Mock-first architecture for charity sites

SADAR's volunteer committee averages 70+ years old. They can't participate in sprint reviews or test staging environments. So we built the entire site against mock services first.

A single environment variable switches between mock and real integrations — Stripe, Resend, Clerk — with zero code changes. Development happens entirely offline. When we're ready to go live, one env var change activates everything.

This pattern works for any project where the client can't be involved in iterative development. Build the whole thing, demo it locally, and flip the switch.