Our agreement to build the new VCRDF website — built to turn visitors into action for the children you serve.

1 Our goal

Our whole goal is to make you happy — and the surest way we know to do that is to be crystal clear from the start, so nothing about this project ever comes as a surprise. That's all this agreement really is: the two of us, on the same page, in writing.

Your goal is specific, and we want it stated plainly here so we are both measured against the same thing: a website where every visitor leaves knowing how they can help move a treatment closer to a child who needs it. VCRDF is the coordinating home for individualized drug-development programs for children with ultra-rare diseases. The new site has to show that clearly and credibly to families looking for guidance, to donors who want to see real impact, and to researchers, clinicians and industry partners who can lend their expertise — and give each of them a clear way to act.

2 What we're building

A new website for VCRDF, designed and developed by us on a modern, high-performance platform — fast, secure, and easy for you to edit yourself.

How pages and templates are counted

A page is anything you click through to at its own web address. A page template is a page that is genuinely unique in its design and its editing interface — the pages built on top of an existing template don't count as new templates. So a site with a home page and four specialty pages that all share one layout is five pages and two templates.

If the site grows past what's agreed here, the pricing is simple and stated up front: $500 per additional unique page template and $25 per additional page built on a template we've already made. Nothing gets added without you agreeing to it first.

3 The direction we're holding to

We've sent you our design concepts for the new site. The direction we are holding to, taken from the questionnaire you sent us:

• Hopeful, never tragic. The site acknowledges how urgent and serious these diseases are, while staying hopeful, sophisticated, credible and focused on action.
• A clear way to act on every page — donate to a specific child's campaign or to VCRDF's broader mission, get in touch about a child who may need an individualized treatment path, or offer expertise, services or partnership.
• A clear path for each visitor — families, donors, and researchers, clinicians and industry partners each find what they came for quickly.
• Stories and progress — program milestones, family stories and scientific progress, easy to keep fresh so people have a reason to come back.
• Clean and uncluttered — no sterile biotech imagery, staged stock photos, excessive animation, confusing navigation or long walls of text.
• Icons used sparingly — sophisticated, modern and consistent, never cartoonish or hospital clip art.
• A modern, mature tone. Fonts and colours are our recommendation, for your approval.

Donate buttons connect to the online donation platform you choose. Building a custom fundraising platform is not part of this build.

The exact page list is confirmed at the kickoff meeting and stays within the 15 pages and 3 page templates above.

4 How the project runs

Kickoff

We start with a kickoff meeting to lock your goals, your sitemap, and who signs off on what.

Content

We handle the heavy lifting. We pull the content off your current site, write and organize the new copy for every page, and bring it to you for approval — you review and correct rather than starting from a blank page. We'll also help source photography. There are excellent free stock libraries, and where a paid image is the right one they typically run $10 to $30 each — you can buy those directly, or we can buy them on your behalf and bill them back to you at cost. Anything you supply yourself, we'll use.

Design

We design the home page first. Once you're happy with it, we have your fonts, colors, spacing, header, footer and overall look and feel settled — then we design the remaining unique page templates. You give feedback by pointing and clicking directly on the design, and you have unlimited rounds of revision. There is no revision cap on this project. We do ask that you send feedback in consolidated batches rather than one note at a time — that is what keeps the build moving quickly.

Development and launch

We build the site, make every page work properly on phones and tablets, load your content, handle the on-page SEO tagging, and run our own quality assurance across browsers and devices before you ever see it. You then review the finished site on a live preview link, we make your final corrections, and once you approve it we launch.

5 Timeline

This process moves in weeks, not months — that's the whole point of how we work now. We'll give you a firm launch date at kickoff, once we know how quickly content approvals and your photography can come back to us. Those two things, not our build time, are what set the pace. Delays on approvals move the launch date, and we'll always tell you when that's happening rather than let it drift quietly.

6 What we need from you

• Your logo source files.
• Team and board details — names, short bios and photos for anyone you want on the site.
• Program and family stories you are happy for us to publish, with the families' permission.
• Your donation platform — which one you use, and access so we can connect it.
• The page list — which programs and topics get their own page.
• Content approvals — sign-off on copy, and the occasional question only you can answer. We won't need much of your time, but we will need some.

7 Deliverables, goals & guarantees

We agree to deliver the services above. We guarantee the work, and we will keep working on it until it is right. What we don't do is guarantee a business outcome we don't control — search rankings are Google's decision, and how many donations and enquiries you receive depends on much more than our build. Anyone who promises you a number is guessing. We don't offer a money-back guarantee on services already rendered.

8 Your monthly plan — the Foundation Plan

Once the site launches, it needs looking after. The Foundation Plan is $297 a month and it starts when the site goes live — you are not billed for it during the build. It covers:

• Hosting, security and monitoring — we keep it fast, current and online.
• Daily backups.
• Unlimited content updates — send them to us and we make them. Any page, any time.
• Heat mapping — see what visitors actually look at and click on.
• Quarterly redesign requests — every quarter you can ask for as many design changes as you want, and add as many new pages as you want. If you decide a year in that you want the whole site to look different, that is included.
• A real human — Victor and our support team, throughout.

The Foundation Plan is a twelve-month commitment from launch, billed monthly. What happens at the end of those twelve months is entirely your choice — see section 9.

This plan covers the new VCRDF website. The maintenance plan Vanguard Clinical already has with us for vanguardclinical.com is separate, and this agreement does not change it.

9 At twelve months — three doors, all yours

When the twelve months are up, you pick one. There is no automatic lock-in and no penalty in any direction.

If you cancel the Foundation Plan at any point after the twelve months, you keep the site either way.

10 Optional — getting found on Google and AI search

This is entirely optional. It does not change the $2,500 build fee, and if you leave both boxes unticked nothing about your monthly plan changes either. If you want the site to actively bring you donors, families and partners rather than just receive them, pick one of these. You can choose one, or neither.

The Market Dominator rate above — Foundation included free — is available on the day this agreement is signed. After that the two price separately at $1,000 and $297 a month. Whichever you choose, your monthly plan begins at launch, not today.

11 Ownership & rights

Everything we create for you belongs entirely to you once it is paid for — the design, the code, the content. We retain no rights to it and won't reuse it on another project. If you ever leave, it all goes with you and we will help hand it over cleanly. We do reserve the right to show the finished work in our portfolio and case studies.

We work as an independent contractor, not as your employee, and we're responsible for our own taxes, insurance and equipment. Your domain name stays registered in your name and under your control throughout — we never take ownership of it.

12 Copyright & trademark

For any text, graphics, photographs, logos or trademarks you send us to include, you confirm that you either own them or have permission to use them — including photos and stories of children and families — and you agree to hold us harmless from any claim arising from materials you provided.

13 Your existing sites

We deliver your new site in good working order and we stand behind it. We are not responsible for your existing sites, or for infrastructure we don't manage — your email service, your domain registrar, third-party systems you connect later. If something outside our build breaks, we'll help you sort it out, but it isn't covered by this agreement.