Taming a challenging WordPress website: The KERN IT approach for the Fonds Reine Mathilde

The Fonds Reine Mathilde is dedicated to supporting youth-led social impact projects. All year long, the initiative handles a high volume of data, project calls, and editorial content.
Their website, built on WordPress with Divi/Elementor, had become unmanageable over time. Complex to maintain and difficult to update, it was beginning to hinder their communication strategy.

Our role was to provide clarity, stability, and a sustainable technical foundation, while respecting the Fund’s existing constraints and deadlines.

A WordPress site at its breaking point

Phase 1 - Stabilization and business continuity

Objective: Enabling the team to maintain ongoing communication.

• Website takeover.
• Publication of the annual report.
• Recovery and restoration of missing projects.
• Targeted fixes to improve site reliability.
• In-depth discovery of the Fund’s mission.
• Analysis of technical issues to better align the site with operational cycles.

This first stage restored smooth operations without altering the overall structure.

Phase 2 - Full takeover and migration to a sustainable technical foundation

WordPress had reached its limits for the Fund's specific needs. Consequently, we extracted the entire site and integrated it into SWAG, our CMS based on Wagtail (Django).

This stage included:

• Full extraction of the existing website.
• Faithful reproduction of the design using TailwindCSS to avoid unnecessary redesign work.
• Content audit and cleanup to remove redundancies.
• Integration into SWAG with a clear editorial structure.
• Clean and sustainable multilingual management.
• GDPR compliance.
• Integration of the donation form link.
• Development of a dedicated module for calls for projects.

Why Wagtail ?

Because it is a modern, modular, and secure CMS, free from plugin dependencies, and, above all, perfectly suited for organizations whose content must evolve regularly.

Why TailwindCSS ?

Because it is a comprehensive and maintainable CSS framework that any developer can understand without diving into a CSS file. It also allows for breaking down the design into reusable modules.

Phase 3 - Progressive improvements and restoring autonomy

Once the website was stabilized on a sound foundation, we worked with the team to modernize the editing experience and refine specific areas step by step:

• Expanding editable zones.
• UX and visual design improvements.
• Clarifying content modules.
• Iterative updates based on team feedback.
• Personalized training and pedagogical support for CMS usage.
• Creation of detailed documentation for each module and CMS section to simplify onboarding and daily use.

The objective was simple: to make the platform easy to maintain on a daily basis.

Results: a clear, stable, and easier-to-manage website

A consistent back-office

Content is now structured and centralized, allowing the team to update the site easily and without any redundancies.

A dedicated module for calls for projects

Calls for projects are managed via a single tool, tailored to the Fund's needs and designed to prevent errors and duplications.

A more reliable technical foundation

Wagtail offers a modern, secure architecture with no reliance on plugins and fully managed updates.

Improved overall performance

The site is faster, cleaner, and better organized for SEO.

True autonomy for the team

The back-office is accessible once again: the Fund can manage its website daily without needing systematic intervention from a service provider

An available and supportive team

Whether it’s adding a temporary page or integrating new elements, we are ready to provide a quick response for urgent needs that can then be easily refined over time.

This project reflects our vision of custom development

Our approach is built on a few simple principles:

• Observe and understand the existing setup before taking action.
• Respect constraints, deadlines, and priorities.
• Progress methodically, step by step.
• Seek the most tailored solution, not the most complex one.
• Provide a sustainable and scalable tool, free from technical debt.
• Work transparently with internal teams.

The Fonds Reine Mathilde project is a prime example of our approach: re-establishing structure, providing clarity, and creating a robust foundation for future growth.

Conclusion

Thanks to a step-by-step methodology, a controlled migration to Wagtail, and an in-depth restructuring of its content, the Fonds Reine Mathilde now has a website that is:

• Easy to manage
• Reliable
• Aligned with business needs
• Future-ready for upcoming calls for projects
• Adaptable to changing cycle demands

A pragmatic intervention, designed to support an organization committed to long-term social action.