35 Years of Advocacy, Finally with a Platform to Match

The Challenge

When NIBA first engaged us, their website was a mostly static WordPress installation that had fallen years behind. It served as little more than a digital brochure — no membership management, no event registration, no member resources. For an organization whose entire value lies in connecting and supporting its members, that was a significant gap.

After addressing some pressing technical issues, it was clear that patching the old site wasn't enough. NIBA needed a platform that could actually deliver member value.

Phase 1: A Real Membership Platform (WordPress)

We retired the old site and built a membership platform from scratch: tiered membership with online joining and renewals, a partner portal for NIBA's FCM, CTA and exchange partners, event management with online registration, an education and compliance resource centre, and searchable member and service-provider directories.

It transformed NIBA's digital presence from a brochure into a working hub. And then it succeeded its way into a new problem.

The Growing Pains

As membership and features grew, WordPress began to strain:

• Plugin proliferation — every major feature meant another plugin, and another dependency
• Compatibility breakage — plugin updates routinely broke unrelated functionality
• Performance degradation — the directories and resource libraries slowed noticeably as content grew
• Server limitations — two upgrades bought time but couldn't fix the architecture

The platform that had served them well was now the thing holding them back.

Phase 2: The Rebuild (Next.js + Directus)

For NIBA's 35th anniversary we rebuilt the platform on a modern stack: a Next.js front end for speed, and Directus as an API-first back end so staff manage content without plugin overhead. The features that had needed a stack of plugins are now first-class parts of the application.

Members manage themselves

Every one of the 2,942 migrated accounts could be claimed with an email address and a password reset — no re-registration, no lost history. Members sign in with a password, a Google account or a passkey, set their own member type (IIB, GIB, CTA, CPO, AP), control whether their contact details appear publicly, and upgrade to premium membership through Stripe when they want a logo and priority placement in the directory.

Directories that sell themselves

The member directory carries 2,600+ listings with premium and enhanced tiers, including full branded firm pages. The service-provider directory is fully self-serve: a firm picks a tier, pays by card, and their listing enters a moderation queue for NIBA staff to approve — with renewal, auto-renew and self-editing handled without a support request.

Firms manage their own people

FCM and Exchange members get an organization record of their own. Their administrators invite colleagues by email, approve or reject employees who sign up under the firm, and — where NIBA grants it — contribute educational articles to the member Toolbox, which are held for NIBA review before publishing and can be revised later without ever going offline.

Events, tickets and sponsors

Events support both external registration and NIBA's own ticketing: members register on the site, bring plus-one guests, and receive a QR-coded ticket by email that staff scan at the door — including an offline-tolerant check-in screen and a guest-list importer for attendees who registered elsewhere. Sponsor logos are managed once and placed across the homepage, the events page and individual events.

A back office that isn't a back office

The tools NIBA staff use every day live on the site itself. Journal publishing, events, sponsors, listing approvals, the contact inbox, Toolbox review, event check-in and guest imports are all in one staff hub — so routine administration never requires opening the CMS or calling us.

The plumbing members never see

Every transaction sends branded email — welcome messages, tickets, listing confirmations, renewal receipts and payment-failure notices — and board members choose which notifications they receive. Stripe handles memberships and listings, with 35 legacy subscriptions adopted into the new platform so long-standing members' renewals continued uninterrupted, without anyone re-entering a card.

The Cutover

Launch weekend moved a 35-year-old domain without breaking what the industry had already bookmarked. All 1,218 URLs from the WordPress era redirect to their new homes, 1,099 journal articles came across intact, and Stripe was switched to live keys with new products and a webhook wired to the new platform. The site went live on theniba.com on 14 July 2026, in time for the 35th anniversary conference.

The Results

• 2,942 member accounts migrated and claimable without re-registration
• 1,218 legacy URLs preserved through redirects — a decade of search equity intact
• 1,099 journal articles carried across with their categories and images
• Self-serve revenue — premium memberships and three tiers of directory listings sold and renewed without staff involvement
• Administration moved onto the site, so NIBA's team runs the platform themselves
• No plugin dependency risk, and an architecture built for the next decade of growth

Technologies Used

Phase 1: WordPress, MemberPress, custom PHP development, event management plugins

Phase 2: Next.js, Directus, Tailwind CSS, Stripe, Resend, reCAPTCHA v3, WebAuthn passkeys