Building a new website
 

My National Org is planning to rebuild our website, front and back ends. How did your organizations go about creating your web-infrastructure? Did anyone work with a developer or firm?

We worked with a web developer.

I worked at Delta Sigma Phi when we launched & re-launched several websites.

I think what you need ultimately depends on what you would like the website to do. A lot of organizations spend thousands of dollars on websites that don't work well or are impossible to navigate.

If you want it to be a destination to learn about the organization and to share news about the organization; you can probably do that using a Wordpress.org theme for free and use websites to hire freelance designers who can make sure it looks professional.

If you are trying to incorporate custom pages, like things that will link to a database or an online archive, for example, you may want to consider an outside firm (There are literally thousands to choose from).

Altogether I would say that if you are going with/went with a firm, it may be a good idea to consider one other than the ones that all other fraternities & sororities use. To be honest, fraternity & sorority websites are pretty bad across the board. They don't flow well and have information that's pretty irrelevant to most people.

I'd look into firms that small associations or nonprofits use, but the simpler the better - at least to start off.