Institutional Continuity & Engagement History
Our partnership with the Jesuits spans nearly a decade, beginning when they first engaged Ashley Swanson during his time as an independent consultant approximately eight years ago.
The initial engagement focused on the order’s vocations platform, Be a Jesuit, designed to support discernment journeys and introduce prospective candidates to Ignatian spirituality and religious life.
Following the success of that initiative, Jesuit leadership expanded the engagement to include their flagship institutional platform, Jesuit.org — marking the beginning of a long-term digital partnership that has continued across multiple organizational and agency contexts.
This continuity of relationship reflects not only platform familiarity, but deep institutional trust and understanding of Jesuit governance, spirituality, and communications priorities.
Project Scope & Institutional Complexity
The Jesuit digital ecosystem extends far beyond a single website.
The flagship platform functions as the central hub for multiple provinces, each with distinct leadership structures, ministries, and communications workflows, including:
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Jesuits East
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Jesuits West
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Jesuits Central & Southern
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Jesuits Canada
To support this structure, the platform operates as a WordPress Multisite network, enabling each province to maintain its own presence while sharing infrastructure, governance standards, and technical resources.
This architecture required balancing:
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Provincial autonomy
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Brand cohesion
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Content sharing workflows
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Governance permissions
Core Challenges
When engagement began on the flagship rebuild, the existing platform faced several critical issues:
Performance limitations
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Slow site load times
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Server strain across provincial properties
Outdated infrastructure
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Legacy plugins
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Deprecated tools
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Security vulnerabilities
Content complexity
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Large legacy content archive
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Fragmented storytelling
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Inconsistent publishing workflows
Scalability constraints
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Difficulty supporting multiple provinces efficiently
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Limited flexibility for future growth
Strategic Approach
Given the institutional scale, the rebuild required both technical and organizational strategy.
Key planning initiatives included:
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Full platform audit across multisite properties
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Plugin and infrastructure evaluation
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Performance benchmarking
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Provincial stakeholder input
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Content architecture mapping
The goal was not simply to redesign the site — but to create a platform capable of supporting the Jesuits’ mission long-term.
Platform Architecture & Execution
Multisite Infrastructure
We rebuilt the network using WordPress Multisite, allowing:
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Shared core infrastructure
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Province-specific publishing environments
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Streamlined maintenance
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Scalable governance permissions
This structure supports collaboration while preserving provincial independence.
Performance Optimization
A major rebuild driver was performance.
We implemented:
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Modernized plugin frameworks
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Infrastructure cleanup
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Optimized database architecture
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Improved caching and delivery
The result was significantly improved:
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Front-end load times
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CMS responsiveness
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Editorial publishing workflows
Storytelling & Spiritual Identity
Beyond performance, the platform needed to embody Jesuit identity.
Design and content systems were built to highlight:
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Ignatian spirituality
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Vocational discernment
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Apostolic ministry work
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Provincial storytelling
This ensured the site functioned not just as an information hub — but as a mission storytelling platform.
News & Publishing Hub
The flagship site was structured as an active publishing center, enabling teams to:
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Share ministry updates
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Publish institutional news
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Highlight apostolic initiatives
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Promote events and formation work
Editorial workflows were simplified to make ongoing publishing intuitive for internal teams.
Memorial & Legacy Database
A uniquely important feature involved honoring deceased Jesuit priests.
We architected a structured content system allowing provinces to:
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Create memorial profiles
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Share obituaries and life stories
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Preserve institutional history
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Provide a space for communal remembrance
This functionality held deep pastoral and communal importance across provinces.
Large-Scale Content Migration
One of the most significant technical undertakings was the migration of legacy content.
Given the site’s size and history, this required:
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Full content inventory and mapping
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Structured import processes
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Preservation of historical archives
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URL restructuring
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Comprehensive redirect mapping
This ensured:
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No loss of institutional content
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SEO preservation
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Continuity for external references
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Seamless user transition
Large-scale migrations of this nature are critical for national and global organizations — and require meticulous planning and validation.
Note: The 2023 rebuild of Jesuit.org was produced at Bend Marketing, where Ashley Swanson served as founder and managing member and led web design and development. Pixel Eye Studio continues to support the platform today.
Institutional Outcomes
The rebuilt platform delivered:
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Dramatically improved performance
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Scalable multisite governance
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Streamlined editorial workflows
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Stronger storytelling infrastructure
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Preserved institutional archives
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Enhanced vocational engagement pathways
Most importantly, it positioned the Jesuits’ digital presence to support ministry growth across provinces for years to come.
The Jesuits project shaped a lot of how we approach websites for Catholic institutions — multi-province structure, competing internal audiences, decades of existing content.