From fragmented to federated: How The Salvation Army built one national platform for every local mission
After years of fragmented CMSs and siloed digital efforts, The Salvation Army partnered with Content.One to centralize its web ecosystem, accelerate publishing, and ensure brand consistency across 3,000+ locations — all while preserving local control.
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Domains unified
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Locations unified
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Increase in service clicks
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Web traffic growth
“Load times have improved dramatically, and stability has been night and day compared to our old platform. We’ve seen a 50% increase in traffic and double the location-search activity since launch.”
Andrew Dobney, Director of Digital Strategy
“This project — moving all of The Salvation Army chapters to a single, shared SaaS platform — was the first time everyone had to have common goals and standards, requiring more frequent communication and knowledge sharing with territories. Content.One enabled that.”
Andrew Dobney, Director of Digital Strategy
Unified services at a glance
Structured onboarding
National, territorial, and local teams trained with tailored playbooks and workflows.
Embedded development partnership
Dedicated engineers implemented integrations and enhancements without expanding The Salvation Army’s internal headcount.
Federated governance model
Shared templates and content rules maintained brand integrity while preserving local flexibility.
Mission alignment
Technology decisions supported The Salvation Army’s real-world impact, making digital an active arm of ministry.
Transformation Themes
From Legacy Complexity to Unified Strategy
Dozens of domains, disconnected vendors, and aging CMS infrastructure made it difficult for The Salvation Army to deliver consistent experiences for donors, volunteers, and service seekers. With Content.One, the organization replaced fragmented systems with one governed platform — a foundation built for scale, collaboration, and continuous innovation.
The challenge
- Five separate CMSs across national and territorial websites
- Inconsistent branding and inaccessible design standards across 50+ domains
- Slow updates reliant on outside vendors and limited internal developer capacity
- Redundant workflows delaying campaigns and driving costly maintenance cycles
“We had five CMSs, each with its own subdomain — five down to one. In terms of sites, hundreds if not thousands.”
Andrew Dobney
The approach
- Consolidated all national and territorial sites into one SaaS-powered platform
- Introduced reusable templates, shared datasets, and standardized content models
- Integrated API-driven automation for faster publishing and data governance
- Deployed scalable permissions to give every corps local autonomy within brand controls
“Historically, we believed we had to own everything ourselves — this was the first time we realized we don’t need to build it to make it ours. We had complete support from Content.One.”
Jon Aren, National Web Manager
A Partnership Beyond Technology
Content.One guided The Salvation Army’s teams—from national HQ to local volunteers—through structured onboarding and architecture planning. Everyone learned how the unified system supports their work.
Project managers worked alongside design, analytics, and legacy vendors to ensure data, analytics, and creative assets flowed into the new platform without disruption.
Dedicated developers handled integrations and change requests quickly. The Salvation Army didn’t need to hire additional engineers to keep momentum.
“Onboarding was thorough, documentation clear, guidance responsive and tailored. The collaborative architecture work and project management have been strong — clear direction, flexible, and aligned on priorities.”
Measurable Organizational Impact
“From a technical perspective, the most powerful shift is the reliability and speed we’ve gained. Urgent fixes that used to take days now happen in hours.”
Unified donation forms improved routing accuracy, while consistent redirects boosted SEO performance. National leadership can monitor analytics from a single dashboard, enabling faster decision-making.
Empowering Local Storytelling
- Volunteers publish from mobile devices with guided templates and approvals.
- Local stories cascade to national audiences, giving regional heroes national visibility.
- Service locator updates are instant, helping call-center teams direct people to critical services.
Mission at the Center
What success looks like
- Staff time shifts from maintenance to ministry
- Donors find the right giving channel faster
- Volunteers and service seekers experience clarity, not confusion
- Digital presence mirrors the unity of The Salvation Army’s mission
“It’s rare to find a vendor that understands both the technical complexity and the human complexity of an organization like ours.”
Content.One continues to iterate with The Salvation Army, evolving the platform as new campaigns, datasets, and integrations emerge.
“Our unified platform keeps us agile, aligned, and ready to serve.”
Content.One brings national strategy, territorial execution, and local storytelling together. Now The Salvation Army can reach more people, faster.
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