Drupal 7 End of Life: What it Means for Nonprofits in 2025?

What are your options for Drupal 7 EOL?

On January 5, 2025, Drupal 7 reached its official “End of Life.” This means the Drupal Association no longer provides official support, including security updates.

Even with an ominous sounding announcement like “End of Life” nonprofit organizations still have very solid short and long term solutions.

These options range form short term ones like extended Drupal 7 support through 3rd party organizations to fully redesigning your website on the latest Drupal or WordPress CMS.

Your Drupal 7 Website Can Still be Supported

While the Drupal Association is ending support for Drupal 7 after January 5th, security updates and patches will continue to be available through third parties for at least a few years. If you are a Proactive Support client with BackOffice Thinking, you can breathe easy knowing we’ll continue keeping you up and running while making sure everything is secure.

If you are not currently a Proactive Support client with BackOffice Thinking we can still help you protect your current Drupal 7 website from security vulnerabilities in 2025 and beyond. Contact us to consider your options.

What’s New with Drupal?

With the release of Drupal 8, the Drupal Association core team rebuilt Drupal’s underlying technology from the ground up. This brought changes improving stability and performance, and introduces new capabilities to stay on the cutting edge of content management systems. The building blocks of Drupal 8 are different and carry into the more recent versions of Drupal 9,10, and 11. We took this opportunity to develop a Landing Page and Component Framework that lets content administrators easily build out more complex landing pages on their own. The framework gives you a landing page “kit-of-parts” that can easily be added to, removed, and rearranged by the content administrator at your nonprofit organization. This framework is very extendable, so new components can be developed and added to your “kit” by BackOffice when needed. Our clients who have already upgraded to the latest version, Drupal 9, appreciate the new features that add greater functionality to the core product.

You Can’t Stay on Drupal 7 Forever

While you don’t have to upgrade for a few years, you won’t be able to stay on Drupal 7 forever. So, it is a good time to consider when you want to get the ball rolling, and when your organization will be ready to take on the upgrade process.

Since Drupal 8 is a “core” change, upgrading from Drupal 7 to that (or any newer version past 8) means a complete rebuild of your website. This can be a large investment, and a great opportunity to implement a redesign of your site as well. For some nonprofits, it will take time to get the wheels in motion. A website redesign is not something to be rushed. Relax, take the time you need, but add it to your strategic plan (and budget!) now, so your organization is prepared.

Website Redesign

If you have already been considering a website redesign, now is the year to do it. Here are some reasons to consider adding a website redesign sooner rather than later:

• Drupal may not be the best fit for your needs anymore. Some nonprofits have found their needs changed over time and another CMS, like WordPress, is a much better fit.
• New features and flows in Drupal 8 could make content management easier.
• If your organization has recently gone through a growth spurt, a newer version could be just what you’ve been waiting for, to accommodate your expansion.
• If there are improvements you’ve wanted to make to Drupal, a newer version might be the answer you’ve been looking for.
• If engagement is low, an updated look and flow has potential to make your website a high performing website. Click here for our eBook about The 6 Principles of High-Performing Nonprofit Digital Experiences.

Not ready for a Redesign Right Now

Not ready for a full redesign there are some other options that we can help you explore including upgrading to Backdrop CMS. This is a fork of Drupal 7, offering a familiar interface and continued development with a focus on long-term stability and community-driven support.

Send a request to your BackOffice Thinking Support email or contact us to discuss possibilities for your website. We are always here to help you decide what will be the best path forward.