Non-profits · websites · AI · email
Mahaffey Automation builds and runs the digital work mission-driven organizations need — websites, AI assistants, strategic messaging, and email campaigns — for the cost of a part-time hire, not an agency retainer.
Four service lines, scoped for non-profit budgets and volunteer-driven realities.
Django member portals, donation pages, and WordPress brochure sites — mobile-first, accessible, and hosted on infrastructure you can audit. Built to be handed off, documented for the next board, and never locked behind a retainer.
Replaces: the volunteer-built site nobody can edit, the Squarespace bill that keeps climbing, the “we’ll fix it next quarter” backlog.
Donor Q&A assistants, grant-research helpers, volunteer-intake triage, board-packet summarizers. Built on Claude or GPT, scoped to one job, and small enough to actually maintain — with honest scoping about what AI can and can’t do.
Replaces: the form letter that takes a staffer two hours to write, the FAQ page that’s three years stale, the intake inbox nobody has time to triage.
Mission, vision, and program copy that survives the next board turnover. Brand voice, donor-facing language, case-for-support narratives — written by someone who’s sat on your side of the table reviewing the invoice.
Replaces: the about page nobody updates, the appeal letter that sounds like every other appeal letter, the “new ED, nothing matches” cleanup.
Newsletter design, donor segmentation, drip sequences, and fundraising appeals. Built on Listmonk or your existing platform with full deliverability config (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) — no per-contact pricing, no platform lock-in.
Replaces: Mailchimp bills that scale faster than your list, sends that land in spam, donors who only hear from you once a year.
Every engagement carries a non-profit discount off my commercial rate. The goal is to make your mission budget go further — not to lock you into a package that doesn’t fit your scope.
New Django or WordPress site on your domain. Content migration, mobile-first responsive design, accessibility pass, and handoff documentation so the next board member can update it. Two to three scoping conversations, then build.
Listmonk setup or platform migration, custom templates, donor segmentation, full deliverability config (SES + SPF / DKIM / DMARC). Includes your first campaign send and 30 days of deliverability monitoring.
One scoped agent — donor Q&A, grant research, or intake triage. Claude or GPT, evaluation harness so you can see when it gets things wrong, 30-day support window, and an honest go/no-go at the end.
How pricing works. Every project is quoted to scope after a free scoping conversation, with a non-profit discount built in from the start. Project, monthly retainer, or hourly board advisory — whichever way your budget stretches the furthest. All work invoiced from a Colorado LLC, with clean paperwork for grant reporting.
Featured case — the project that taught me what non-profits actually need from their tech.
Featured case · trails advocacy non-profit
A volunteer-run trail-advocacy non-profit in New Castle, CO. Member sign-ups, dues collection, board materials, donor receipts, and a public-facing site that board members update themselves — not me.
Built on Django + Postgres, hosted on infrastructure the board can audit, with a deliberately small surface area so it survives volunteer turnover. The site is the operational backbone of the organization, not a brochure.
Disclosure: I currently serve on the Newcastle Trails board. This is volunteer-built — and it’s the work that proved the model for what Mahaffey Automation does for other non-profits.
Mission-driven organizations where staff time is the binding constraint and per-seat SaaS is the slow leak.
Chapters, advocacy groups, friends-of organizations. Member portals, trail-day signups, donor management, public sites that volunteers can actually update.
Small-to-mid-sized conservation orgs. Easement tracking, donor stewardship workflows, grant-reporting tools, and AI assistants for the research and writing your staff doesn’t have hours for.
Community-led, board-driven, often volunteer-staffed. The kind of org that needs digital infrastructure but can’t justify a full-time hire — or another monthly SaaS line item.
Grant-funded, mission-driven, allergic to vendor lock-in. Grant-application portals, donor communications, segmented email programs, and strategic messaging that survives ED turnover.
Based in New Castle, CO. Western Slope on-site without travel premiums — Garfield, Mesa, Pitkin, Eagle, Routt, Delta, Gunnison, Montrose. Front Range and Denver Metro remote. National remote where the work fits.
I’m Trent Mahaffey. I run Mahaffey Automation out of New Castle, CO — a one-person shop focused on the digital work non-profits can’t afford to staff full-time.
Most agencies pitch non-profits the same package they pitch corporate clients, at the same price. I serve on two non-profit boards — Newcastle Trails (current) and the Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association (RFMBA, current) — so I understand the budget realities, the volunteer-driven cadence, and the staff turnover that breaks “set it and forget it” systems. I’ve also spent 15 years building production software professionally, which means I can actually deliver the work — not just consult on it.
When I scope a website, an AI pilot, or an email program, I’m scoping from the perspective of someone who’s been on the board side reviewing the invoice.
Scoping call, package quote, or board advisory — reach out and I’ll respond same business day.