More (Mis)adventures in Non-profit Web Design

M O R E

( M I S ) A D V E N T U R E S

I N

N O N - P R O F I T

W E B D E S I G N

P R E S E N T E D B Y

M E L O D I E L A Y L O R

W O R D C A M P R A L E I G H

N O V E M B E R 8 , 2 0 1 4

F I R S T , A S T O R Y

W H A T I ' V E L E A R N E D A B O U T N O N -

P R O F I T S

• Little to no budget for website design and maintenance

• Likely NO budget for web development

• YET, they need a LOT out of their websites…

W H A T I ' V E L E A R N E D A B O U T N O N -

P R O F I T S

• content, Content, CONTENT

• Frequent updates

W H A T I ' V E L E A R N E D A B O U T N O N -

P R O F I T S

• Need to connect with their audience and (potential)

supporters on a frequent basis in various ways:

• BLOG

• Mailing list

• Social Media

• Did I say BLOG?

W H A T I ' V E

L E A R N E D A B O U T

N O N - P R O F I T S

• Need to get attention

W H A T I ' V E

L E A R N E D A B O U T

N O N - P R O F I T S

• And, most important of

all…

ACCEPT DONATIONS

ONLINE and make giving

EASY

Y O U R T A K E A W A Y S

• You spend money or you spend time - either way, you

will reap the reward of what you sow

Y O U R T A K E A W A Y S

• An NPO is still a business - it has to make money to

fulfill it’s mission

Y O U R T A K E A W A Y S

• Your website is not optional and must be made a

priority

W H Y W O R D P R E S S F O R N O N -

P R O F I T S ?

• The best things in life are FREE

• DIY content publishing

• A web platform which easily facilitates connecting with

supporters in multiple ways

• Widely used (23% of web sites), support easy to find

N O N - P R O F I T S

P O W E R E D B Y

W O R D P R E S S

W O R D P R E S S S H O W C A S E

• http://www.wordpress.org/showcase/tag/non-profit

C A S E S T U D Y :

C U R E

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

W H Y L O O K A T

C U R E . O R G ?

• They do so many things

right

• In WordPress showcase

C U R E . O R G

• They state their mission clear and in detail - you see

everything they’re about

• They BLOG frequently

• Attention-grabbing photos

• Tell real stories of those they help

C U R E

• Calls to action - Donate Now, Get Involved, Join Us,

Follow Updates

• Very active in social media

C U R E . O R G

• Custom apps/plugins - CUREkids live updates

• Personal Fundraiser plugin in repository:

http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/personal-

fundraiser

R E S O U R C E S

F O R N O N -

P R O F I T

W E B M A S T E R S

P L U G I N S

• Jetpack

• A kitchen sink plugin of plugins

• http://jetpack.me/

P L U G I N S

• Yoast SEO

• Contact Form 7

• Gravity Forms (premium) - Business and Dev licenses

comes with mailing list/autoresponder addons, Dev

license comes with PayPal and Stripe addons

P L U G I N S

• Shareaholic - social sharing

• Social Icons Widget by Dan Nisbet

• Subscribe2 - email notification of blog updates

P L U G I N S

• Blubrry Powerpress - ultimate podcasting/vodcasting

plugin, includes iTunes support

• Sermon Browser - podcasting/vodcasting for churches

P L U G I N S - F U N D R A I S I N G

• Gravity Forms w/PayPal, Stripe or Authorize.net

addons (Dev license)

• PayPal Donations by Johan Steen

• Personal Fundraiser - for Crowdfunding

- allows fans to create their own fundraisers on your

behalf, shows goals and progress bar

N E W S L E T T E R / M A I L I N G L I S T

• MailChimp, MailChimp, MailChimp

• User-friendly interface

• Integrates with virtually everything

• Free for up to 2,000 subscribers, 12,000 e-mails per

month

• Monthly or pay-as-you-go beyond that

N E W S L E T T E R / M A I L I N G L I S T

• MailChimp, MailChimp, MailChimp

• MailChimp for WordPress - Danny Van Kooten

• Genesis eNews Extended (must have Genesis

framework)

• OptinMonster (premium) - Popup subscription forms,

lead generation

• SumoMe (freemium) - Popups or sliding subscription

forms

T H E M E S

• I personally recommend Genesis Framework by

StudioPress

• My favorite child theme: Outreach

• Web Savvy Marketing - 3rd party Genesis child themes

• Patricia - charities

• Christian - churches

M Y R E A L W O R L D

E X A M P L E S

W E B H O S T I N G

• Dreamhost - offers free hosting account for 501(c)(3)

organizations

http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Non-profit_Discount

• YMMV - mixed reviews on shared hosting

W E B H O S T I N G

• Site5 shared, VPS, Cloud VPS

• SiteGround shared, GoGeek (managed)

• Dreamhost - DreamPress WP managed hosting (on

VPS) $19.95/mo

O T H E R R E S O U R C E S

• TechSoup - http://www.techsoup.org - where non-

profits can request technology donations (both

products and services) from participating corporate

partners or receive discounts

• grassroots.org - Free resources to help charities

A L I T T L E A B O U T M E

• From Hampton, VA

• Owner of PajamaWeb

• Co-organizer of WordPress Hampton Roads Meetup

C O N N E C T W I T H M E L O D I E