCNSW
VIC · CCV
QLD · CCQ
WA · CCWA
SA · CCSA
TAS · CCT
NT · TerritoryHealth
ACT
How I'd communicate with the Federation
- Weekly: 15-min async written WIP (Loom + doc) — what shipped, what's blocked, what needs sign-off this week.
- Fortnightly: 30-min live WIP — open agenda, anyone can add. Recorded.
- Pre-campaign: single-page brief, RACI explicit, every State Council signs off in writing before sprint start.
- Mid-campaign: daily dashboard (KPI snapshot, no commentary). Commentary by exception only.
- Post-campaign: retrospective inside 7 days. Lessons archived in a Federation-shared doc. Searchable.
The 90-day timeline
Days 1–14
Ramp + audit
Funraisin to independent contributor level. Reproduce + document The Longest Day timeout. Complete full audit of all 4 sites (perf, accessibility, conversion, analytics). Meet every state/territory Federation lead.
Days 15–30
One concrete win per site
Ship one improvement per campaign site (the lowest-friction, highest-impact item from the audit). Establish weekly written WIP cadence. Propose Federation-wide hosting profile (Relay as baseline pattern).
Days 31–60
ABMT post-campaign + Longest Day live + Daffodil prep
Run ABMT retro inside 7 days of close. Support The Longest Day live operations. Begin Daffodil Day 2026 cycle planning with Coordinator owning execution, me owning Federation alignment and supplier accountability.
Days 61–90
Daffodil Day cycle in motion
Daffodil Day 2026 site live with measurable improvements over 2025. KPI dashboard delivered to NDOT Manager. Q4 Relay strategic review begun. Coordinator's growth plan in writing.
What I am explicitly not proposing
- Not rebuilding any of the four sites in the first 90 days. Optimisation, not reconstruction.
- Not generative AI for donor-facing copy. Trust risk too high.
- Not introducing new platforms or tooling without Federation sign-off. The Lead is a steward, not a disruptor.
- Not claiming Funraisin expertise I don't have. The trial period validates the ramp.