Nonprofit web design

When I ask charities about their backup routines, they all know they should backup their documents, their emails and so on but few mention their website. That’s an unfortunate oversight because it’s fairly easy to lose control of your own website and it’s good practice to have backups and documentation to hand – just in case. >> Read more…

Buying a .org.uk domain name is inexpensive, from £20 per year, but once you’ve put a website address on your letterhead and email addresses on your business cards, losing or changing it can be costly. Unfortunately, the ownership of domains can sometimes be disputed, requiring negotiation, arbitration and associated costs. >> Read more…

On 18 August 2007, a team of volunteer web professionals from Australia and a team from New Zealand competed to build a complete website for a non-profit organisation in just 24 hours. >> Read more…

A content management system (CMS) is a tool that can be installed within your website to make it easy for you to edit your own pages, text and graphics from any Internet-connected computer. A CMS means never having to pay your web designer to do simple updates. I’d like to explain why I think a CMS called WordPress is especially suitable for nonprofits. >> Read more…

This free booklet and CD is an invaluable, practical and simple introduction to web accessibility. Accessibility – making your website available to all - is good practice and a legal requirement in many countries. This publication tells you what UK law says, but its advice is equally relevant wherever you are in the world. I’d recommend that charities get one copy of this pack for themselves and give another to their web designer. >> Read more…

A charity has asked you to help them put together their website. You might be a circuit rider, web designer, ICT volunteer, charity employee, consultant or the treasurer’s nephew – question is, how should you go about it? Many voluntary organisations won’t know what’s involved in commissioning, owning and developing a website and without technical advice they might make the wrong decisions and miss out on much that the Internet has to offer them. That’s why, if you have both web development and voluntary sector experience, you can help them get a really effective online presence. So what skills and knowledge will you need? >> Read more…