L'Atelier de
Marie
THE CHALLENGE
For years, the non-profit organisation Militia Immaculatae managed their community of 1,800+ members through a fragmented ecosystem: WhatsApp and Telegram for communication, YouTube for their 200+ teaching videos, and static, hard-to-read PDFs for their monthly magazine. This fragmentation created severe friction. Furthermore, relying on YouTube meant exposing their users to uncontrollable, often inappropriate advertisements and competitor suggestions right after a spiritual video. Finally, as a non-profit operating on a tight budget, they wanted to launch a premium app but could not afford to sacrifice 15% to 30% of their donor contributions to standard Apple/Google In-App Purchase (IAP) commissions. They didn't just need an app; they needed a digital sanctuary.
THE STRATEGY
To solve this, we designed a "Donationware" platform built on a "Best of Breed" composable architecture. The goal was 100% content ownership, zero ads, and maximum ROI on donations.
The "Ad-Free" Video Engine:
Instead of hacking YouTube players (which violates Google Play ToS), we migrated their entire 200+ video library to Vimeo Pro. This allowed us to embed a clean, ad-free, unbranded player directly into the Flutter feed.
Modernising the Magazine:
Instead of forcing users to pinch-and-zoom a static PDF of "Le Chevalier," we utilised Strapi's Rich Text capabilities. The client can now copy-paste their articles into the CMS, and the app natively renders them into fully responsive, beautifully formatted mobile reading experiences.
The "Zero-Commission" Donation Loop:
To bypass the 30% App Store tax while remaining fully compliant with Apple's strict Guideline 3.2.1, we implemented external webview checkouts via SumUp.
USER EXPERIENCE (UX) & DESIGN FOCUS
Beyond the backend architecture, the success of this app relied heavily on adoption by a demographic that isn't always highly technical. We focused the UX strategy on accessibility, calm, and consolidation:
From Friction to Flow (The 3-Tab Architecture):
We replaced three separate platforms with a simple, bottom-navigation structure: Community Wall, Media Library, and Magazine Kiosk. Users no longer have to context-switch between apps to engage with the organisation.
Designing a "Digital Sanctuary":
To counter the noisy, notification-heavy design of standard social media, we employed a minimalist UI. Generous whitespace, a calming brand-aligned colour palette, and distraction-free reading modes were prioritised to respect the spiritual nature of the content.
Accessible Typography:
By killing the legacy PDF format for the magazine and moving to native rich text, we enabled dynamic type scaling. This ensures the content is perfectly legible on any screen size, drastically improving accessibility for older community members.
THE IMPACT (THE TRANSFORMATION)
By shifting from a fragmented, ad-supported model to a centralised, owned platform, the organisation successfully reclaimed its digital sovereignty.
100% Revenue Retention:
By strategically routing donations through SumUp webviews rather than native IAPs, the non-profit keeps 100% of their donations (minus standard 1.7% credit card fees), completely bypassing the Apple/Google tax.
Zero Ads & Deepened Focus:
A completely distraction-free user experience ensures community members remain immersed in the content, eliminating the churn risk associated with external video platform algorithms.
Unified Community Hub:
We successfully consolidated a fragmented user base from Telegram and WhatsApp into a single, dedicated, and secure environment, streamlining administrative oversight and boosting core community engagement.
Enhanced Donor Conversion:
The seamless integration of the "Benefactor" badge gamification directly correlates with an increased propensity for users to commit to recurring donations, fostering long-term financial stability for the organisation.
Increased Content Consumption:
By replacing cumbersome, static PDFs with responsive, mobile-native Rich Text articles, we drastically reduced user friction, leading to longer average session durations and higher overall content completion rates.
ENGINEERING NOTE: THE "WEBHOOK GAMIFICATION" HURDLE
One of the most interesting technical challenges was maintaining a native app feel while processing payments externally to avoid the 30% app store tax. If a user donates via an external webview, the app doesn't natively know the transaction succeeded. To solve this, we built a custom SumUp Webhook listener into the Strapi backend. When a user initiates a donation, the Flutter app passes their unique User ID as hidden metadata in the SumUp checkout URL. Once the payment clears on the web, SumUp fires a webhook back to Strapi. Strapi instantly identifies the user via that ID and upgrades their internal role to Benefactor. The result? The moment the user closes the webview and returns to the app, their name dynamically updates to a distinct Gold colour with a 🎖️ badge in the community feed. We achieved the psychological reward of native gamification while saving the client thousands of euros in platform commissions.
Tech stack
Frontend
- • Flutter
- • iOS & Android
Backend & CMS
- • Node.js
- • Strapi 5
- • PostgreSQL
Infrastructure
- • Google Cloud Platform
- • Railway
Third Party
- • Vimeo Pro
- • SumUp API
- • Webhooks
