Your fractional CTO, without the full-time hire.
An ongoing retainer that gives your organization a senior digital partner on call, to monitor, advise, maintain, improve, and measure, for a fraction of what a full-time technical leader costs.
$2,000 / monthThe natural next step after a build, we keep it alive, improving, and measured, so it compounds instead of decaying.
You’ve built something, now keep it moving.
You have a site, tools, and data, but no one whose job is to keep them healthy. A fractional CTO is that person: steady, senior hands keeping all six areas of your digital work healthy, so it compounds instead of quietly decaying. Within a few months you feel it: fewer fire drills, a donation path that stays healthy, and numbers your board can trust.
One retainer. Senior hands on all six areas.
A senior partner who keeps your digital tools healthy and keeps making them better, not a ticket queue, and not just patch-and-update. One scope, one price: the monitoring, the advice, and the hands-on work together.
- Proactive monitoring, we catch things before you do
- A standing advisor for decisions, vendors, and “can we…?” questions
- Ongoing maintenance and hands-on improvements to your digital tools
- A monthly report on what changed and what it moved
- Priority turnaround when giving or intake is affected
Access, and a few minutes a month.
- Access to the accounts and tools we’ll be looking after
- A short monthly check-in to set the month’s priorities
- One point of contact for “can we…?” questions and approvals
The honest answers.
Who’s actually supposed to keep our website running?
For most small nonprofits, the honest answer is “nobody”, it’s everyone’s job and no one’s, so it quietly decays. A fractional CTO makes it someone’s job: a senior partner whose role is to keep your digital tools healthy and improving.
What does it cost?
$2,000/mo for the full retainer: proactive monitoring, a standing senior advisor, hands-on maintenance and improvements each month, and a monthly report on what changed and what it moved. One scope, no tiers to decode, you get the senior partner and the hands-on work together.
Is there a commitment, or can we cancel?
It’s month-to-month with a 6-month minimum, enough runway to actually move things, without a long lock-in. Prefer to handle it in one budget line? Prepay a year and get two months free, $20,000 instead of $24,000, a clean, grant-friendly way to fund it.
Why $2,000 when basic care plans are $200-400?
Those plans patch and update; they don’t move anything forward. The difference is a senior partner who monitors, advises, actively improves your tools, and reports on what changed. Not a ticket queue. If you only need basic upkeep, we’ll point you to a cheaper care plan honestly.
A volunteer or agency built our site and left, can you take it over?
Yes, that’s one of the most common reasons orgs come to us. We’ll assess what you inherited, get it stable, and take ownership of keeping it running, so it’s no longer stranded.
How is this different from a full-time or full-price fractional CTO?
Same role, scoped for small nonprofits. A traditional fractional CTO runs $5,000-$15,000/mo and leads enterprise strategy; managed IT handles helpdesk and devices. This keeps your digital tools monitored, advised, and improving at a nonprofit-sized retainer, $2,000/mo. If you mainly need a one-time plan rather than an ongoing partner, that’s Clarity.
Won’t hiring you just make us dependent on you?
The opposite is the goal, we succeed when you need us less. Every month is meant to build your team’s own confidence and skills, so the retainer keeps earning its place instead of becoming a crutch.
What happens if our donation page or CRM breaks?
You get a first call and proactive monitoring, so we often catch things before you do. When something breaks, especially anything touching giving, it’s handled fast, because a broken donation page is lost revenue every hour it’s down.
Want steady hands on your digital work?
Book a call to talk through what an embedded partner would cover for you.