About the Client
Good Chocolate Hub, based in Zurich, is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainability by reducing human rights violations, poverty, and environmental problems in the chocolate and cocoa industry. Founded by Andrea Hüsser, Anja Glover, and Monica Valdivia, the organization works tirelessly to highlight the dots between cocoa production, conscious chocolate consumption, and political responsibility. Through events such as the SCHOGGIFESTIVAL EHRUNDREDLICH, educational workshops, and advocacy for clean supply chains, Good Chocolate Hub helps to expose grievances in the industry and achieve tangible improvements.
Challenges
As Good Chocolate Hub expanded, their digital infrastructure became a bottleneck. Their original website, built in 2019 on a basic and somewhat cumbersome WordPress setup by a non-developer, could no longer support their growing needs. The main challenge was the handling of the website – it was slow, not intuitive, and difficult for non-technical users to manage. With only two people in the organization and no dedicated communication or IT department, ease of use was essential.
Managing two separate websites (the main organization and the festival) led to duplicated content, administrative headaches, and a fragmented user experience.
- Outdated, inflexible WordPress website
- Two separate websites causing content duplication and confusion
- Cumbersome content updates requiring technical skills
- Limited visual appeal and few pages
- No multilingual support (needed both German and English)
- Manual, unintegrated newsletter signups
- No easy way to create events or collect donations
- Lack of CRM integration (Mailchimp)
Our Solution & Approach
Rather than merging the festival and main organization websites, we maintained their separate identities but created a unified experience where it mattered most.
Our approach included:
- Upgraded CMS: Upgraded the main site from a minimal and cumbersome WordPress setup to a robust WordPress CMS, making content management simple and scalable for non-technical staff.
- Multilingual Functionality: Enabled seamless content management in both German and English.
- Unified Newsletter System: Developed a single newsletter signup form for both platforms, automatically syncing with Mailchimp.
- Event Management: Added features for creating and promoting events directly from the website.
- Donation Integration: Integrated Raisenow for secure, streamlined donation processing.
- SEO Optimization: Applied best practices to boost search visibility.
- Streamlined Workflows: Designed easy-to-use content processes for non-technical staff.
- Festival Platform Enhancement: Maintained the festival’s independent site, but harmonized newsletter signups and CRM integration.
Results and Impact
The new WordPress site empowers Good Chocolate Hub’s small team to manage and update content effortlessly, regardless of technical background. The unified newsletter system has improved audience engagement and communication efficiency, while the new event and donation features lay a strong foundation for future participation and support.
Visitors now enjoy a modern, visually engaging website that reflects the organization’s values and mission. Automated workflows have reduced manual tasks, freeing up the team to focus on advocacy and outreach. While it is still early to measure the full impact, these improvements were key reasons for partnering with nowtec solutions, and the organization is well-positioned to expand its reach and impact as activity increases.
What the Client Says
“The new website has been a real game changer for us at Good Chocolate Hub. Updating content is now so easy that our whole team can contribute, regardless of technical skills. The unified newsletter and event features have made our communication much more effective and helped us engage our community in new ways. We finally have a digital platform that truly supports our mission and reflects our values. It’s still a bit early to tell the full impact, but the new site reflects exactly what we hoped for. Thank you for helping us take Good Chocolate Hub to the next level.”
Andrea Hüsser, Co-Founder, Good Chocolate Hub