Cheeky Monkey Media Inc.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We used WordPress for the site because our in-house team is familiar with that platform. We wanted to be able to upload new content and videos ourselves so Cheeky Monkey Media did that for us. We came to them with an idea of what we wanted the site to look like but we allowed them to help us decide the best way to proceed. We just recently migrated our corporate website over to them for them to maintain. They also created a new marketing landing page for us and we have a few other projects we plan to use them for this year.

How did you come to work with Cheeky Monkey Media?

I’ve met Gene, their CTO, a couple of times through some mutual friends and business connections. I’ve had a couple of friends work for him over the years and several people recommended I use them. We wanted a change in who we were working with and Cheeky Monkey was the first name that popped into my mind. I always liked what I saw about their company and heard good things from other people.

How much have you invested with Cheeky Monkey Media?

We spent $5,000 on the site.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2016, and the site was completed in February 2017.

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we first started working with Cheeky Monkey Media, our main priority was shifting a lot of the pages and templates over. That would make it a lot easier for our team to make updates and small edits when needed. They had to create the templates and pages in a way that would allow us to go in and duplicate them in a simpler way. That was the first project and seeing how that went, we were really happy with it. Next, we wanted to completely overhaul our corporate marketing site because that hadn’t been touched in a really long time. So, we engaged Cheeky Monkey Media in more web design. We asked for different layouts that they thought could work in Drupal, given what was already on the site. Once we selected an appropriate layout, someone on our product team created the full design. Finally, we sent that over to Cheeky Monkey Media for implementation. That website launched at the beginning of this year, which has been awesome. Since then, we’ve been making small changes to get it exactly the way we wanted it.

How did you come to work with Cheeky Monkey Media?

I had been talking to a couple different groups out in San Francisco, where Volunteer Match is based. I think one of the contractors recommended Cheeky Monkey Media. Somehow I got connected to Gene and I really liked his approach to the relationship. It was very informal. At the time, I was very frustrated with our Drupal experience, but Gene was able to explain things to me. I really appreciated that. They spent time getting to know how we work and how Volunteer Match is a unique model because we’re a nonprofit. At the same time, we’re also a technology company with our own developers, but they don’t really work on the sites that my team works on. Cheeky Monkey Media was patient and understanding, and they really figured out what could bring us on as a client.

How much have you invested with Cheeky Monkey Media?

In the first year, we probably spent around $10,000 with Cheeky Monkey Media. This year, we’re probably closer to $15,000 or $20,000. That’s probably the limit of our budget. We’ll probably spend less next year since we’re done with all these bigger overhauls.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our next project for Cheeky Monkey Media is a complete overhaul of another section of our site. It’s a learning center where nonprofits go for training. It has not been updated in a long time, and there’s a lot of work to be done before we get a whole new look for it.  

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, Cheeky Monkey Media is helping fix things on our website that weren't set up properly by a different agency. For instance, we have default meta tags that were not displayed correctly on certain pages that are in panels or views. We put that in a ticket for Cheeky Monkey Media and they went in and fixed it. They are cleaning up our initial site build, which wasn't really designed with SEO or mobile in mind.

Cheeky Monkey Media handled other projects for us as well. We needed our mobile homepage optimized, so they came up with the design for that. We don't really use them for design services per se, but as we come up with new solutions, they will come to us with designs. When we want to implement something new, they research what modules are out there. If we need to do a custom solution, they integrate the modules for us and make sure that everything is running efficiently. Cheeky Monkey Media does troubleshooting if our site slows down.

How did you come to work with Cheeky Monkey Media?

We found them through a conference that we attended; they had a booth there. I wasn't at the conference, but one of my co-workers was.

There were several reasons why we chose Cheeky Monkey Media. One, they were a Drupal house, so it was comforting that they had expertise in the system. Two, their price structure is very affordable and very flexible. We usually work with them for 40 hours a month, but once we reach 40, they won’t say, “If you don't do 40 hours, we charge you for 40 hours. And if you go over 40 hours, there's a premium on top of the negotiated rate.” Instead, they're very flexible and say, “We agreed to 40 hours. But if you only do 30 one month and 60 the other month, we're only going to charge you for the hours that we actually do. And it's all going to be at the same rate.” That was different from our relationship with another contractor.

How much have you invested with Cheeky Monkey Media?

We pay Cheeky Monkey Media about $5,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with Cheeky Monkey Media for about 2 years.