Project update: Strengthening security and data protection for Cheetah Conservation Fund

Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) is changing the world to save the cheetah. Headquartered in Namibia, Africa, CCF has operations and partner organizations across the globe.

Avidano Digital recently partnered with CCF to strengthen their WordPress security and data protection for cheetah.org. This effort enhanced the website’s underlying WordPress systems and laid a solid groundwork for the next stage of our partnership: redesigning and modernizing cheetah.org over the next year.

WordPress security

CCF already had security tools like DreamShield and Wordfence in place. Our work focused on reviewing and tightening their existing environment rather than introducing unnecessary new tools.

This included:

• Reviewing and resolving existing vulnerabilities
• Strengthening administrator access with two-factor authentication
• Identifying and removing unused plugins
• Moving from manual to automated backup process

Data protection

CCF’s website collects information from supporters, volunteers, and internship applicants, making responsible data handling an important part of maintaining cheetah.org.

Our work focused on reviewing how website data was collected and managed while improving transparency and user control around privacy.

This included:

• Auditing Gravity Forms used for volunteer and internship applications
• Reviewing how personal information was collected, stored, and managed
• Updating CCF’s privacy policy
• Creating a dedicated cookie policy page
• Implementing Complianz for cookie consent management across the WordPress multisite environment

These updates help align cheetah.org with GDPR best practices by improving transparency, consent management, and user choice around personal data.

Looking ahead

This work sets up the next stage of our partnership with CCF. Over the next 12 months, Avidano Digital will lead a redesign of cheetah.org that builds on the strength of the current site. The redesign will focus on making the site more accessible and inclusive, and better supporting CCF's chapter sites around the world.