Four Kitchens extends its commitment to the nonprofit sector by merging with Advomatic

Four Kitchens, a distributed web design agency founded in Austin, TX, is expanding its foothold in the nonprofit sector by combining forces with Advomatic.

With roots in New York City, Advomatic is a digital agency that serves a deep roster of mission-driven clients in nonprofit advocacy and higher education. The merger brings together a pair of longtime powerhouses in the Drupal and WordPress communities. This creates a combined portfolio between the two firms that includes NBC, the Sierra Club, the Columbia University, and Public Radio Exchange.

The merger takes effect July 1.

The magic here is we’re not only great agencies from a technical standpoint—we are also agencies that are very values-driven and values-aligned

“Advomatic’s emphasis on social good is particularly exciting,” said Todd Ross Nienkerk, CEO and co-founder of Four Kitchens. “We at Four Kitchens feel a responsibility and urgency to do more social impact work, particularly based on what we’ve seen in the last four years.

“We’re increasingly holding ourselves accountable to the role small businesses play in creating a more just and equitable world,” Nienkerk added.

Merging with Four Kitchens will allow Advomatic’s client base of justice-focused organizations and labor unions to access a deep bench of resources to meet their digital goals. Founded in 2006, Four Kitchens began as a website development shop that now provides services in digital strategy, UX design, frontend and backend development, and analytics. Four Kitchens also created the Emulsify Design System, an open-source style guide and component library tool. Emulsify facilitates faster, more accessible content creation and website development.

“The magic here is we’re not only great agencies from a technical standpoint—we are also agencies that are very values-driven and values-aligned,” said Sarah Durham, CEO of Advomatic. “We approach our client relationships with a lot of collaboration and an eye for doing it right. The combination of those values and that expertise is what makes us an invincible team.” Both Nienkerk and Durham emphasized retaining continuity for clients of both firms through the ongoing transition.

Four Kitchens has built a robust roster of higher education clients that includes Yale and NYU. Bringing Advomatic’s talent and experience into the fold will allow the firm to offer additional WordPress expertise as well as greater capacity for ongoing support. Called Continuous Care, Advomatic’s program for providing long-term website support and improvements to their clients is a vital component of their business.

“Advomatic is a very well-run organization … and there are so many reasons why they’re successful,” Nienkerk said. “We want to lea
hose reasons and adapt where it works for everybody and let the best ideas win. There are some really interesting ways to blend our approaches so we’re greater than the sum of our parts.”