A shared home for the community
The community feed brings gatherings, recent activity and the community’s spaces together, making it easier to find a place to participate.
MenLiving / Nonprofit community
A connected digital home.
A human purpose.
From discovery through the first release, Nspired led the initiative to bring MenLiving’s website, community and member journeys together.
Visit MenLiving (opens in a new tab)
- Our role
- Led from discovery.Strategy, design & delivery.
- The platform
- Website + community.Circle & custom integrations.
- The milestone
- Release 1 live.September 2026
The need
Connect a growing community’s website, events, content and member journeys.
What we delivered
A new website, a configured Circle community and custom publishing and giving integrations.
What changed
Visitors and members have connected routes into gatherings, community participation and giving.
Start with the mission.
Lead the whole journey.
MenLiving brings men together for meaningful connection. As the organization grew, its website, events, content and community tools needed to work more closely together—and make the next step clearer for newcomers.
We worked with MenLiving’s leadership to understand those journeys, choose the right platform and shape an achievable first release. Nspired led the discovery, roadmap and coordinated execution across the website and community.
That included selecting Circle, configuring it with our community partner, and building the integrations that connect the public experience to participation, content and giving.
Discover
A welcoming website
Understand the mission. Find a gathering, a story or a way to contribute.
Participate
A community in Circle
Get oriented, meet people and stay connected between gatherings.
Connect
The work between them
Events, publishing, access and giving joined into practical journeys.
A place to arrive.
A reason to return.
The community platform was a central part of the initiative. Together with Jason, we shaped the spaces, onboarding, access and activity that make Circle a useful home for MenLiving.
Connection that keeps happening
A shared calendar brings the rhythm of the community into view, with gatherings that give people a reason to participate and come back.
From “Is this for me?”
to a next step that fits.
The website helps people discover the community. Circle supports what happens next. We designed and connected both sides of that experience.
A starting point for different people
Clear invitations help newcomers choose what feels right, with language shaped around their needs.
Community activity, easier to discover
Public Circle events appear on the website, bringing discovery and registration into a connected journey.
The scope behind
the experience.
Eight workstreams across strategy, technology and delivery. Expand each to see the foundations delivered through the first release and launch follow-through.
Discovery & delivery leadershipA shared direction, a practical roadmap and one coordinated initiative.
- Defined the people we were serving, their journeys and the information architecture with MenLiving’s leadership.
- Led platform decisions and turned the vision into a first-release scope, priorities and acceptance criteria.
- Coordinated website and community work through a shared plan, regular reviews and a two-week delivery cadence.
Website & visitor experienceA welcoming public home that helps people find their way in.
- Designed and built the new website around the mission and different reasons people come to MenLiving.
- Created clear paths into gatherings, circles, chapters, stories, podcasts and giving.
- Refined language, navigation and mobile layouts through stakeholder feedback and release testing.
Circle selection & community setupThe platform choice, architecture and configuration behind the community.
- Selected Circle as the community platform and brought in a specialist partner to lead its architecture and enablement.
- Configured community spaces, circles, chapters, content areas and the permissions that connect them.
- Aligned the community experience with the public website, so the first visit and the next step belong to the same journey.
Member onboarding & accessPractical guidance for joining, participating and feeling at home.
- Created a ten-part Start Here guide covering profiles, privacy, notifications, the mobile app and participation.
- Established welcome, introduction and feedback spaces, alongside community guidelines.
- Connected contributor, no-gift request and chapter-entry paths with the right access rules and human ownership.
Events & connected publishingCommunity activity that reaches people on both sides of the website.
- Organized gatherings in Circle with a calendar and routes into event registration.
- Integrated public Circle events and stories into the website, with clear links back to the relevant community experience.
- Added resilient feed handling so public pages can keep useful content available when an upstream service is slow.
Giving & contributor automationA connected contribution journey, with existing giving tools preserved.
- Clarified giving, contributor and access-request pages without making a contribution a universal requirement to join.
- Built the integration connecting a successful contributing gift to Circle access and contributor tagging.
- Connected donor and operator messaging, while retaining human review for no-gift requests and chapter entry.
Content transition & continuityA new home that respects the history and systems already in place.
- Moved the existing story archive into the new content structure and connected stories and podcast pathways.
- Implemented legacy URL redirects so established links lead visitors into the new experience.
- Kept existing giving and other necessary legacy services available during the transition, with further consolidation phased separately.
Release execution & enablementThe work around launch that helps a platform become usable in practice.
- Prepared the release plan, rehearsed the website cutover and checked key public routes and integrations.
- Used founder testing and stakeholder feedback to refine the website and community experience.
- Provided operating guidance, a place to capture improvements and hands-on launch follow-through.
A clear direction.
Room to learn as we build.
Website and community work followed one shared plan. We broke the release into useful increments, reviewed real work with MenLiving and used feedback to shape the next iteration.
01 / Discover
Understand the people.
Mission, audiences, journeys and the problems worth solving.
02 / Define
Agree the next release.
Platform choices, priorities, ownership and acceptance criteria.
03 / Deliver in useful increments
One shared cadence. Frequent feedback.
Design
Make the next idea tangible.
Build
Connect the experience.
Test
Check the real journey.
Review
Learn with the people using it.
Feedback shapes the next increment.
04 / Release & evolve
Launch, support and keep learning.
A first release creates a working foundation. Real use informs what comes next.
AI accelerated the work. People directed it.
AI supported research, drafting, design and development iterations, and repetitive migration tasks. MenLiving’s team shaped the mission and member experience; our team reviewed the work and remained responsible for the result.
One initiative.
The right people around it.
Nspired brought strategy, delivery and community expertise together. MenLiving’s leadership stayed central to the decisions, with clear responsibility across our team.
Initiative lead · Strategy & technology
Brad MacLean
Founder, Nspired
Led discovery, platform decisions and the integrated roadmap, then brought the website and custom integrations to life. Accountable for connecting the vision to execution.
Project management · Delivery coordination
Brian MacLean
Digital Practice Lead, Nspired
Kept the website and community work moving together: milestones, dependencies, communication, feedback and follow-through across the delivery team.
Circle lead · Architecture & enablement
Jason Hershkowitz
Founder, Beyond The Community
Led Circle architecture, setup and community enablement, translating the mission into spaces, onboarding and a practical member experience. Nspired’s specialist community partner.
Meet Beyond The Community (opens in a new tab)A specialist partnership, with one coordinated delivery team. Jason brings depth in Circle and community building; Nspired connects that expertise to the broader digital strategy and execution.
Live, connected and in use
The new website and Circle community give MenLiving a connected foundation for discovery, gatherings, stories, participation and giving. The first release went live in September 2026, followed by hands-on refinement and support.
The next step follows the mission
Launch begins the next cycle of learning. We continue refining the experience and helping MenLiving prioritize what matters next, while keeping existing services running where they are still needed.
“So, while Brad’s technical expertise has been indispensable, I always look forward to working with Brad. He is engaging, creative, kind, and confident.”
What could better technology
make possible for your mission?
A website, a community or the work that connects them. Start with what matters to your people.